By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

It’s a coincidence rather than a trend, but Father Thomas Purayidathil is the fourth priest working in Hawaii who is from India.

He is, however, more recently from Oakland, the northern California city that produced Bishop Larry Silva.

He arrived in Hawaii last fall, at a particular juncture in his life, at the invitation of the bishop.

Father Purayidathil — he said it is pronounced as it is written — is a Salesian priest with a doctorate in education who has been a university professor in Rome and is the author of several books on communications.

He recently completed a five-year break from the academic world serving as a parish priest and school principal in Oakland.

After those satisfying years in parish work, he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald, he was “finding it a little tough to go back to the books.”

So he took the opportunity to come to Hawaii.

He arrived last September to help for three months at St. Theresa Church in Kihei, Maui. He was then assigned to be administrator of the Kula Catholic Community, the up-country Maui parish comprised of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Kula, Holy Ghost Mission in Waiakoa and St. James Mission in Ulupalakua.

Last month he was named associate pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Hilo and the neighboring Malia Puka O Kalani Parish in Keaukaha.

Father Purayidathil was ordained in 1980 in his Indian home state of Kerala at the country’s southern tip, an area which tradition says was first evangelized by the Apostle Thomas, after whom he was named.

Six of his years following ordination were spent as a school principal in India. In 1988, upon the request of his order, he went to the Salesian University in Rome to teach, which he did for 13 years.

As an educator, he earned a doctorate and published several books on education, communications and the mass media.

In 2001, he began a five-year sabbatical in the Diocese of Oakland, Calif. He had been a frequent visitor to the United States, having studied for his Ph.D. at Penn University, and had friends in Oakland.

In Oakland, he served as a parish priest at St. Cornelius Church in Richmond and also took up the duties of principal of the parish’s elementary school.

Father Purayidathil, who turns 55 next Friday, said that while he owes his professional and priestly formation to the Salesians, he “gave them 35 years” and would like now to do parish ministry.

He is “in the process” of joining the Diocese of Honolulu, whose semi-tropical climate, he said, is similar to that of Kerala.

The incardination process will probably take place in a month or two, he said, following the procurement of the proper permissions from his authorities in Rome.

The other Hawaii priests who are natives of India are Father Sebastian Chacko, La Salette Father Augustine Cheerakathil and Father Sydney Fernandes.