OKEHAMPTON and Chagford’s Catholic communities are looking forward to welcoming their new priest.

Father Anil Kumar Gundabathina will be replacing Father Darline Joseph Marianathan at St Boniface Okehampton & Holy Family Chagford in the middle of September 2023. He has previously spent some time at St Boniface Church in Okehampton so is not a stranger to the congregation there. He shares Indian heritage with Father Darline, who has mentored him since he came to the UK two years ago.

Father Gundabathina, a Catholic priest from South India, has been serving as a priest for the past 13 years. He moved to the UK in 2021 after the coronavirus pandemic

He stayed for some time at St Boniface in Okehampton when he came to this country first before he was moved to the cathedral at Plymouth and got to know the priests and congregation there.

At present he is serving as one of the assistant priests at the Sacred Heart Church in Exeter.

He grew up in a traditional Catholic family with four brothers, of which the oldest and youngest are married while another younger brother also became a Catholic priest following Father Anil.

Father Anil holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and accountancy from the Loyola Educational Institute and a master’s degree in arts from Indian universities. He pursued a Spanish language course for a while in Chennai, India.

Over the years, Father Anil had held various positions; parish priest in one of the dioceses in India for five years, the chaplain for a while at the National Shrine Our Lady of Good Health of Velankanni, and the administrator at PIME Seminary for students training for the priesthood.

He was also one of the consultors for the General Superior from 2013 to 2016 with the SDM Congregation.

In 2019, he had the opportunity to supply in one of the parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia in the USA.

Father Anil said: “I am excited to join the clergy of the Diocese of Plymouth and feel valued. I feel honoured to take on this new role, as the Priest in Charge of St Boniface, Okehampton and Holy Family, Chagford, and serve the people of God with compassion and devotion.

“I look forward to meeting the people of other churches and faiths too in the area. I am ever so grateful to the present diocese administrator Canon Paul Cummins for his trust and confidence, Archbishop of Cardiff, Most Rev Mark O’Toole for his generosity and invitation and to Fr Darline Joseph Marianathan for his mentorship and support over the years.”