Paterson, NJ, United States

NORTH AMERICA

Sam Kuttappassery
Author: Meghan Allen,  21 March 2022
 
Sam Kuttappassery’s call to the priesthood has anchored him in his faith since he was a child. “It was more than just a gut feeling—it was a conviction.” The young seminarian from Paterson, New Jersey looks back on his initial call to the priesthood as providential. From the moment he began to engage with God on a personal level at sixteen, he felt this as certain fate—never doubting that God’s plan for him to be a shepherd of the Church would deeply fulfill him in a way no other career he could have chosen for himself would have. Through his collegiate years at Rutgers, he recalls periods of feeling far from his faith. However, all the while he had no doubt that he would enter the seminary after graduation. He reflects on those years as a testament to his vocational calling: “The further I went away from God, the more he called me closer to Him. It just goes to show that God’s voice is eternal.” At Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, Sam completed a master’s degree in philosophy, and after a pastoral year, was given the opportunity by his bishop to move to Rome to continue his academic journey.


He could never have expected that Rome’s endlessly winding alleyways, cobblestoned piazzas, and ancient foundations of early Christian churches and homes would themselves become his classroom. “Saint Cecilia’s home is just a stone’s throw from my front door. You can walk through these rooms where she lived, where her life was eventually cut short. I am constantly reminded by everything around me that saints have walked these streets.” Indeed, there is no shortage of shrines to figures like Padre Pio and the Holy Mother or frescoed depictions of saints on limestone church facades. The Catholic faith and the trust locals place in their favorite saints is obvious—such as Saint Anthony of Padova, Saint Francis of Assisi, or Saint Thérèse of Lisieux—with the myriad chapels dedicated to each in local churches. “Here in Rome, there’s a sense of being a part of something much greater than oneself: and that something is the Apostolic Catholic Church.”

It is true that in young countries, in modern cities, the hustle and bustle of our consumerist societies can so easily detach us from the fundamental connection we have to one another through our shared faith and love for each other as brothers and sisters of Christ. Rome is anything but modern. Everything moves at a snail’s pace, and 2,000-year-old ruins still serve as churches and history museums. Saints’ homes can be toured for just a euro or two, and the tomb of Saint Peter can be visited on a whim. Sam contends that “the wider your view becomes, the easier it is to grasp the truth.” That truth is the reality of Jesus Christ’s redeeming grace. The eternal truths of Rome have afforded him the opportunity to delve deeper into his own faith and vocational call, with open arms, and a heart for Christ and others.

Sam has been raised in the Syro-Malabar Catholic faith, which is based in Kerala, India and traces its origins back to St. Thomas the Apostle. The Syro-Malabar Church is one of 23 Eastern Churches which is in full communion with the Catholic Church. He was born to Indian parents in Kuwait, and grew up in Alberta, Canada and New Jersey. Sam expects to be ordained a deacon in 2024, following the completion of his bachelor’s degree in theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. His Ordination to the Priesthood is expected to take place the following year.