SENECA, Kan. (OSV News) -- On the evening of April 3, hundreds of people packed Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Seneca, a small rural community of about 2,100, late April 3 to pray for and mourn their beloved pastor and friend, Father Arul Carasala, 57, who was shot sometime between 2 and 3 p.m. at the parish rectory.
Transported to a local hospital, he died there as a result of his wounds.
Although he had not yet been formally charged, Gary Hermesch, 66, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was arrested and booked into the Nemaha County jail for first-degree murder in connection with the priest's death, according to a statement released by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The investigation is ongoing.
In the meantime, people from the parish and nearby communities of Corning, Kelly, Centralia, Wetmore, Sabetha, Wetmore, Blue Rapids and other towns came together for a prayer vigil consisting of a rosary, the chaplet of Divine Mercy and an evening Mass celebrated by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City and concelebrated by eight priests from throughout the deanery.
During his brief remarks after leading the rosary and chaplet of Divine Mercy, Father Joel Haug -- pastor of Sacred Heart in Sabetha, St. James in Wetmore and St. Augustine in Fidelity -- told those gathered, "These are the moments we really need to be there for each other."
Giving the congregation "permission to cry," he also instructed everyone to check on one another in the coming days, weeks and months and to "hug each other" as the parish and northeast Kansas mourn the loss. Father Haug also reminded everyone that Christians are "distinguished by our love for our enemies" and that no one should let "anger, bitterness, or resentment grow in our hearts" and that everyone should practice forgiveness and love.
Of Father Carasala, Father Haug said to the crowd, "He loves you all. He will continue to love you."
In his homily, the archbishop said, "There really are no words for an occasion like this. I was just admiring the beauty of this church, which Father Arul loved and rallied you to renew it ... and restore it to its original beauty and beyond."
"But the real beauty is what's in the pews tonight," he continued. "This is what the church building is for. It's to help us to come and encounter God here."
"It takes a lot to be a priest today," said the archbishop. "It requires heroic love. And it's beautiful to see so many of our priests here on a moment's notice. It shows how important (Father Arul was. Because he wasn't just the pastor here. He was the dean of this deanery. I used to kid him that he was the ‘bishop of Seneca.'"
It was important, the archbishop added, not to lose sight of Father Arul's life.
"We don't want this senseless act of violence to rob us of this knowledge of God's love for us," said Archbishop Naumann. "And that it's the Gospel that we proclaim today from St. Luke which captures that paschal mystery -- the death of Jesus and the rising of Jesus. And it's because of this as Christians we're never without hope. That this world we know, we're just passing through it. It's not our final destination. And this was the truth of the Gospel of Jesus that Father Arul proclaimed, that he gave his life for.
"We ask the Lord tonight to console our hearts, to give us renewed love for him and the gift of our Catholic faith. And let us pray that we can respond to this terrible tragedy as an invitation to grow deeper in following Jesus Our Lord. He forgave from the cross those who crucified him. He prayed for them to his Father and said, ‘Forgive them, they know not what they do.'"
"So, we pray tonight. We pray for all of you. We pray for all those that mourn Father Arul in India and here, for all whose hearts are hurting, that the Lord will bring consolation."
"But we pray also for the perpetrator, that the Lord will touch his heart as well," concluded the archbishop. "We pray that we respond to this tragedy not with violence for violence but let us respond in the way that Jesus has revealed to us -- with love and with mercy."
