Father Abraham Adappur, a well-known Jesuit orator and writer passed away at the age of 96, on December 3, at Christ Hall, the headquarters of Jesuit Kerala Province in Kozhikode a town in the south Indian state of Kerala.
He was a noted thinker and writer, who defended the Catholic position against communist ideology and boldly discussed cultural and social issues from a Catholic perspective.
Head of the Kerala Jesuits, Father E. P. Mathew said “With the passing away of Fr Abraham Adappur … the Catholic Church in India, especially in Kerala, has lost … a seasoned voice of the Church that had the reputation of an authentic Christian thinker, theologian, speaker, and activist,” reports Matters India.
The mortal remains were laid to rest at the Christ the King Church, cemetery on Monday, December 5.
Father Abraham Adappur was born in 1926 in Arakkuzha, about 40 kms from Kochi. He joined the Jesuit Congregation in 1944 and was ordained a priest in 1959.
He holds a master’s degree in Psychology from the United States and a doctorate from a French university with Government scholarship.
He served in the Jesuit headquarters in Rome (1962-1966) during the period of the Second Vatican Council and wrote on the Council in various publications in Kerala.
Father Adappur was the first one to write about Mother Theresa of Kolkata in Malayalam, the native language of Kerala.
His book on Communism was widely discussed for its bold analysis of communism from a catholic perspective. In the Kerala state, the communist party was elected to power several times.
He has authored over 15 books on theological, social, cultural and spiritual topics and numerous articles and columns in popular newspapers and magazines.
He has received several awards including the Best book award from the Kerala Cultural Forum, the Literature award of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference and the Catholic Congress award for Literature.
Father Adappur spent almost five decades at the Lumen Institute he founded in Kochi as a centre for serious discussions on major issues in politics, literature and cinema. He was also a mentor to several writers, judges, and activists.
Ignatius Gonsalves, President of the Indian Catholic Press Association, wrote on in his post, “A huge loss of the Church and society at large. He was indeed a ‘priest-prophet’, whose thoughts and actions were always ahead of time. He dared to question and correct the high and mighty even in the church, always calling a spade a spade. His demise, though in ripe old age, leaves a void that is difficult to fill.”
Most of all, Father Adappurr will be remembered for bringing Catholic theological thinking to ordinary people in the vernacular language.
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