by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
With the tragic and incomprehensible murder of Father Arul Carasala on April 3, Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Seneca lost a dedicated pastor, the Nemaha-Marshall Deanery lost their dean, and the entire archdiocese lost a talented, zealous and gifted priest. Father Arul served on our presbyteral council as well as our priest personnel board.
Father Arul came to the archdiocese a year before my appointment as co-adjutor archbishop in 2004. He had the amazing ability to enculturate very quickly into the Catholic Church in the United States. Father Arul was intelligent, perceptive and wise. He also was very compassionate, possessing a tender heart. He understood how to best respond to the needs and struggles of his parishioners.
In my last conversation with Father Arul, he was very excited that Sts. Peter and Paul had just expanded its thrift store. It was under Father Arul’s leadership that the parish began the thrift store as a means to better serve the poor in the community.
I celebrated Mass on Thursday night in Seneca, the day of Father Arul’s death. After Mass, a young man told me how much Father Arul had helped him acquire clothes, food and lodging. He told me that he was a Muslim, but he came to Sts. Peter and Paul to pray.
I celebrated all the Masses at Sts. Peter and Paul this past weekend. People shared with me all the ways that Father Arul had impacted their lives. Surgeons had informed a man who was preparing to undergo serious heart surgery that he only had a 50% chance of survival. Father Arul anointed him, heard his confession, nourished him with the Eucharist and prayed with him. The man said that after his time with Father Arul, he experienced a great peace.
A woman in the parish, who has welcomed several foster children into her home, said that Father Arul always gave special attention to these children and assisted her with whatever they needed. These foster children had a special claim on his heart.
Father Arul worked with our marriage and family life office to host several EverMore in Love retreats to renew and strengthen marriages. Last week’s Leaven reported on a two-day retreat, “Rooted in Christ,” for youth and family from the Nemaha-Marshall Deanery that was hosted by Sts. Peter and Paul Parish.
Under Father Arul’s leadership, Sts. Peter and Paul Parish has one of the most active and effective evangelization teams. In a very Catholic area of the archdiocese, Father Arul was focused on striving to share the gift of our faith with others.
Father Arul was the dean of the Nemaha-Marshall Deanery. He was a very effective leader of the priests in the deanery. When a priest was newly assigned to the deanery, Father Arul was proactive in personally welcoming, mentoring and supporting them.
On the day of his death, Father Arul had anointed and brought Communion to two of his parishioners. If someone was sick or struggling in other ways, Father Arul was present and found ways to help.
Many years ago, I asked Father Arul to help welcome new priests from India and to help them feel at home. He gathered the priests from India frequently at his rectory for fellowship and authentic Indian food. When you asked Father Arul to do something, he needed very little direction. He figured out a way to make it happen.
Under Father Arul’s leadership, Sts. Peter and Paul Church was renovated, and a brand- new welcome space was added. The church is magnificent, and the addition matches the original construction perfectly.
Father Arul spent a great deal of time in the parish school. Under his leadership, many improvements were made at the parish cemetery. The decrepit for-mer rectory was torn down, and a beautiful new rectory was built.
Father Arul accomplished all of this while also raising funds to help the church in his home Diocese of Cuddapah. Among other projects, he helped to build an orphanage.
Father Arul is a beautiful example of the difference one passionate, zealous priest can have on a community. I hope his example will inspire several young men from Sts. Peter and Paul and the Nemaha-Marshall Deanery to enter the seminary.
How do we make sense of this amazing priest’s death? First of all, God did not desire the manner of Father Arul’s death. It was the result of sin. However, Our Lord can bring forth good from evil, life from death.
As I have written in the past, my own father was murdered when my mother was pregnant with me. Mom grieved my father’s death, but she did not lose hope.
Jesus did not promise his disciples that they would never experience adversity or tragedy. In fact, Jesus told his disciples if you are going to follow me, you have to be prepared to carry the cross. We have to follow Jesus along the path of heroic love, even to Calvary.
Jesus did promise that we will never be alone. We should look upon every tragedy with expectant eyes that somehow God will bring good from evil, life from death.
My mother was convinced that my priestly vocation was, in part, the good fruit that God brought forth from my father’s tragic death. I believe that she was right. Because of the death of my father, our parish priests were close to my family. They were friends with our family, true spiritual fathers. I doubt that I would have become a priest had this tragedy not happened in my family.
I ask everyone to pray for Father Arul. Pray that our heavenly Father welcomes Father Arul as a good and faithful servant to his heavenly home. I also ask that you pray for Father Arul’s sister, her husband, his nephew and niece. Pray for the bishops, priests and people of Cuddapah, India, who formed and gave us this amazing priest.
Pray also for the parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul. They lost a good shepherd and a great spiritual father. Finally, pray for our priests. They lost a treasured brother. Pray for me. I lost a dear friend. I called him the “bishop of Seneca” and had to ask his permission when I entered Nemaha-Marshall County.
Father Arul liked to remind me that he had seniority over me since he arrived in Kansas first. Now, he will have seniority over me in heaven as well.
