Daijiworld Media Network
Gwalior, Dec 15: Bishop Thomas Thennatt of Gwalior succumbed to a severe head injury in a tragic car accident.
He was 65.
According to a press release from the Diocese of Gwalior, the bishop was returning to his residence after an annual function in a school when his car skidded off and overturned.
He was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital and thereafter to St Joseph Hospital, Gwalior, where he was declared dead.
Bishop Thennatt was the first member of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, popularly known as Pallotines, to become a bishop in India. He was known for simplicity, humility and detachment from worldly things.
The prelate was born in a family of six on November 26, 1953, at Koodallor in the Archdiocese of Kottayam in Kerala.
He began his priestly duties as assistant parish priest at St. Vincent Pallotti Parish of Amravati in Guntur diocese, Andhra Pradesh, for a year in 1979.
He served as the parish priest of St. Antony Church, Mudfort under Hyderabad archdiocese for three years from 1984. He then served as the secretary of the archdiocesan commissions of youth and family and laity.
In 1991, he moved to Indore diocese as the parish priest of St. Theresa Church of Pushpanagar and director for laity and family and Small Christian Communities. Two years later, he was appointed as regional director for laity and family Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, a post he held for five years.
He has served as pastor in states such as the undivided Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
He also served as the parish priest of St. Pius X Church Mankapur in Nagpur diocese, Maharashtra, since 2012.
Bishop Thennatt was also the director of family apostolate, youth ministry, small Christian Communities, as well as member of many commissions of his congregation He was also rector of the Regional Theologate at Ashta, Bhopal, for ten years.
For six years he was the consulter of the Prabhu Prakash Province of the Pallottines at Nagpur.
Pope Francis chose him as a bishop on October 18, 2016, when he was the parish priest of St Pius X Church in Nagpur archdiocese.
The details of funeral are awaited.
(With agency inputs)