Rev. Alexis Prem Kumar, the Jesuit Priest who was abducted by Taliban militants in June last year and released recently, was given a warm reception when he arrived at his native village here on Saturday.
The villagers, friends and relatives gathered on the village outskirts and offered the priest a traditional welcome by taking an ‘aarthi.’ The priest, garlanded and accompanied by his father A.S.M. Anthony and other family members, was taken in a procession into the village amid bursting of crackers and distribution of sweets.
Friends and relatives swarmed him with tears of joy as the priest shook hands with the kith and kin and hugged the aged. Before reaching the church to attend the thanksgiving mass, the priest visited the cemetery and placed a garland at the Samadhi of his mother, Maria Thangam, a retired teacher, who died in February 2013.
Rev. Alexis, who had visited the village when his mother died after he went to Afghanistan, visited the village again last year to attend the first death anniversary. He attended the Holy Communion ceremony of his brother Albert Manoharan’s children in March last before returning to Afghanistan.
“The whole village celebrated the safe release of my brother and we are thankful to all who wished and prayed for his safe release,” Mr. Manoharan said. The priest would attend a mass at Devakottai on Sunday, he said.
