Rosary Said For Slain Kansas Priest Arul Raj Balaswamy Carasala
Rural Kansas parish holds prayer vigil for beloved priest tragically killed by gunman.
April 4, 2025
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.
THE LEAVEN
Rural Kansas parish holds rosary and Mass for beloved priest tragically killed by gunman
“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.”
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