Catholic World News News Feature

Priest murdered in India; torture feared August 18, 2008

A Carmelite priest has been murdered and disfigured-- in a way that suggests torture-- in India's southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Father Thomas Pandipally was killed on Saturday night after he left a convent on his motorbike after celebrating Mass. Nuns at the convent discovered the priest's body on Sunday morning; police recovered his motorbike a few miles away.

"There are 6 major wounds in his body. Two on his chest, on the abdomen and on the face. All these clearly indicate that he was brutally murdered," said a spokesman for the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate. Father Pandipally had been the director of that congregation's center at Yellareddy.

The Andhra Pradesh state has witnessed two dozen major attacks on Christians this year; three evangelical pastors were killed during the previous two years.