THRISSUR, India (CNS) – Catholics in southern India faced tragedy at Easter time when the rector of a regional major seminary was murdered. Father K. J. Thomas, rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in Bangalore, was killed April 1.
Father Thomas, who had been on the faculty of the regional seminary for three decades and its rector for the last five years, apparently died when his head was smashed by intruders.
Condemning the murder as a “most heinous crime,” Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore described Father Thomas as “a very pious, soft-spoken and harmless priest.”