Former associate priest Father Joseph Kuzhupil will take the helm as interim priest for the remainder of 2010 and for 2011, while St. Augustine’s Father Patrick Brownell serves as a U.S. Army chaplain overseas.
“In my first 20 years as a priest, I served the poor, preached the gospel and made Christ’s presence felt in remote parts of India,” said Kuzhupil, a native of India. “My uncle, Father Devasia Kuzhupil, was a real inspiration for me to become a priest.”
St. Augustine Catholic Church’s new priest Father Joseph Kuzhupil says he loves the autumn weather atop Signal Mountain.One of nine children, Kuzhupil said his sister Lucy Kuzhupil serves as a nun and his brother Sebastian Kuzhupil is a priest. Kuzhupil said he visits family in India once every two years for one month, but talks to his parents and siblings weekly by phone.
Since coming to the United States six years ago, he said he worked for five years as a priest at Signal Mountain’s Alexian Village. After leaving the mountain to train for six months in India, Kuzhupil said to his pleasant surprise he was called back to Signal Mountain to serve at St. Augustine.
Serving with the Order of Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales for 26 years, he said he is basically a U.S. missionary.