Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, the head of India’s autonomous
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, died in Kochi, India on April 1 of heart
disease.
The 84-year-old cardinal, who had cut back on his public activities
after surviving a serious heart attack in 2009, suffered another attack
soon after celebrating Mass in is private chapel.
He was rushed to a
nearby hospital, but died soon thereafter.
A Redemptorist priest, then-Father Varkey Vithayathil was named
apostolic administrator of Ernakulum, the primatial see of the
Syro-Malabar Church, in 1996, upon the retirement of Cardinal Antony
Padiyara.
In 1999 he was formally named as the Major Archbishop of the
Ernakulum, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church that traces its origins
to St. Thomas the Apostle, who brought the Christian faith to India’s
coast. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II
in 2001.
The Syro-Malabar Church, geographically centered in India’s southwestern
Kerela state, claims about 3.6 million faithful.
The Syro-Malabar
Church has shown considerable vigor in recent years, producing a large
number of vocations to the priesthood and especially to religious life.
Pope Benedict XVI sent a message of condolence to the Church in India on
the death of the cardinal, saying: “I recall with gratitude the
cardinal's dedication and service to the Syro-Malabars and to the
universal Church.”
“In the passing away of Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, the Syro-Malabar
Catholic Church and the entire Catholic Church in India lost a deeply
committed and ever courageous spiritual leader,” said the Catholic
Bishops Conference of India.
The funeral for Cardinal Vithayathil will be delayed until April 10,
because most of the bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church were in Rome at
the time of his death, making their ad limina visits.
The cardinal had
been unable to make the trip because of his precarious health.