Deacon Avinash George, 33, has been back in India for the past six weeks as he prepares for his ordination as a priest for our diocese. He will be ordained into the Syro-Malabar Rite by the Archbishop of Tellicherry, Archbishop George Njaralakatt, at Sacred Heart Church in Mampoyil, Kerala, on January 5th. Bishop of Sale, Bishop Pat O’Regan will then confer on him the faculties to be a priest for our diocese. Mampoyil is Deacon George’s home town but he has lived away from there for more years than he lived there.

He left home at age 16 to join the junior seminary in Northern India of the Third Order Regular priests, a Franciscan Order of which his uncle Fr Mathew Joseph is a member. Deacon George spent eight years at the seminary and admits he struggled because people there spoke a different language and were more tribal than he was used to in Kerala.

He said that he prayed for God to show him the way to overcome his difficulties and then he met the then Bishop of Sale, Bishop Christopher Prowse who was in India seeking young men to study for the priesthood for Sale Diocese. He knew little of Australia but had received good reports from his uncle who served in Sale Diocese for several years and so he set out into the unknown to begin formation at Corpus Christi Seminary in Melbourne in 2012. A cousin, Deacon Stanly Devasia, joined the seminary a year after him which gave him some family connection in Australia. Deacon Devasia will be ordained a priest towards the end of next year.

Deacon George said his desire to join the priesthood had formed earlier than for many, because he was thinking seriously about it when he was only 13 or 14 years old. He will return to Australia in mid-February to receive his first appointment as an assistant priest.