The Catholic Church in Northeast India bid farewell to one of its most revered pioneers with the demise of Rev. Fr. Job Kallarackal SDB on April 11 at Referral Hospital, Dimapur, following a cardiac arrest. He was 78.
His death, announced with “deep sorrow” by Salesian Provincial Fr. Joseph Pampackal, has resonated far beyond the Dimapur Province, reaching the remote villages of Arunachal Pradesh and even parishes in Ireland.
Fr. Job was widely known for his deep connection with Ireland, where at one time over 600 benefactors supported his mission through Don Bosco Aid, Dublin. Born in Kerala around 1948 in the Syro-Malabar tradition, Fr. Job was among the generation of young men who answered the “Mission ad Gentes” call to serve in the north. Steeped in the Preventive System of St. John Bosco—reason, religion and loving-kindness—he became a frontline pioneer when the Salesian Province of Dimapur was canonically erected in 1981.
Fr. Job’s defining chapter was his role in opening missions in Arunachal Pradesh during the restrictive years of the 1978 Freedom of Religion Act.
Fr. Job’s mission extended beyond the spiritual to social transformation.
He was also a sought-after retreat preacher, known for homilies that connected scripture with everyday realities. He nurtured indigenous vocations, ensuring the Church in the Northeast would be led by the very people he served.
