Gwalior 15 December, 2018 (CCBI): Most Rev. Thomas Thennatt, (65) SAC, Bishop of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, passed away on Friday, 14 December, 2018 in a tragic car accident. He was returning to the Bishop’s House after an annual function in a school where the vehicle he was travelling skidded off and overturned. He was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital and thereafter to St. Joseph Hospital, Gwalior where he was declared dead. Funeral details are awaited. Funeral will be held on Tuesday, 18 December 2018, at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s Church Morar, Gwalior.
He was born on 26 November, 1953, at Koodallor in the Archdiocese of Kottayam in Kerala. After matriculation in 1969, he joined the Pallotine minor seminary in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He did his philosophical studies at St. Charles Seminary in Nagpur and his bachelor’s studies from St Francis de Sales College, Nagpur. He joined Pallottine novitiate in Bangalore in 1974. He was ordained a priest in 1978 by Bishop Joseph Fernandez of Quilon. He obtained a Master’s degree in pastoral theology from Papal Seminary, Pune.
He began his priestly duties as assistant parish priest at St. Vincent Pallotti Parish of Amravati in Guntur diocese, Andhra Pradesh, for a year in 1979. He served as the parish priest of St. Antony Church, Mudfort in Hyderabad Archdiocese for three years from 1984. He then served as the secretary of the Archdiocesan commissions of youth and family and laity. In 1991, he moved to Indore diocese as the parish priest of St. Theresa Church of Pushpanagar and director for laity and family and Small Christian Communities. Two years later, he was appointed as regional director for laity and family Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. He also served as the parish priest of St. Pius X Church Mankapur in Nagpur diocese, Maharashtra, since 2012.
He was also the director of family apostolate, youth ministry, small Christian Communities, as well as member of many commissions of his congregation He was also rector of the Regional Theologate at Ashta, Bhopal, for ten years. For six years he was the consulter of the Prabhu Prakash Province of the Pallottines at Nagpur. He was appointed Bishop on 18 October, 2016, when he was the parish priest of St Pius X Church in Nagpur archdiocese. He was ordained Bishop of Gwalior on 8 January 2017.
He is a priest for 40 years and a Bishop for one year. Eternal Rest grant unto him O’ Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him!