Priest who held various local roles named religious congregation’s superior general

Father Benny Mekkatt Varghese, who served in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2008 until May, was elected superior general of his religious congregation’s general chapter at its recent meeting in Rome. He is the first non-Italian to serve in that position for the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, which was founded in Italy by Blessed Luigi Monti in 1857. 

Father Mekkatt, 47, a native of India, was ordained a priest Oct. 9, 2004. He served in prison ministry in the archdiocese from 2008-2022, as a chaplain in the spiritual care department at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis from 2008-2013, parochial administrator of Presentation of Mary in Maplewood from 2014-2015 and as pastor from 2015-2017. He was pastor of St. Mary in St. Paul from 2017-2019, pastor of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul from 2018-2021, and he served in residence at St. Bonaventure in Bloomington before assuming duties as parochial vicar at St. Joseph in Winter Haven, Florida. 

He also served as vocation director for his congregation from 2008-2022, and as delegate superior of the North American delegation, which includes Canada, Mexico and the United States, from 2017-2022. 

Other members of the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception serving in the archdiocese are Father James Chitteth, pastor of St. Bonaventure in Bloomington; Father Edwin Ngah, a chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis; Father Jimmy Puttananickal, pastor of Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul; and Father Antony Skaria, pastor of St. John Vianney in South St. Paul and parochial administrator of St. Matthew in St. Paul. 

Father Mekkatt will serve his six-year term in Rome, where he will work with a newly elected council of four, with one member from Argentina, one from Africa and two from Italy, Father Chitteth said. They form the governing body for the Congregation, which ministers in 24 countries, he said.  

Father Chitteth, 62, said he has known Father Mekkatt since the new superior general was a 16-year-old high school student in India. Father Mekkatt told Father Chitteth of his interest in the religious order during the time Father Chitteth was the congregation’s vocations director and visiting high schools in India. Father Chitteth said the future priest was attracted to an order named for the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to its charism of caring for the sick, needy, poor and abandoned. 

Father Mekkatt had been serving as the superior delegate of the North American delegation for the past five years, so he brings some administrative experience in the religious order, Father Skaria said. 

A longtime friend of Father Mekkatt, Father Skaria said Father Mekkatt can build relationships with people “like no one else” and he takes the initiative in identifying needs and new avenues for the religious order’s growth. 

“I’m so proud of him,” Father Chitteth said. “I’m sure that he is capable of leading the congregation. He’s young, full of energy and with his gentleness, warmth and love, he will be able to create a difference for the congregation.”