Welcome to our new parochial vicar, Father Jacob

11-07-2021Weekly ReflectionFr. Hans Ruygt

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix granted my request for a second parochial vicar. Father Jacob's new assignment is effective November 1, 2021.

We will now have three full-time assigned priests for Saint Clare of Assisi Parish. We have a very large parish and many services that we want to offer to our parishioners. Father Jacob comes to us with a great deal of experience and enthusiasm to serve the Lord. Please give him a big welcome.

He is fluent in English, Spanish, Filipino and Hindi. He has served in many places in the world as a Missionary of Our Lady of La Salette.

REV. FR. JACOB THOMAS VETTATHU, MS, was born on June 01, 1960 in the state of Kerala in South India. His parents have returned to eternal life, his father Thomas in 1999 and his mother Aleyamma in 2009. He has 3 brothers and 4 sisters, and all are in India. His two elder sisters are Religious Nuns belonging to Franciscan Clarist Congregation or FCC (Sr Rosebet, FCC , 52 years as a religious & Sr Elsa Toms, FCC, 48 years as a religious). Fr Jacob is a member of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette (MS), belonging to the La Salette Matha Province of India.

After his high school in his home town, he entered seminary in 1975, competed his initial formation including Philosophy, and then was a teacher in a Catholic school in a mission diocese for 5 years. Then he joined the La Salette Congregation in the Philippines in 1987, mad e his Profession of Vows as a La Salette Religious on May 01, 1990, and was ordained as a La Salette Priest in the Philippines on February 10, 1995, and served as a priest for 4 years till 1999 in the Philippines.

Then he returned to India in 1999 and served as rector of La Salette minor seminary, parish priest and vocation director for 10 years. In 2008 he went to the La Salette region of Argentina and served 5 years and then came to serve in the Diocese of San Bernardino, California in 2014 and served for 7 years: St Louis Parish in Cathedral City, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Montclair, and St John XXIII Parish in Fontana/Rialto.

The La Salette Missionaries of Indian Province are serving in two parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix: St Charles Borromeo in Peoria & St Vincent de Paul in Phoenix. His superiors sent Fr Jacob to the Diocese of Phoenix and he arrived on July 01, 2021 and began filling in the ministries of Immaculate Conception Parish in Cottonwood for two and a half months, then one month in St Charles Borromeo Parish of Peoria, and now Fr Jacob is assigned in our parish of St Clare of Assisi as Parochial Vicar starting November 01, 2021.

Fr. Jacob is a La Salette Religious for 32 years and a La Salette Priest for 27 years.

Fr. Jacob prefers to be called by his first name: Father Jacob. His surname is Thomas Vettathu which follows his cultural naming practice. Thomas is not a middle name; it is part of his Last Name.

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