By Robancy A Helen
Tuticorin, July 1, 2020: A Catholic priest was found hanging on July 1 morning in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu.
Father Xavier Alwin of Tuticorin diocese is the fourth Catholic priest to end life in the past one year in India.
“It is sad to inform the unexpected demise of Fr. Alwin, aged 35. His funeral will take place at 4 pm on 2nd July 2020, Thursday, in Amalinagar. Heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. May his soul rest in peace,” says a message from Father Norbert Thomas, chancellor of Tuticorin diocese.
Earlier this year, Father Alwin was appointed the English teacher at St. Thomas Matriculation School in Tuticorin town. He came to the hostel 15 days ago since the schools are closed because of the nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Father was found hanging from a ceiling fan when the school staff went to call him. After knocking the door for a long time, they looked inside through the window and found him hanging.
His body was taken for postmortem and a case has been filed in Vadabagam South police station. Police inspector Arul is investigating the case and the details are still unknown until the evening.
Father Alwin’s friends and associates have expressed shock over his sudden death. They described him as a jovial and enthusiastic person who was fun loving. “He made everyone happy. I could not even think of him dead,” says a priest of Tuticorin diocese, requesting anonymity .
Father Alwin was born in 1984 in Amalinagar, a small coastal village of near Tiruchendur in Tuticorin district. He was ordained in 2015 and served as assistant parish priest in Kootapuli, Manapad, and then in St. Antony’s Church in Tuticorin before being appointed as the English teacher.
Hi colleagues recall that Father Alwin loved to be with the students and motivated them. He was also a collaborator of the Thoondil Students Movement, an initiative of few likeminded priests of the diocese to prepare the coastal area students for competitive examinations.
The priest had also worked with the transgender community for their rights.
Father Alwin’s death has come 12 days after the body of Father Thomas Ettuparayil was found in a well inside a parish compound in Kerala. The priest was in-charge of St Thomas Church Punnathura under the Archdiocese of Changanacherry.
He had gone missing on June 21 and his body was recovered a day later.
On June 20, Father Bala Showry Reddy, the vicar of Kolakalur parish Guntur diocese, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the presbytery.
The diocesan sources said the priest ended his life because of loneliness and depression because of the nationwide lockdown.
On October 11, 2019, Father Mahesh D’Souza of Udupi diocese in Karnataka diocese was also found hanging from a ceiling fan in his room in Shirva in Udupi district. The 36-year-old priest was serving as assistant parish priest of Our Lady of Health Church and the principal of Don Bosco School attached to the parish.
Increasing reports of priest suicides have prompted the editor of the Indian Currents weekly to call for a review of seminary formation and monitoring of the life of priests at work places.
“A few things need unadulterated attention of the hierarchy – a relook at the protracted training imparted in seminaries and formation houses; a review and monitoring of the life of priests at their work places; and heed to the feedback from the ground and act upon it,” Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, wrote in the weekly’s latest edition.