NEW JERSEY
Patch
By Daniel Nee
To parishioners at Church of the Visitation in Brick, it came as the shock of a lifetime.
The priest who had encouraged them through times of sadness and fear, who brought food to the local needy and who comforted those who found themselves in periods of grief – had been accused of a crime that is as depressing and disappointing as it is serious and unthinkable.
Fr. Marukudiyil C. Velan, 64, known to parishioners at the Mantoloking Road church as “Father Chris,” was arrested Saturday and charged with two sex crimes, one against a minor.
A garden, named for Father Chris in the back of the church’s yard, was empty Tuesday afternoon, a day after his arrest became publicly known. A few tomatoes looked ripe, presumably with no one there to pick them off the vine.
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