KSNT 27 News / Facebook
CV NEWS FEED // Gary Hermesch, the 66-year-old man from Oklahoma charged with murdering Father Arul Carasala outside of his rectory April 3, wrote multiple letters to a Kansas newspaper about politics and the Catholic Church, in which he harshly criticized recent popes and in one instance referred to the Church as the “fake, diabolical Vatican II church.”
KSNT reports that from 2021 to 2024, Hermesch sent letters to the editor of Courier-Tribune, a Nemaha County, Kansas newspaper, and that the Tribune shared six of the letters with KSNT. Hermsech grew up in Nemaha County, Kansas, before eventually moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to the Kansas City Star. On April 3 Hermesch allegedly shot Fr. Carasala outside of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, Kansas.
Hermesch’s letters to the editor included strange accusations, such as when Hermesch falsely claimed in an August 2021 letter that Pope Saint Paul VI declared “Are you looking for God? You will find Him in man.” He added that Pope St. Paul VI allowed priests to face the people during Mass “so as to be facing ‘god.’”
In the same letter, Hermesch claimed that some people consider Pope Saint John Paul II “the anti-Christ in the flesh.” He also claimed that Pope Benedict XVI “basically just reiterates that it (the communion host) doesn’t literally become Christ in the flesh anymore.”
Hermesch concluded in the same letter, “Let’s not sweat the small stuff, though, maybe if we just follow Donald Trump’s example we’ll ‘make the Church great again’. So why are things headed south like a runaway freight train? Simple. The faith is not being taught. Now is that equality and tolerance of other religions, or what?”
KSHB reports that Hermesch faces charges of first-degree murder and is being held on a $1 million bond at Nemaha County Jail. According to KMBC, Nemaha County Attorney Brad Lippert accused Hermesch of killing Fr. Carasala “intentionally and with premeditation.”
>> Kansas Catholic community mourns, prays for slain priest <<