ABOUT FR. JOSEPH KUZHICHALIL C.M.I

My Dear Parishioners & Friends,

How are you all?  I am writing this note to oblige the natural curiosity of some of our parishioners to know something about my life and my whereabouts.

I was born in Kerala, India as the 7th child of my parents Joseph  & Annamma.  My mother died in 1977 at the age of 65 and my father expired in 1998 at the age of 90. I had a younger brother (the last one or the 8th one) who died at the age of 6.  Now I am the youngest and the baby in my family and by God’s grace all of us are alive.

My 2 brothers are retired school teachers and one of them retired as the principal of a high school and 2 of my sisters are also retired school teachers.  One of my sisters is a nun belonging to an order very similar to that of the Mother Theresa Congregation.  She was a qualified nurse with specialization in leprosy and TB treatment.

My oldest sister has been like my mother and she was the one with less education and with no Government employment. She is 85 years old and sick and now bedridden and her husband died six months ago.  All my immediate family members are in India except my youngest sister and her family settled in Detroit, Michigan.

About my education, after my high school education in Kerala, I did my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Bangalore , Karnataka state.  Then I did my philosophy course and Theology degrees from Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore .  I got an opportunity to do my doctorate in Economics from Fordham University, New York as I was sent by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate and I graduated in 1997.

I became a professed member of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Congregation in 1971 and I was ordained a priest on May 11, 1981.

Regarding my service, and ministry I started as a college lecturer at St. Joseph’s College, Calicut, University in 1976.  Then after my ordination I served as an Associate professor in two other colleges and I was the Finance Officer and later the Principal  (President) the Kuriakose Elias College affiliated with Mahatma Gandhi University.  Till my retirement at the age of 56 ,

I served as school boarding rector, college hostel warden and Director of social work Dept. of the St Joseph’s Monastery the mother house of the Carmelite congregation.

I served as the pastor of two parishes in India and as the pastor or associate pastor of a few parishes in different dioceses in the USA and the U.K.  I was in the UK for 4 years and I served in the USA for more 19 years.  It is the 40th year of my priestly ordination and the 50th year of my religious profession and I am very happy to be with the most wonderful and amazing parishioners of St. Joseph’s Florence.