Pune’s newest Roman Catholic church, the Good Shepherd Church, will be consecrated on Saturday by Pune Bishop Rt Rev Thomas Dabre.
Pune’s newest Roman Catholic church, the Good Shepherd Church, will be consecrated on Saturday by Pune Bishop Rt Rev Thomas Dabre.
The church, which is situated off the Undri Road in Kondhwa, will serve around 7,000 Roman Catholics in the Lullanagar-Kondhwa area.
The consecration event is a grand affair and will be attended by Bishop Emeritus Rt Rev Valerian D’souza, 40 Diocesan priests and 1,500 parishioners.
The church has come up on the strength of a whopping Rs1 crore raised by the 7,000 parishioners of the Lullanagar-Kondhwa area.
According to the Good Shepherd church parish priest Fr Fernando da Costa, most families donated one month’s salary and collected funds through fetes, tambolas and Sunday food stalls.
A spot visit to the church on Wednesday afternoon revealed that it is built on an acre of land and houses a ground plus two-storey structure of approximately 7,000 sq ft. Fr Fernando da Costa said religious services for the Roman Catholics in the Lullanagar-Kondhwa area began at the Mount Carmel Convent School Chapel in 1995.
According to Fr Fernando, the seeds for the present church were sown with the formation of the Good Shepherd Parish in 2000 and the Poona Diocesan Corporation began efforts to locate land. The present plot of land was purchased three years ago and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Emeritus Rt Rev Valerian D’souza on March 8, 2009.
The Good Shepherd Pastoral Parish Council’s member Edaline Rodrigues said, “We are feeling on top of the world. After a wait of 16 years, we finally have a church of our own. The church is a testimony of the hard work, cooperation and patience exhibited by the parishioners.”
The former parish priest of the Good Shepherd Church, Fr Roque Green, and the nuns of the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel, among others will be felicitated on the occasion. The event will be graced by former chief minister of Goa and South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, Sena MLA Mahadev Babar and local corporators Tanaji Lonkar and Megha Babar.
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