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| Holy Mass being held for Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil at St Peter's Basilica in vatican city. |
Kerala bid a tearful adieu to Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil, head of the Syro Malabar church in India and Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamally archdioses, who was buried with full state honours at St Mary''s Basilica Cathedral here tonight.The formal funeral ceremony began at 2.30 PM. A Requiem mass was held in which the main celebrant was Bishop Bosco Puthur, administrator of the Syro Malabar church.
Vithayathil''s body, which had been kept at the Little flower hospital at Angamally hospital, was brought in a procession to St Thomas mount and later taken to St Mary''s church.
Funeral orations for the 84-year-old cardinal, who passed away here on April 1, were delivered by Cardinal Oswal Gracious of Mumbai.
A funeral procession with the cortege was held after the requiem. A public meeting to condole the cardinal''s death was also held, in which Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, Supreme Court Justice Cyriac Joseph and Cardinal Telesphore Toppo were among those who participated.
A message from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was read out at the meeting.
Archbishop Cyril Vasil, Vatican delegate and secretary of Congregation for Oriental Churches represented Pope Benedict XVI at the funeral.
Earlier Union Minister Oscar Fernandez, State Fisheries Minister S Sharma and Revenue Minister K P Rajendran, besides heads of various churches, paid their tributes.
Thousands of faithful from all over Kerala paid their respects to the Cardinal.