By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Father Sebastian Kumar Soosai
Bishop Larry Silva on May 24 incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Honolulu Father Sebastian Kumar Soosai, an India-born former member of the congregation of the Missionaries of Faith.
The bishop also changed Father Soosai’s status from administrator of St. Roch Church, Kahuku, to pastor, effective May 24.
“I wholeheartedly thank our Bishop Larry Silva for accepting me into the diocese,” Father Soosai said in an email to the Hawaii Catholic Herald. “It is my great joy that he stood beside me all through my challenges and processes.”
Father Soosai, 45, came to Hawaii in April of 2016 to work as parochial vicar for Maria Lanakila Parish in Lahaina, Maui, whose ocean-view reminded him of his seaside hometown in India where his late father fished for a living.
He said that learning about the culture, “the good nature of the people” and priests in Hawaii made him want to deepen his “love and commitment” for the place.
“I felt so comfortable with the entire community” and wanted to be a part of it, he said.
Hawaii is Father Soosai’s first mission outside of India.
In a 2017 interview in the Hawaii Catholic Herald, he said he “could imagine the challenges the saints met in their mission work to places far and diverse. For me, it was a big exposure to meet people of different ethnicities, styles and tastes. I needed to bend with the culture of the people and learn to go according to their ways. It was a challenge.”
“On the other hand,” he said, “in my work as associate pastor I find that many things are oriented on spiritual matters. I appreciate that there is a lot of time to spend on spiritual matters here,” he said.
Parents were the motivation
Father Soosai was born in 1976 in Annai Nagar, Pallam, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu State, South India, to Pederu and Theresammal Soosaiah, both deceased. He is the youngest of five brothers and one sister. The family belonged to Our Lady of Miracle Parish in the Diocese of Kottar, Tamil Nadu.
“My parents were the great motivation for my spiritual journey,” Father Soosai said. “Their holiness, simple lifestyle and sharing the faith and the missionary journeys of St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Francis Xavier at our oceanside made me focus on the priesthood.”
He said attending St. Jude Thaddaeus School, run by the sisters of the Congregation of the Presentation and the priests in the parish, helped him deepen his faith.
“Being the daily altar server, having catechism every day at our school, and observing the lifestyle of our priests and nuns made me decide in the third grade to become a priest,” he said.
He entered in the congregation of Missionaries of Faith in 1994 and was ordained a priest at his home parish on May 11, 2005.
As a Missionary of Faith, Father Soosai served as a teacher, pastor, province councilor and finance administrator, and school principal. He said he is forever grateful to his former congregation, in particular for educating him and trusting and supporting him with higher responsibilities.
Father Soosai said he grew in his love and attachment to the Diocese of Honolulu thanks to the “good leadership of our bishop and his administration and the friendly nature of all the priests.”
He said he also thanks the people of the Hawaii parishes in which he has served in the past five years, Maria Lanakila; St. Theresa, Kihei; St. Pius X, Manoa; and his present community of St. Roch Church, Kahuku, and St. Joachim Mission, Punaluu.
They all “make me one in the family,” he said.
He also wanted to express his special gratitude to Msgr. Gary L. Secor, Father Mark Gantley, Father Gregorio Honorio, Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, Father William Kunisch, Father Pascual Abaya, Father Peter Miti, Denise Oliveira, and Darlene Cachola, spiritual directors Capuchin Franciscan Father Mike Dalton and Father Ken Deasey, and “all the priests working in the diocese” for their “guidance and support during my journey.”
