St Anne’s: A church with unique architecture

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Saturday, 27 June 2015 AT 11:49 PM IST

    

St Anne’s Church, Solapur Bazaar, Gopuram

Solapur Bazaar: St Anne’s Church, located in Solapur Bazaar, is unique among the churches in the city. The facade of the church building has a Gopuram in the architectural style of temples in south India. The centre of the facade also has a lotus. Besides, a majority of the church’s parishioners are Tamil-speaking.
St Anne’s Church was established in the early 19th century as a small chapel to serve Goan officers in the Peshwa’s army. The present church was constructed in 1963. Veteran Jesuit Fr JB Hass looked after St Anne’s Church for many years when it was still part of the St Xavier’s Church in Pune Camp. An independent St Anne’s Parish was established only in 1983.
In early 20th century, the then British government had given a piece of land in Mule Lines to St Anne’s Chapel. The land was used for building St Vincent’s Poor Home and a school. In 1979, the Tamil medium school turned into English medium St Anthony’s Middle School. Parish priest Fr Simon Almeida is assisted by Fr S Dhiruviyam. 

Mass timings
Weekdays: 6.30 am and 6.30 pm
Sunday: 7.30am (Tamil) 9 am and 6.30 pm (English)
Jurisdiction
Solapur Bazaar, Salisbury Park, Bhavani Peth, Nalini Apartments upto Gultekdi

मल्याळम्‌ भाषक ख्रिस्ती बांधवांना मिळाली सुखद भेट new Syro-Malankara bishop

मल्याळम्‌ भाषक ख्रिस्ती बांधवांना मिळाली सुखद भेट
- कमिल पारखे मंगळवार, 2 जून 2015 - 12:30 AM IST
Tags: malayalam language, pune

मलांकारा सिरियन कॅथोलिक चर्चच्या नव्या "सेंट एफ्रेम खडकी-पुण‘े धर्मप्रांताचे शनिवार मे 30 रोजी उद्‌घाटन होत आहे. त्यानिमित्त... 
मलांकारा सिरियन कॅथोलिक चर्चच्या नव्या "सेंट एफ्रेम खडकी-पुण‘े धर्मप्रांताचे शनिवार मे 30 रोजी उद्‌घाटन होत आहे. थॉमस अन्थोनिओस यांची या धर्मप्रांताचे पहिले बिशप म्हणून या दिवशी दीक्षा होणार आहे. सिरो-मलांकारा कॅथोलिक चर्चच्या इतिहासात ही एक महत्त्वाची घटना आहे. या नव्या धर्मप्रांताची स्थापना करण्याची घोषणा पोप फ्रान्सिस यांनी व्हॅटिकन सिटीमध्ये 26 मार्च रोजी केली होती. मल्याळम मातृभाषा असणाऱ्या मलांकारा सिरियन कॅथोलिक चर्चच्या भाविकांच्या दृष्टीने ही एक आनंदाची घटना आहे.  

कॅथोलिक पंथात वेगळ्या प्रकारचे एकूण 21 राइट्‌स (उपासना विधी) आहेत आणि त्यापैकी भारतात लॅटीन राईट, सिरो-मलांकारा आणि सिरो-मलाबार असे तीन उपासनाप्रकार आहेत. पुण्यात लॅटिन राईटचे बिशप थॉमस डाबरे आहेत, नवीन धर्मप्रांताच्या स्थापनेने आता पुण्यात कॅथोलिक पंथीयांचे दोन बिशप असणार आहेत. संत थॉमसचे भारताच्या किनारपट्टीवर सन 52 मध्ये आगमन झाले होते, तेव्हापासून केरळमध्ये ख्रिस्ती धर्माची परंपरा आहे, असे केरळमधील कॅथोलिक आणि प्रोटेस्टंटपंथीयही मानतात. जगातील पहिले कॅथोलिकपंथीय असणारे केरळमधील ख्रिस्तीजन मुख्य कॅथोलिक प्रवाहातून अलग पडले आणि या मुख्य प्रवाहात 1930मध्ये पुन्हा सामील झाले. मलांकारा सिरियन कॅथोलिक चर्चचे सभासद सर्व जगभर आहेत आणि त्यांच्या चर्चमध्ये केरळच्या परंपरेनुसार आणि मल्याळम भाषेतच उपासना केली जाते, हे विशेष. या चर्चतर्फे जगभर शाळा-कॉलेजेस, दवाखाने आणि समाजसेवी संस्था चालविल्या जातात. 

खडकी-पुणे धर्मप्रांताची स्थापना करतानाच पोप फ्रान्सिस यांनी गुडगाव-दिल्ली येथेही या चर्चच्या उत्तर भारतासाठी नव्या धर्मप्रांताची घोषणा केली आहे. मलांकारा सिरियन कॅथोलिक चर्चला यामुळे केरळ राज्याबाहेर पहिल्यांदाच आपले स्वत:चे धर्मक्षेत्र मिळाले आहे. अशाप्रकारे या चर्चला अखिल भारतीय स्वरूप प्राप्त झाले आहे. 

