Cordel church gear up for centenary celebrations

Mangalore, February 16: Holy Cross Church in Kulshekar, one of the oldest churches in Mangalore diocese, will be celebrating centenary celebrations of its consecration on February 18 at Cordel Church Centenary Memorial Ground in the church premises.

Giving details on the same to media persons here on Thursday, Parish Priest Rev Fr Valerian Pinto said Mangalore Diocesan Bishop Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D'Souza will preside over the celebrations while Shimoga Diocese Bishop Rev Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo, High Court Judge Justice B V Pinto, Deputy Speaker N Yogish Bhat and IGP (Western Range) Pratap Reddy will be the chief guests.

As a part of the celebrations, the foundation stone for 'Holy Rosary Park' will be laid and a book on the history of church titled 'Frad Saib and the church of Cordel,' authored by Rev Fr Devadutta Kamath will be released.

'Shathamanik Zalak,' a brief history of Cordel church in sound and light will also be part of the programme.

Though the foundation for Cordel church was laid by Rev Fr Alexander Dubois, a native of Rouen in France, who arrived at Mangalore in 1865 and served in the Milagres parish, he could not complete the work on the church as he passed away due to Cholera on December 11, 1877.

However, the then Bishop Rev Ambudius Cavadini established the church on May 31, 1904 after obtaining the decree and the then Bishop Rev Paul Perini consecrated the church on January 30, 1912. In the last 100 years, 13 parish priests (including the present parish priest Rev Fr Valerian Pinto) and 45 assistant parish priests have served the church. On the other hand, as many as 35 parishioners have become priests and 70 have become nuns from the parish.

From 250 families in Cordel parish 100 years ago, to the present 1,540 families, the church continues to be one of the biggest parishes in Mangalore diocese.

Meanwhile, two parishes were formed in Shakthinagar (Mariagiri in 2003) as well as Paldane (Mother Theresa in 2006) to cater to the needs of the people living in those areas. Prior to the formation of these parishes, they belonged to Cordel itself.

In the last 100 years, several projects have been taken up in the church premises. They include new building for Kannada medium school, huge playground, formation of English medium school (registerd 100 pc results for the last 9 consecutive years), huge hall, Dubois complex and a garden of Gethsemane (established in memory of the birth bi-centenary of Founder Fr Alexander Dubois in 2009).

The foundation for 'Holy Rosary Park' will be laid on February 18. “The Park, to be established on the lines '20 mysteries of Rosary' at Vellar Padom Mathe church at Verampalli diocese in Ernakulam, will be unique and when completed, the church will be the one and the only church to have a Holy Rosary Park in the Mangalore diocese, which has 161 churches under its ambit,” said Fr Pinto.

“The Holy Rosary Park will have pictorial depiction of 20 life-size mysteries (structures) that would give theological as well as actual meaning of the mysteries,” he added.Church Vice President Praveen Patrao, Centenary Celebrations Convener Susheel Noronha and Assistant Parish Priests Fr John Moras and Fr Melwyn Noronha were present.

To a query on why there were frequent protests against the church by the members of United Christian Association, Fr Pinto, quoting the recent judgement copy (in which the church won the case), said that “jealousy against the development works in the church is the main reason for such acts.”

To another query on allegations against the church that the priest had collected a blank cheque from Irene D'Souza, a parishioner, seeking help to complete her house, the priest said that he has not collected any cheque from anybody. On the other hand, the church and diocese had donated a sum of Rs 1 lakh (in addition to Rs 15,000 donated by SVP, CODP and Milagres church) besides tiles for the roof.