“No theologian has surpassed Father Neuner in India,” Archbishop Albert D’Souza of Agra told about 1,500 mourners who attended the funeral Mass for the late Jesuit Father Josef Neuner.

Speaking to UCA News later, Archbishop D’Souza said the late Jesuit scholar brought “fresh air” into the Indian Catholic Church, with his deep and clear insights on the faith.

Father Neuner, a prominent figure at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and a spiritual director of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, died on Dec. 3 at the age of 101. He was buried the following day at the cemetery of Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV), the pontifical seminary in Pune, western India, where he had taught for several decades.

Father Job Kozhamthadam, JDV president, remarked in his eulogy at the funeral Mass in the seminary chapel that a “great tradition” of theology in India ended with his fellow Jesuit’s death.

Austrian-born Father Neuner always sought new ways to serve the Church and society in India, the country he adopted in 1938. “His goal was to build up an Indian Church with a genuinely Indian Christian theology,” Father Kozhamthadam explained.

The missioner spent seven years in prison camps in India during the Second World War, since he had come from a German-speaking country. However, he used the time to study Sanskrit, Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, and Indian philosophical systems, Father Kozhamthadam pointed out.

Father Neuner also inspired generations of priests and nuns with his teachings, retreats and guidance. These included Blessed Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity congregation as well as members of the Society of the Helpers of Mary congregation and various secular institutes.

According to Father Kozhamthadam, the Indian Church credits Father Neuner for helping its smooth transformation from the old “colonial Church to the genuinely Indian Church.”

This he did mainly through JDV, formerly the Pontifical Athenaeum, set up in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in 1893. It shifted to Pune in 1955, eight years after India became independent.

Father Neuner helped the seminary become forward-looking and adopt a creative openness to India’s social, political and cultural diversity, the JDV president said.

Jesuit Father Kuruvilla Pandikattu, a JDV lecturer, added that Father Neuner motivated hundreds of theology students to situate the Christian message within the Indian reality.

Montfort Brother Mani Mekkunnel, national secretary of the Conference of Religious India, said Father Neuner was “an authority on Church renewal” and influenced the Indian Church immensely following the Second Vatican Council.

Source:  Eminent theologian’s death mourned (UCAN)

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