नवे बिशप थॉमस अंथोनिओस यांनी पुण्यातील नगररोडवरील ज्ञानदीप विद्यापीठात धर्मगुरुपदाचे प्रशिक्षण घेतले आणि त्यानंतर पुण्यातील बेथानी आश्रमात अनेक वर्षे कार्य केले आहे. त्यांच्या नियुक्तीने आणि नव्या धर्मप्रांताच्या स्थापनेने दक्षिण भारतातील कॅथोलिक मल्याळी समाजाला एक सुखद भेट मिळाली आहे.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church attracts all

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 11 May 2015 AT 01:33 PM IST

    

Know Your Church series, Camil Parkhe, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church

Pune: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church located on Tadiwala Road enjoys a unique significance. It is one of the recently constructed churches in the city and attracts people from all over the city due to various socio-religious activities conducted on its premises.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church was built by then parish priest Fr Salvator Pinto and  inaugurated by then Pune Bishop Valerian D’Souza in 1990. The church is built in modern architectural style and therefore, the passersby rarely realise that the structure is a religious place.

Adjoining the church is the Nav Sadhana Diocesan Pastoral Centre where the Pune Catholic Diocese conducts marriage preparation courses for youths, seminars and other activities. People from various parishes in the city attend these functions. The congregation has a mixed population of Marathi-speaking, Konkani-speaking and Malayalam speaking p
arishioners.

The Goan Pao

Reminiscences of the Goan Pao

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Monday, 11 May 2015 AT 05:56 PM IST

    

Goa, Bread, Pao, Camil Parkhe, blog, India,
http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=4818806334451718027&SectionId=4861338933482912746&SectionName=Blog&NewsTitle=Reminiscences%20of%20the%20Goan%20Pao

In Goa, one wakes up early morning with the chirping of the birds and with the peculiar `pooi pooi’ horn blowing by the paowalla. Presently on a holiday at my sister’s home in Anjuna-Vagator, the sound of the peculiar horn made me jump from the bed to catch a glimpse of the bread vendor who sped fast on his cycle from the gate when there was no immediate response.  I knew he would be back within a few minutes after delivering the bread quota in the immediate neighbourhood.  I was not wrong.  The young vendor pedalled his cycle, climbing up the slope with little effort as I tried to click his photo.

Every morning, much before the sunrise, the bread vendors arrives on cycle at the Goan homes  to give them their daily quota of various types of bread, the pao, or loaves of bread, poee, undo and so on.  Each of these varieties has been popular at the Goan families for many decades.  Bread is an essential constituent of the Christian Goan kitchen just as much as milk, eggs and butter.  So much so that  when I was working as a staff reporter with a Goan newspaper ,  our editor M M Mudaliar always insisted that any news related to the shortage or hike in the prices of bread (and also of milk) must appear on the front page!

Incidentally, the word ‘pao’ in Konkani and Marathi has been borrowed from Portuguese. A variety of bread was our stable food when I was a higher secondary and college student at Miramar’s Dhempe College of Arts and Science in mid-1970s.  The paowalla would be at our gate early morning and since he had no patience to wait for our arrival, he would drop our daily quota of loaves of bread in the cotton bag kept hanging at the gate. We needed to be at the gate on his arrival in case there were was some change in the daily quota of loaves.  He would be back in the evening to deliver the Undo, the crisp round variety of loaves of bread, which we preferred to eat for the supper.  I remember every morning and evening, there would a few loaves of poee (a kind of flat and soft loaf of bread) especially ordered for one of the students who had contacted diabetes at a younger age.

It was only during the lunch that bread was missing at our dining table.  For lunch, we daily ate rice mixed with various kinds of beef or fish curry and dal once a week.  During those nearly one and half decades that I spent in Goa as a student and later as a journalist, I never ate wheat or rice chapatti in any of the meals. Therefore I did not miss much or felt homesick when I went to Russia and later Sofia in Bulgaria to complete my diploma in journalism.  I even tasted a larger variety of bread when recently along with my wife and daughter I toured Europe.  Even in Paris and Rome when I smelt the typical kind of aroma of bread while passing by the eateries, I was reminded of the aroma of the freshly baked bread in the basket of the Goan paowalla.

Recently I was on a visit to Goa along with some of my Pune journalist colleagues.  For breakfast, I took them walking from our Santa Inez residence to a café near the old secretariat to eat the typical Goan pao bhaji.  At all small eateries and snack joints in Goa, pao bhaji is a must menu, the potato, the patal (beans liquid curry) or the mixed bhaji should to be enjoyed with pao , undo  or other varieties of bread.  In my college days at Miramar, pao bhaji used to be the most favourite delicacies among the students.  Pao bhaji is equivalent to wada pao in Maharashtra, comparatively cheaper to the south Indian dishes, and also equally delicious.  Normally I avoid any kinds of bakery products in my meals. But when in Goa, pao and undo, with generous use of butter, are part of my breakfast.  With daily swimming at the nearby beach, I can afford to pamper my palate during these holidays.

