By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KANSAS CITY, USA (Worthy News) – A community was left in “a state of shock” Saturday as a Catholic priest died in the U.S. state of Kansas after being shot at his church’s rectory, church sources said.
A man from neighboring Oklahoma state was arrested in Thursday’s fatal shooting of Arul Carasala, 57, at a church rectory in Seneca in northeast Kansas, police confirmed.
Officers called to the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday afternoon and found the priest with gunshot wounds outside the rectory, the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office said. Carasala was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died, according to investigators.
Sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Seneca Police Department later arrested Gary Hermesch of Tulsa, Oklahoma, on suspicion of first-degree murder, officials announced.
County Attorney Brad Lippert said in a written statement that Hermesch, 66, was charged Friday and held in the Nemaha County Jail instead of a $1 million bond.
The charging complaint says that Hermesch “intentionally and with premeditation” killed Carasala. There was no immediate known reaction from the suspect.
“We’re all just still in a state of shock. I mean, this is small-town America. And Father Arul was such a beloved pastor in Seneca, Kansas. He’s been a pastor there for over 13 years,” said priest Brian Schieber, a Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.
GOOD SHEPHERD
“A good shepherd knows his people by name, and Father Arul knew everybody. He, over these years, baptized so many people, did so many weddings, funerals, he was such a good confessor and present to people who were sick, had such pastoral wisdom, he is really beloved by everybody,” Schieber added in published remarks.
He described the shooting as a “senseless act of violence.” Schieber told the Fox News Digital outlet, “We have no idea what the motive for this was.”
However, he stressed, “You know, we’re really praying for the person that killed Father Arul as well. And thank you all for your prayers.”
There has been a tradition within the Catholic Church of praying for an attacker. Soon after he was shot and injured on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, then Pope John Paul II asked pilgrims to “pray for my brother [gunman Mehmet Ali Ağca] … whom I have sincerely forgiven.”
The pope met and forgave Ağca, who was surging a life sentence for the assassination.
Ağca was pardoned by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope’s request and deported to Turkey in June 2000.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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