St. Joseph Calasanz church was blessed and consecrated by His Most Rev. Binay Kandulna, the Bishop of Kunti diocese on 7th April 2024. The blessing ceremony was inaugurated at 7 am with welcoming of the Bishop to the newly built church. The Bishop was welcomed by the Parish priest and faithful in the presence of Fr. Urban the Asian General assistant, Fr. Stalin the Indian vice provincial, Piarist fathers and diocesan priests. Before opening the doors of the newly built church bishop blessed the stones which contains the details of the church from the beginning. Thereafter, Fr. Urban unveiled the veil of the marble stone. Then the bishop continued the ceremony with the cutting of the ribbon, blessed the church doors and handed over the keys of the church to the parish Priest Fr. James Jaria, the parish priest. Fr. James Jaria unlocked the church doors and welcomed the faithful to enter through the main door. The solemn mass begun at 8:30 am as usual. Bishop broke the word of God for the people and said the history of the church remembering Fr. Alfaro who has begun the work in Kamda. Bishop also mentioned the how now faithful have to live their faith, to feel the presence of christ in the church and live with strong faith. The bishop after his homily consecrated the alter, the vessels and the whole church with holy water.
The mass continued with offertory. After the holy communion the bishop blessed the tabernacle and handed over the keys to the parish priest in the presence of the priests and faithful. At the end of the mass there was photograph session and bishop gave final blessings to the people and holy mass came to end at 10:30am. After the half an hour break there was cultural programme by the people of our parish. We have 10 substations under our parish so all the substations gave each one programme. There was a small video presentation by the youth of the parish. They collected the pictures from the beginning of the Kamda mission, the hard work of Fr. Alfaro, the hard work of the faithful who started to contribute step by step to reach this stage. It was well appreciated.
There was agape which was prepared by all the parishioners. They contributed out of their generosity to provide meals for all the peoples who came to partake in the ceremony. Thus, the food was served for the faithful by youth and the catechists of our parish at 12:30Pm.
Thus, the programme came to an end at 3pm.
Written by Fr. Karuna, Sch. P
