By Jose Kavi
Kannur, July 4, 2025: The Catholic Church in Kerala, southern India, on July 4 witnessed a priest dying of suspected suicide, the second such case in less than two months.
Father Antony Ullatthil was found hanging in a house that his congregation, the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (MCBS), rented a year ago near its ashram at Porkalam, Vayambu, in Kodom-Belur panchayat of the Kasaragod, the northernmost district of Kerala.
The 44-year-old priest was a native of Edappadi near Iritty in Kannur district. Local media reported a person close to Father Ullattil claiming that the priest was undergoing treatment for depression.
On May 14, Father Leo Puthoor of the archdiocese of Trichur in Kerala was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his room in the presbytery of St Joseph’s Church, Pathiyaram, in Thrissur district.
The sacristan reportedly found Father Puthoor hanging when he came to the church at noon to ring the bell. A circular from the archdiocesan vicar general Father Jaison Koonanplackal said the reason for the 34-year-old priest’s death was not known.
Media also reported that the police suspected Father Ullattil took his life in the intervening night of July 3 and 4. When he failed to come for the morning Mass, the ashram members checked his room and found a note in English that read, “I’m in a rented house,” said the Ambalathara Station House Officer.
After the inquest, the body was sent to Government Medical College at Pariyaram in Kannur district for autopsy. He is scheduled to be buried in a cemetery for priests at Pariyaram on July 5.
He is survived by his parents and two younger brothers.
The MCBS, a religious congregation in the Syro‑Malabar Church, was founded in Kerala in 1933.
Priests dying by suicide is a new trend in Kerala, the state that has topped in priestly and religious vocations for decades.
On June 22, 2020, the body of a Catholic priest was found in the well of St Thomas Church Punnathura under the Archdiocese of Changanacherry.
Father Thomas Ettuparayil had been missing since the previous day. The body of the 51-year-old priest was found after a search involving the Kerala police and Fire Force department along with parishioners.
Father Ettuparayil had returned to India six months earlier from the United States where he had served as a pastor for five years. No one had noticed his absence as people seldom visited churches because of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus. The archdiocese was alerted when he failed to turn up for an appointment at the archbishop’s house at 4 pm on June 21, 2020.
In Changanacherry on November 3, 2018, Father Mukesh Tirkey was found dead near a railway track. The police recovered a suicide note from the 36-year-old priest’s room which read, “This is my own decision. Please respect my decision and pray for my soul.”
The Oraon tribal priest was last seen at the chapel of Cana, the family apostolate institute of the Archdiocese of Changanacherry, that he had joined 18 months ago.
Earlier, Kerala had recorded deaths of Catholic nuns in mysterious circumstances. Since 1997, 20 nun suicide cases were reported in India, almost all of them in Kerala, noted a group of Catholic women who called themselves as “concerned citizens.”
On December 8, 2021, they called for setting up a fact-finding team to study frequent cases of Catholic nuns dying by suicide in Indian convents.
Sad! If priests and religious are not able to contain their emotions and refrain from suicide, who do lay people turn to for solace and advice?
Obviously, something is TERRIBLY amiss as regards the recruiment of vocations.
In Kerala being a priest or a nun is a matter of great prestige and pride. Onw reason for many families having at least a priest or nun is because most families have large number of children. However, if for some reasons one is contemplating fiving up priesthood or nunhood, there is severe pressure from their respective family circles to stay put. This is particularly seen in cases of nuns where families reportedly have to pay huge dowries to marry off their daughters . Hence many with not so good looks are sent off to nunhood. But they want to come out their families aren’t willing to accept them. This could be one prime reason for the increasing instances of suicide. The Christian faithful of Kerala have to be realistic and accept failures as part of life.
Something is TERRIBLY WRONG in the recruitment and formation of priests. The church authorities (arch/bishops and superiors of religious congregations) seem to be living like Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt. If the church authorities do not bring in “drastic changes” in recruitment and formation, then, many more priests and sisters will face immature death.