Ishongkun Kurbah, a former boxer, was ordained a Catholic priest in northeast India on May 20.
He was a gold medalist in the Meghalaya Block Level Championship on April 20, 2011, and a silver medalist in the Meghalaya State Championship on May 13, 2011.
After 12 years of those boxing championships, he is now a priest and a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in the Province of Northeast India.
Archbishop Victor Lyngdogh ordained Ishongkun at the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians, Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state in northeast India.
He was born in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.
Inspired by a friend who was a seminarian, Ishonhkun entered the Holy Cross congregation and made his first profession on May 28, 2018. In August 2022, he completed his theological studies at the Papal Seminary, Pune, India's national seminary.
He was assigned to Mizoram, a state in northeast India, for his diaconate ministry.
Ishonkun’s understanding of God as a kind of "traveling companion" has strengthened him in his seminary life and on the road to the priesthood.
His call to the priesthood has been the source of the joy and spirituality he is known for.
"God’s ways are miraculous. I am happy that I have left my boxing prospects for the sake of Christ," says the newly ordained priest.
In India, the congregation has four provinces: Northeast India (Agartala, Tripura), South India (Bangalore, Karnataka), the Province of St. André (Bangalore, Karnataka), which is composed only of brothers, and the Province of Tamil Nadu (Trichy, Tamil Nadu).
Saint Basile Moreau (1845–1937) founded the Congregation of Holy Cross on March 1, 1837, in Sainte-Croix, which at the time was a small village outside of Le Mans, France.
Today, the congregation consists of over 1,200 perpetually professed religious brothers and priests. They serve in 16 countries.
They are present in Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines in Asia.
The other countries are Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Ghana, Haiti, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, Tanzania, the USA, and Uganda.- Santosh Digal
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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