austraLasia # 15

SALESIAN SHOT DEAD - INDIA

By C.M. Paul

CALCUTTA, 23 November (DBIS) --Fr. Nedumattathil Jose, SDB of Don BoscoMaram 
was shot dead in his office at 9.00 pm (IST) Saturday, 22nd November. He was 35 years old. 
"Fr. Jose was shot from the back by assailants while working late in the College office on Saturday night," said Fr. Tom Karthikapallil, principal of the Don Bosco School Imphal after visiting the site. 
The headman and elders of Maram village have vowed to find out the culprits and book them, said Fr. Karthikapallil. The Catholic Association of Manipur, Fr. Karthikapallil added, has 
strongly condemned the dastardly deed at the Sunday Eucharist held at Don Bosco 
Church, Imphal. About 12,000 Catholics gathered for the annual Eucharistic procession at 
St. Xavier's College Calcutta joined Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta and offered prayers for the departed priest and the insurgency ridden Imphal mission. 
Fr. Nedumattathil is the third priest principal to be shot at in the last seven years in Imphal. While two of the priests succumbed to the bullets, one survived and is ministering in another part of the country with a different identity. 
Fr. Jose was appointed the first Principal of the newly inaugurated Don Bosco College at Maram, Manipur, northeast India Myanmar. The college was inaugurated on 18th November, 1997. After serving four years as principal of the school Fr. Jose upgraded the high school into a College. 
Sources at the Salesian provincial office in Dimapur inform that Fr. Nedumattathil's body will be brought to Salesian College Dimapur in the neighbouring state of Nagaland, 24th November and he will be buried there, 25th Tuesday. 
He was born in Vadakkancherry, Trichur, Kerala.