George Nedungatt (21 December 1932 – 26 October 2022) was an Indian Jesuit priest of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and expert in Oriental Canon Law.

In the hands of Fr Pedro Arrupe, he made his final religious profession at the church of Gesù, Rome on 2 February 1968.

After his ordination, he was sent to the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome for higher studies in 1967, where he did licentiate (1969) and doctorate (1973) in canon law.

He defended his doctoral thesis on 17 January 1973, entitled Covenant Law and Pastoral Ministry according to Aphrahat: Element for a Theologia Juris from Syrian Orient till 350 A.D, which he wrote under the guidance of Ivan Žužek SJ and Ignacio Ortiz de Urbina SJ.

After his retirement from teaching, in order to complete some academic works, he remained in the Jesuit community of the Oriental Institute until 29 February 2012, on which day he returned to his province (Kerala).

He was a visiting professor at the Institute of Oriental Canon Law (IOCL) of Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram Bangalore (India) from 1999 to 2012, and a resident teacher from 2012 to 2015.

He was a canon lawyer who wrote also on spirituality, history, sociology, bible, philosophy, theology, patrology and hermeneutics.

Nedungatt's contribution as a consultor of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Eastern Code of Canon Law (1973-1990) deserves praise.

A polyglot, he knew English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, besides his own mother tongue Malayalam.

This language facility was an invaluable tool which opened before him a wide world of knowledge and made his works erudite.

He even criticised Pope Benedict XVI for not explicitly recognising the apostle Thomas’ arrival in South India.

If our criterion to evaluate a professor is the number of students choosing him to guide their doctoral dissertation, we may not rate Fr Nedungatt very high.

When one of his books, intended to be published at the Oriental Institute, but failed in its peer review, he did not lose calm.

Out of the honorarium he got from priestly ministry in Germany and Italy, with the permission of his superiors, he had about twenty houses built for the poor in his home parish.