History
The Arockia Annai'yin Dallas Tamil Catholic Association, started on August 15th, 2006, to encourage and unite Tamil Catholics living in Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) area to come together once a month to have a Tamil mass and help the community to grow in spiritual life.
Rev. Fr. Peter Chinnappan from Dallas, TX diocese is the founder and spiritual advisor of DTC.
The creation of the DTC has been encouraged and supported by several Tamil priests and families living in and around DFW.
The DTC community wishes to reach out to the Tamil community to share their social, cultural, and spiritual values.
Arockia Annai-yin Dallas Tamil Catholic Community is presently part of Holy Family of Nazareth as a Tamil cultural ministry, located at 2330 Cheyenne St., Irving, Texas 75062 in the Diocese of Dallas, TX
Founder's Profile
Rev. Fr. Peter Chinnappan is from Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India. He studied for the Diocese of Kohima, Nagaland, which borders China and Burma/Myanmar.
He was ordained on April 17, 1985, and worked in the seminary as a Dean and Administrator. Before he came to New York in 1993, Fr. Chinnappan was a pastor and a missionary, and worked in the furthest parishes of his diocese.
He has three undergraduate degrees in Philosophy, Economics and Political Science; and a B.Th (Bachelor of Theology) from the University of Urbanium, Rome. He has two Masters degrees, one in Political Science from Madras University, and an MBA from St. Peter's College at the University of Wales, England. In 1994-95 he studied for a certificate program in TV Program Production using Lumen 2000 projection at Mt. Saint Michael in West Dallas. While studying, he was assigned to St. Cecilia on West Davis Road in Dallas. He worked in a private television program production center in New York for two years before leaving for India in 1997.
On returning to his diocese he worked as a pastor and a communication director, and produced about 30 television programs for both public and private channels, based on social, cultural and biblical themes and values. He was the founder and Director of North East Social Communications (NESCOM). For about 8 years he taught (as a visiting professor) Visual Communications to the students of Theology, and Homiletics to the Deacons. During this period he also conducted over 500 seminars on the impact of social media and visual communications for students, teachers, parents, college students and lecturers, priests, bishops and nuns working in 15 Dioceses of Northeast India.
He returned to Dallas in 2003-04 and served St. Mark Catholic Church in Plano. In 2005-06 he was at All Saints Dallas, where he started the Tamil Catholic community and named it as Arockiya annaiyin Dallas Tamil Catholics. In 2007-08 as Pastoral Administrator he was at St. Michael in Garland. During 2009-10 he went back to his diocese in India. On returning to the Diocese of Dallas on the eve of Thanksgiving Day 2010, he returned to All Saints, and then served Forney for about 4 years. Fr. Peter was assigned to Prince of Peace Church in Plano, Holy Family of Nazareth Church in Irving and St. Michael's Church in McKinney. In 2023, he was assigned as a Chaplin for the hospitals associated with St. Paul's Church in Richardson and Chaplin for Arockiya Annaiyin Dallas Tamil Catholics.
We are so proud of his vision and thankful for his commitment to the Diocese of Dallas and to Arockiya Annaiyin Dallas Tamil Catholics.
