Indian Church mourns the death of communication guru

April 17, 2012: Church leaders in India have mourned the death of communication guru Jesuit Fr. Jacob Srampickal, who taught media to hundreds of students in India and abroad. “His death is very unexpected and sudden. It is a big loss for communication formation in India,” said Fr. George Plathottam, secretary of social communications office of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).He said that the Jesuit priest had great vision to take forward the communication ministry and used to share “his plans and dreams with me.” Fr. Srampickal, head of the department of Communication Studies and professor at Gregorian University Rome, passed away in Austria on April 14.
He had become critically ill and was hospitalized in Vienna ten days ago. Fr. Srampickal, 62, was recently appointed director of CBCI-run National Institute of Social Communications, Research and Training (NISCORT) and was scheduled to take up the post in June.
Fr. Plathottam said the CBCI standing committee meet later this month to decide on the next NISCORT director. He said that Fr. Srampickal was fit for the post as he was associated with the founding of the media training institute. The Jesuit was the inspiration behind the institute and was a co-founder along with Fr. John Noronha, former director of Caritas India. He was the first dean of the institute based at Vaishali, a satellite town of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh state.
Fr. Jude Botelho, current director of NISCORT, said Fr. Srampickal had lots of plans for the institute and wanted to give a new thrust to formation and training. “He wanted to see how the media institute could train personnel of the church in pastoral communication,” Father Botelho added. He said that Fr. Srampickal was not looking for just giving degrees but training the priests and nuns to effectively communicate their pastoral works.
Fr. Srampickal holds a doctorate in Development Communication from the University of Leeds, England, and four major diplomas in communications from India.