Elderly man shoots and kills Catholic priest at church rectory in a perplexing incident

An Oklahoma man has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a Catholic priest at a church rectory in northeast Kansas.

Father Arul Carasala was discovered with gunshot wounds outside the rectory of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday, the Nemaha County Sheriff´s Office said in a Facebook post. 

The 57-year-old priest was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.

Sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Seneca Police Department later arrested Gary Hermesch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

Hermesch, 66, was charged on Friday and held in the Nemaha County Jail in lieu of $1 million bond, County Attorney Brad Lippert said.

The charging complaint states that Hermesch ‘intentionally and with premeditation’ killed Carasala.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation have not released a possible motive for the shooting or said whether the suspect and the priest knew each other.

‘From what we know, an older man walked up to him and shot him three times,’ the parish’s director of religious education, Kris Anderson said.

Arul Carasala, 57, was shot three times and died at his church rectory in northeast Kansas 

Officers were called to the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday afternoon and found Carasala with gunshot wounds outside the rectory.

Gary Hermesch, 66, of Tulsa, Oklahoma was charged on Friday with first-degree murder

The priest’s death has left the 2,100 strong community in mourning.

He had been the leader of the church, situated about 90 miles northwest of Kansas City, since 2011, according to his profile on the parish website.

Carasala was ordained as a priest in 1994 for the Diocese of Cuddapah, located on the southeast coast of his native India.

He had served in Kansas since 2004, including as pastor of five Kansas parishes, after he was invited to visit by Archbishop James P. Keleher. 

Carasala became a US citizen in 2011, while retaining his status as an overseas citizen of India.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post that there was no ongoing threat to the community, but that he recognized the ‘pain and shock’ the priest’s death had brought to the community.

‘This senseless act of violence has left us grieving the loss of a beloved priest, leader, and friend,’ he wrote. 

Carasala was ordained as a priest in 1994 for the Diocese of Cuddapah, located on the southeast coast of his native India. He had served in Kansas since 2004

There was a huge turnout at a church service held to remember Father Carasala

Hermesch, 66, was charged on Friday and held in Nemaha County Jail in lieu of $1 million bond

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post that there was no ongoing threat to the community, but that he recognized the ‘pain and shock’ the priest’s death had brought to the community

‘Father Arul was a friend to me and a great priest. I shared in my homily that being a priest today requires heroic love. 

‘That quality was evident in Father Arul, who left India to come to the heartland of America and serve the people of the Catholic Church in northeast Kansas,’ Naumann said.

‘While we continue to mourn the loss of Father Arul, I pray that we will not lose hope.’