Notes

Fr. Jose Thachil on Inter-ritual life at Mangalappuzha Seminary.

Fr. Jose Thachil shares with us his experience of life at St. Joseph's Seminary at Mangalappuzha, Aluva, in the 1950s. At that time students from such diverse rites as the Latin, Syro Malabar, and Syro Malankara rites lived here and received priestly formation. The students would participate in mass in all three rites. Fr. Thachil recalls that there were no conflicts of interest; rather, the students experienced the universality of the Catholic Church. It did not matter to which rite they belonged; they all knew that they were a part of the one Catholic Church. Fr, Thachil also speaks about the saintliness of the Rector, a foreign missionary priest, the Servant of God, Fr, Aurelian, OCD. Fr. Thachil had the fortune of having the saintly Fr. Aurelian as his spiritual director. Fr. Thachil comes from the family of Thachil Abraham Malpan who happened to spend some years at my native town, Pallippuram. During that time, Palackal Thoma Malpan (1780-1841), my collateral ancestor, became a protege of Thachil Abraham Malpan. After ordination, Thoma Malpan decided to change the format of priestly formation from the indigenous Gurukulam- model to the Western model prevalent in the Latin rite. The Malpan started community living with a specific "regula" (time table). Indirectly, Thoma Malpan was experimenting with religious community life. That experience did contribute to the establishment of the first Religious Congregation for men, at Mannanam, Kerala, in 1831.