Archbishop Raphael Cheenath is no more

Archbishop braved the worst Christian persecution and provided leadership to a people who were shattered.

Mumbai:  Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who led Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese when the worst persecution hit the region, passed away Aug. 14 in a Mumbai hospital. He was 82.

The funeral is scheduled for Aug. 17 in Mumbai, where he was spending his retirement days under the care of his confreres of Divine Word Congregation.

Archbishop Cheenath, as the senior metropolitan archbishop in the region, gave leadership to the Church in Odisha when the anti-Christian wave swept the eastern Indian state.

Kandhamal district, which comes directly under his archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, was the most hit in 2008 when the worst anti-Christian violence in India’s modern history swept the state.

During the violence some 60,000 had to flee to the forests to save their lives when Hindu fanatics attacked some 6,000 houses, burning down many of them. More than 100 people were killed, and many women, including Catholic nuns, were gang raped.

Archbishop Cheenath “died a winner” since the Supreme Court of India Aug. 2 2016 granted his petition for enhanced relief to the victims of the violence against the Christian community of Kandhamal.

“He stoutly fought for justice. When the Odisha government refused NGOs and civil society to distribute relief among Kandhamal victims and survivors, he took the matters to the Supreme Court and got the state government order cancelled, said the national bishops’ conference in a statement.

At the time of his retirement, Archbishop Cheenath had lauded Christians of Kandhamal for setting an example of living the faith in a hostile environment. “You have raised the faith into new heights at the face of death. I am proud of you,” he told some 3,000 people at Raikia, a divisional headquarters in Kandhamal district.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath was born on 30 December 1934, at Manalur, in present day Trichur Archdiocese.

He was ordained Divine Word priest in 1963 at the age 28. He became the Bishop of Sambalpur on 18 May 1974 at the age of 39, after some working in the SVD headquarters in Rome.

He was appointed as the Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar on 1 July 1985 at the age of 50 and installed as the fifth Archbishop of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Metropolitan Archdiocese on 11 August 1985. On 11th February 2011 at the age of 76 he retired from the office of the archbishop.

He was a priest for 53 years and a bishop for 42 years.