Farewell Bro Rana

Death and funerals are never an easy time for any of us. Unfortunately it happens – that’s the reality of life. I attended my first funeral in India on 30th July, and sad to say, it was the funeral of one of the seminarians who was studying at the college here.

28-year-old Bro Rana Pratap Minj, from the Congregation of Missionaries of St Francis de Sales was a 1st year Theology student and hailed from the province of Uttar Pradesh. He has 3 brothers and a sister who is also in a religious congregation.

Bro Rana, passed away while undergoing a surgery at the Inlaks Budhrani Hospital in Pune for a minor shoulder injury. Apparently, he developed Malignant Hyperthermia (MH) as a reaction to the anaesthesia and had a cardiac arrest. MH is a rare life-threatening condition that is usually triggered by exposure to certain drugs used for general anaesthesia. It happens to one in 100,000 people.

The funeral service was held at the Papal Seminary Chapel and attended by close to 50 priests and lecturers and more than 1,000 students and religious from the various congregations.

Fr Mario D’ Souza (MSFS), provincial of Pune celebrated the Mass, while Fr Sebastian (MSFS), Provincial of Nagpur preached the homily.

Fr Sebastian also shared about the good qualities of Bro Rana who was a very cheerful, humorous and an integrated person. He was very good in music and art and had an ambition to go to Mozambique in Africa for his missionary work. One of his classmates and some of the priests also shared a few words about him and expressed their heartfelt condolences to the family members and friends.

After the Mass, the coffin was kept in the chapel for 30 minutes to enable everyone to pay their respects, before it was taken to Nagpur province (14 hours journey towards North-India) to his home town. In Nagpur there will another funeral Mass with the family and local community followed by the burial.

We shall continue to pray for his soul to rest in peace. “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may His perpetual light shine upon him forever. Amen!”