Fr Krish bids a fond farewell to Moonah-Lutana
By Catherine Sheehan
After 12 years in Australia, and three years as Moonah-Lutana Parish Priest, Fr Krish Mathavan MSC is returning to his native Singapore to be close to his 86-year-old father who is suffering from dementia.
“It’s been lovely. I wish I didn’t have to leave, but… if I don’t leave now, my dad might forget me by the time I go back next,” Fr Krish said. “I don’t want that to happen.”
The Moonah-Lutana parish is under the care of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), with parish priests serving at least one term of three years.
Fr Krish took up his post at St Therese’s in Moonah just as COVID hit and had to navigate the parish through the unchartered territory of COVID restrictions and lockdowns over the past three years.
“I was considered ‘the COVID priest’ because I came just a month before COVID hit us,” he said.
“We had to, I suppose, walk our way through that and out of that… COVID is still happening, people are still falling sick, but it’s not too bad now. I think we’ve come a long way.”
“It was difficult in the first year but I have grown to love it… I’m thankful for everyone who has opened their heart and home to me, who have been part of the parish and joined in all our activities and events.”
Fr Krish grew up in Singapore, raised by his Catholic mother and Buddhist father. He discerned a vocation with the MSC’s after attending a retreat hosted by them during World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney.
“I had a deep experience of God’s love for me,” he said.
“This religious vocation just opened up like that… suddenly it became appealing. I took a year and a bit to discern before I stared my journey in Australia in 2010.”
Leaving behind his job as a researcher in a genetic laboratory in Singapore, he moved to Australia in 2010 to join the MSC’s. He was ordained to the priesthood in Adelaide in 2017.
Fr Krish will return to Singapore in January and will help his mother Lillian, and younger sister Shree Ann, to care for his father, Padma.
He will be replaced as Moonah-Lutana Parish Priest by Fr Parthalomai Paniadiai (Bartha) MSC.
As a priest of the MSC’s Australian Province, Fr Krish said that he would be returning to Australia at some point in the future.
He thanked parishioners who had helped him feel at home in Moonah.
“I’m grateful for so many things that they have been for me. It wasn’t easy for me to be on my own, but I have grown quite comfortable in the last year and a bit, and it’s thanks to them.”
“I would have loved to stay a second term and continue some of the friendships,” Fr Krish added. “I will miss the parish.”