Melbourne: In an apparent racist attack, a Catholic priest of Indian heritage was stabbed in the neck at a church in Melbourne by a man who called him unqualified to say mass as he was an Indian. A man armed with a knife approached Tomy Kalathoor Mathew, 48, in the church foyer moments before the Italian- language mass at St Matthew's Parish in Fawkner yesterday.

It's believed that the offender told the priest that because he was Indian, he must be a Hindu or a Muslim and therefore unqualified to say mass, local media reported. "There was some shouting and a lot of movement at the back of the church and then I saw Father Tommy coming to approach me. He waved me over and asked me if I could look at his neck because he said 'I've just been stabbed'," said Melina, one of the parishioners.