The news of Fr Kurien Kunumpuram’s death has deeply saddened us. He was a well-known and much loved person by all Fatima Sisters. He has been a part of us for the last three and half decades. Almost all the Sisters know him personally.

• Fr Kurien had moderated our two General Chapters.
• He had conducted Retreats to several groups of our Sisters.
• He had lectured at our seminars and renewal programmes for all categories of Sisters -Juniors, Seniors, Superiors, Formators, Headmistresses, Nurses, Social workers, Fatima Sisters Associates and our Novices.
• Fr Kurien had assisted us in updating our Constitutions twice, once in 2000-2001 and more recently 2016-17.
• He has edited our Congregations’ historical books and several articles.
• Fr Kurien Kunumpuram was a priest, a brother, a guide and a dear friend to us. He has been a great benefactor to us, spiritually and morally. He had encouraged, strengthened and empowered so many of us in living our lives more fully and meaningfully.
• He always had time whenever we approached him for discussions on matters of concern and difficult issues. His wise suggestions and solutions put us on the right track. His deep faith in God and his personal relationship with Christ and the Catholic Church, has inspired and invigorated us.

Very dear Fr Kurien, you will be remembered for many things you taught and communicated to us.  The three most beautiful qualities that can be attributed
to your personality were:
1. Your care: You truly cared about us individually and as a
Congregation and took time to listen and made us feel better, every
time we came to you.
2. Your concern: You were genuinely concerned about our all-round
progress, sharing our joys, sorrows, successes and failures.
3. Your compassion: You always looked at the positive side of things
and found goodness in every situation, that refreshed and boosted
us.
Thank you, dear Fr Kurien! God blessed you with a wonderful life; now,
God awaits to embrace you in His Kingdom.
Good-bye Fr Kurien, till we meet again in heaven!
(Taken from the book Committed to the Church and the Country, published in his honour)

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I first met Kurien in 1962: I was a student of philosophy and he was studying theology, both at the Pontifical Athenaeum, Pune. I found him very approachable and genuinely interested in cultivating mature companionship. In 1970 prior to my theological studies in Innsbruck I spent a few weeks at De Nobile College. The advice he gave me in view of my theological formation was to look at Christian faith from the perspective of religious pluralism. This was a valuable orientation for me. He himself did a doctorate at Innsbruck on the openness of Vatican II to other religions. Back in India in 1978, I used to come to JDV occasionally for classes on some optional subjects. I was put up at the Papal Seminary and I used to meet Kurien often for personal sharing or theological reflections. I was impressed by his clarity of thought, commitment to theologising in the Indian context and warm friendship. When in 1987 the Kerala Jesuit Province asked me to initiate the RTC at Kalady, Kurien was extremely supportive. He used to come every year to take a course at the RTC. He was very impressed by the ashram character of the Jesuit presence at Sameeksha. During the annual Province Meets Kurien would make very pertinent interventions with clarity and precision, with good humour and in a non-threatening way. As the editor of Jnanadeepa he often asked me to contribute studied articles on inculturation and on the spirituality of the Bhagavad Gita. I always found in Kurien a confrere genuinely encouraging others to grow and express themselves creatively. Warm friendship with individuals was an integral element of his spirituality. That is why a lot priests trained at the Papal Seminary came to the funeral at Calicut. Kurien will live in the hearts of hundreds of his friends: sisters, priests, bishops and laywomen/men. The theological formation of the laity was for Kurien a personal concern. When the JDV Certificate Course for the laity was started at Sameeksha, he was always available to taken them through the post Vat. II vision of the Church. He has published quite a lot on Indian ecclesiology; these theological perspectives will bear good fruits on the Indian soil in the coming decades.

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I was born in a small town/ village in Kerala, Thrissur. My schooling was done in a state syllabus school and that yields to my just about acceptable English.

My earliest memories of Fr Kurien SJ come in as a Mentor who was an effective coach also. He would provide me with audio cassettes (year 1992) to listen to English passages and stories to improve my colloquial and pronunciation and come to speed with the fast moving city “English” and much needed armor of communication. He in fact put me in touch with his very good friend Fr. Sabino SJ to talk to me on a daily basis to track the progress.

He ensured he directed me well & all throughout during my MBA in Pune University and thus set the tone for me to take up successful IT corporate career/ job. Always positive and encouraging. He helped me learn /solve case studies in methodical manner, it looked to me that he was a subject matter expert.

An incident etched in my memory is of a day when I was late for a meeting with him at papal seminary.(He had a busy schedule as he was a JDV Rector that point of time). He was extremely unhappy with my behavior and pulled out an article from his bookshelf Caption as “One man was late for his funeral” and made me read it along with the famous author, Peter Dunker’s book on “Time Management” . Never once after that was I late for a meeting EVER. Such was his discipline towards small things that matters so much in life for a personal and professional purposes, another synonym for punctuality.

I have always admired the kindness and care he had for people around him. He was always ready to help and enjoyed imparting his knowledge and loved listening to people around him. He was always ready to resolve issues and conflicts, no matter how small or big as he thought each challenge was a learning opportunity.

Relation wise, he was my Father’s younger brother but I always considered him to be my own father and we fondly called him “Kuriachacha”. His direction helped me in building my own career, married life and in upbringing of my three children.

God blessed him with remarkable intelligence and exceptional memory who was always a Leader in all situations. He encouraged people to be thankful for the life that God has given as a gift. He has reinforced the spirituality in me.

His courage to face life at any point in time was a quality I always admired for and carried forward to my life as well.

My journey with him was on April 2018 where we travelled together to papal seminary from Calicut was really memorable one as we have together reflected our personal association of 26 years.