Father Arul Rajan Peter comes from Idindakarai, a deeply rooted Catholic village along the shores of the Indian Ocean, at the southern tip of India. His Catholic faith heritage reaches back nearly five centuries: his ancestors were baptized by St. Francis Xavier in the 1540s. From this rich spiritual soil emerged an extraordinary legacy – this single parish has given the Church two bishops, more than forty-five priests, and over one hundred religious sisters.
Father Peter is the son of devoted parents who have since passed into eternal life, and he is one of seven children, with four brothers and two sisters. Responding to God’s call at an early age, he entered the seminary at sixteen and was ordained to the priesthood on May 21, 1984, at the age of twenty-six.
He began his ministry in his native Diocese of Thoothukudi, serving for six years in three different parishes. Since 1990, guided by God’s providence, his priestly journey has taken him across several countries, blending academic formation with pastoral service. He earned a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of the Philippines and later received a diploma in Media Production from Maynooth College in Ireland.
In 1995, at the request of the Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Montreal, Father Peter was entrusted with establishing a new parish to serve the Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic community in Montreal. This mission bore fruit with the founding of Our Lady of Deliverance Parish in 1996.
Father Peter came to the United States in 1998, serving as Associate Pastor at St. Barnabas Parish in the Bronx. From 2002 to 2005, he ministered as chaplain at St. Joseph Living Center in Windham, Connecticut. In 2006, Bishop Michael R. Cote appointed him Temporary Administrator of St. Stephen Parish in Quinebaug. He later served, from 2008 to 2013, as Administrator of the yoked parishes of St. John the Apostle in Plainfield and St. Augustine in Canterbury.
On February 15, 2013, Father Peter was appointed Pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Essex, Connecticut. Later that same year, in August, Bishop Cote entrusted him with pastoral leadership of the yoked parishes of St. Joseph in Chester and Our Lady of Sorrows in Essex. These two churches were joyfully united as one parish on December 3, 2018, under the new name St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish.