Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) members from across the Diocese gathered to witness the installation of their new Spiritual Director, Fr Arun Kumar Korlakanti SHS, by Bishop Shane Mackinlay at St Brendan’s, Shepparton on 29 March 2025. Brigita Hore, Sandhurst CCR Leader shares the story:
By Brigita Hore
Prayer group people and friends from different parts of the Diocese gathered to pray and celebrate Fr Arun’s installation. Lenyce Willason, the Director of CCR Melbourne, and Adrian Commadeur, a former Prayer Group Leader and author of many books on the power of the Holy Spirit in us, also joined the service to welcome Fr Arun to Charis, Catholic Charismatic Renewal Oceania.
On the day, Fr Arun shared a testimony of his journey to the priesthood and baptism into the Holy Spirit. Fr Arun was born into a farming family in Tanikella, a village of some 5000 people, 210 km east of Hyderabad in the Khammam District of India. As was customary in India, Fr Arun was baptised at the age of seven, when he was old enough to understand his commitment. He attended Mass every morning and evening and was an altar server for many years. Fr Arun always dreamed of becoming a priest and was encouraged to do so by his older sister, who became a Holy Spirit Sister.
After completing elementary and high school studies, Fr Arun attained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Andhra University in 2008 and a Bachelor of Theology at Jnana Deepa Institute, Pune in 2013. While becoming a priest in India takes almost eleven years in formation, Fr Arun spent fourteen years training as a priest because he moved from one order of priests and finally settled with the ‘Society of the Holy Spirit’ and was ordained in Chennai in 2018.
After speaking with Fr Vijay Bandanadam, Parish Priest of Benalla and meeting Bishop Shane Mackinlay in India, Fr Arun decided to “not let the grass grow under his feet” and embarked on a journey to serve in Australia. Within weeks of arriving in Australia in August 2024, Fr Arun had purchased a car, joined the Magpies Cricket Club, and began learning about Australian culture and language. He speaks four languages and recently celebrated Mass in Italian.
New cultures also pique his interest, and he is learning about the ways of Australians with gusto. Fr Arun’s impressions of us are quite positive. We are very polite and say ‘thankyou’ and ‘sorry’ a lot e.g., “Sorry I missed your call”. This is not common in India. People here are also generally very loving and willing to help out.
Fr Arun is passionate about Scripture, preaching and the charismatic movement. His personal motto is “Knowing Jesus to make Jesus known,” inspired by St John Chrysostom (c. 349-407 AD), the Archbishop of Constantinople, who was a gifted preacher and biblical interpreter known as the ‘golden tongue’. Through his leadership, we look forward to growing and being transformed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the Church.
How fortunate are we to have such an engaging and dedicated priest to work within our parishes and to share his experience, knowledge and enthusiasm. May he continue to enjoy his time with us, as we learn from Fr Arun; and, he also learns from us.
We welcome all to our CCR prayer groups and also to our outreach days in the Diocese.
