Mechernich/Aachen – On his way to ordination as a permanent deacon, Tilj Puthenveettil (45), a family man from Mechernich, was ordained as a lector and acolyte (communion assistant) last Saturday in the Bishop Hemmerle House in Aachen.
The ceremony was conducted on the feast day of the Holy Apostle Matthias by Vicar General Thorsten Aymanns, Father Dr Wilhelm Josef Derichs, the Episcopal Commissioner for the Permanent Diaconate, and Deacon René Brockers, Director of Training. Christoph Tenberken from Mönchengladbach was appointed together with Tilj Puthenveettil, who was born in Marmagen and grew up in the Eifel and Kerala (India).
Vicar General Aymanns symbolically presented them with the Holy Scriptures for proclaiming the Word of God as well as the chalice, wine and water for distributing the Eucharist. Tenberken and Puthenveettil are part of a total of eleven candidates for the diaconate from the dioceses of Aachen (2), Essen (3) and Cologne (6) and will undergo four years of theological and pastoral studies in preparation for the ordination planned for November 2028.
Tilj Puthenveettil is Secretary to the Superior General Jaison Thazhathil at the Ordo Communionis in Christo in Mechernich, Secretary of the Syro-Malankara Catholic parish in Bonn and is also present and active in the parish of St John the Baptist in Mechernich with his wife Anuja and their daughters Jennifer and Joann.
As parish priest and parish priest Erik Pühringer emphasises, the candidate for the permanent diaconate will receive his liturgical and pastoral training and guidance in the Mechernich pastoral team, with deacon Manfred Lang as his mentor. The 64-year-old native of Bleibuir also received his assignment from the diocese on Saturday in Aachen.
Tilj Puthenveettil was influenced and socialised in the church by his parents Joseph and Sosamma, as well as by his godfather Hubert Poth and his wife Thekla in Marmagen. He initially attended the Hermann-Josef College of the Salvatorians in Steinfeld Monastery. After the sixth grade, the family went back to India, where Tilj transferred to the Catholic Saint Berchmann College after the tenth grade.
Fluent in three languages
In Kerala, Tilj familiarised himself not only with the Roman rite he knew from Germany, but also with the customs and mass celebrations of the syro-Malankara Catholic Church. He is at home in both cultures and speaks perfect German, English and Malayalam, the language of the St Thomas Christians of India.
From the age of 19, he studied Western and Eastern philosophy at St Mary's Seminary for three years, and at weekends he often did social work in the slums. He was a course mate of the current Superior General Jaison Thazhathil at the Communio in Christo in Mechernich, whom he now supports as private secretary.
He completed his regency year in the seminary in a parish and in the seminary as a "Vocation Promoter", who was supposed to motivate young people for the priesthood. As a candidate for the priesthood, Tilj Puthenveettil also decided in favour of a life with family and "in the world" on the advice of his Major Archbishop, Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Katholikos. He became a translator for the Bosch company and the German Embassy and came to Germany with his family of four in the early 2010s. He has been living in Mechernich since 2015.
Christoph Tenberken, the second candidate for the permanent diaconate in Aachen, who also received his commission as a lector and acolyte on Saturday in the Bishop Hemmerle House, is a fundraising and membership officer at the German Association for the Holy Land, is married and also has two daughters. He belongs to the parish of St Matthias in Mönchengladbach-Wickrath.
pp/Agentur ProfiPress
