Kerala Priest Stabbed In Melbourne in Alleged Hate Crime

Fr Tomy Mathew Kalathoor escaped with minor upper-body injuries.

In what is being called an alleged hate crime, a priest from Kerala was stabbed by a 72-year-old man in Melbourne on Sunday.

Fr Tomy Mathew Kalathoor, 48, was stabbed in the neck at the St Matthew’s Parish at Fawkner in Melbourne. A man, armed with a knife, stabbed the Catholic priest moments before Fr Tomy was scheduled to lead the 11 am Italian-language mass.

The priest escaped with minor upper-body injuries. The assailant has been arrested and charged with intentionally causing harm. He is due to appear in the Broadmeadows Magistrates’ court on 13 June.

There was some shouting and a lot of movement at the back of the church and then I saw Father Tommy coming to approach me. He waved me over and asked me if I could look at his neck because he said “I’ve just been stabbed”.

Melina, a parishioner who witnessed the incident

Fr Tomy remains in a stable condition at The Northern Hospital.

This is appalling behaviour and people should never be treated like this. This fellow is doing wonderful work for his parishioners and this is really a blight on the great work that many, many Catholic priests are doing

Shane Healy, spokesman, Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne 

"At this stage, we believe the incident is isolated” Detective Senior Constable Rhiannon Norton told reporters.

There's nothing to suggest he's a danger to anyone else," Detective Senior Constable Rhiannon Norton told reporters.

(With PTI inputs)