Comments

Roy Abraham - Friday, 5 June 2015 AT 07:28 AM IST

Sir, loved the article . we too had similar pao experience and loved it . well written .. Cheers

Pimpri’s Catholic church unifies

Pimpri’s Catholic church unifies

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Sunday, 19 April 2015 AT 12:05 PM IST

    

Our Lady Consoler, Afflicted Church, Pimpri, Pune, Catholic church, church’s parish priest, Fr Roland Bendoamar, Know Your Church’ series, Sakal Times

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=4629052079416050627&SectionId=5171561142064258099&SectionName=Pune&NewsTitle=Pimpri%E2%80%99s%20Catholic%20church%20unifies

Pimpri: Our Lady Consoler of the Afflicted Church in Pimpri caters to a variety of devotees belonging to diverse linguistic and regional groups. All the members of this Catholic church enthusiastically participate in the various religious and other activities organised throughout the year, says the Catholic church’s parish priest, Fr Roland Bendoamar.

Our Lady Consoler of the Afflicted Church, located on Pimpri Station Road, has spacious premises to host weekly masses and other religious activities. It also has a hall for holding meetings. The church was established in 1976, bifurcating from Chinchwad’s St Francis Xavier’s Church, and the present church building was built subsequently.

Since 1978, the church has been administered by the Capuchin Fathers of the Holy Trinity. Presently, parish priest Fr Bendoamar is assisted by Fr Issac D’Souza.

There is also a church sub-centre at Bhosari where mass is celebrated every Thursday.

Fr Roland Bendoamar,
Parish priest

Our parish has a vast jurisdiction area as compared to other parishes. The parishioners run various associations like Vincent de Paul, youth group to provide various services to church members.     

Minin Mascarenhas, 
IT professional and vice-president of Parish Council

Our Church has 50 pc Marathi-speaking devotees, the rest are Goans, Tamils, Malayalees and others. Besides religious activities, we have many social and cultural activities and all parishioners enthusiastically participate in them.


ST Reader Service: 

Our Lady Consoler of the Afflicted Church, Pimpri
-Location: Pimpri Station Road
-Sunday mass in English at 8 am, Marathi mass at 9.30 am. Anticipatory mass on Saturday at 6.30 pm
-Areas: Pimpri, Morwadi, Vallabhnagar, Kasarwadi, Bhosari, Moshi, Indrayaninagar, Thergaon, Kalewadi, Rahatani
-Parishioners: 900 families (Around 6,000 people)



Beginning this Sunday, Sakal Times is launching ‘Know Your Church’ series, featuring various prominent churches in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Each week, one church will be profiled, highlighting its history, jurisdiction areas, prayer timings and religious-social activities conducted by the congregation.

New Syro-Malankara Exarchate at Khadki

New Syro-Malankara Exarchate at Khadki 

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=4682687039612375931&SectionId=5171561142064258099&SectionName=Pune&NewsTitle=New%20Syro-Malankara%20Exarchate%20at%20Khadki

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Friday, 27 March 2015 AT 11:17 PM IST

  

Syro-Malankara Catholics, St Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church

Khadki: In a major decision, Pope Francis on Thursday has established a new Kirkee-Pune exarchate (vicariate) for Malayalam-speaking Syro-Malankara Catholics in south India having its cathedral at St Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church in Khadki.

Thomas Mar Anthonios Valiyavilayil will be the first bishop of the new exarchate.

With this Holy See announcement, Pune will now have two Roman Catholic bishops, the other being Latin Catholic rite Bishop Thomas Dabre.

Roman Catholic Church recognises 21 rites worldwide and three of them are in India, namely Latin rite, Syro-Malabar rite and Syro-Malankara rite.

Bishop Thomas Mar Anthonios is at present in Australia to lead the Holy Week celebrations of the Syro-Malarkara community there.

Bishop Thomas Mar Anthonios, belonging to the Order of the Imitation of Christ (OIC), was born in 1955 at Adoor. He was ordained a priest in 1980 and elected bishop of the curia in 2010. Apart from English and Malayalam, he speaks Italian, German, Hindi, Syriac and reads Greek and Latin.

The new Kirkee-Pune exarchate will be spread over six states in south India except Kerala. The states include Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and some parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The new exarchate will have  27 parishes. There are 21 priests dedicated to pastoral care, 13 convents of nuns and a dozen schools, including a college of higher education.
Fr Mathew Varikkattu, vicar of St Mary’s Malankara Church in Khadki, has expressed joy over the creation of the new  exarchate. The church has 80 families as parishioners.

On Thursday, Pope Francis also erected a new eparchy (diocese) of St John Chrysostom of Gurgaon with Jacob Mar Barnabas Aerath as the first eparchial bishop.

With this, the Vatican has granted the Syro-Malankara Church ecclesiastical authority for the whole territory in India.

Speaking to Sakal Times, Bishop Thomas Dabre welcomed establishment of the new exarchate in the city. “It is good news for the Catholics, especially the Syro-Malankara community in Maharashtra and other parts of south India,” he said.

Investiture ceremony

Thomas Mar Anthonios will be consecrated the first bishop of the new Kirkee-Pune exarchate at a ceremony to be held at the new cathedral in Khadki on Saturday, May 30. The ceremony will be attended by the Vatican  ambassador in India Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India president Cardinal Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos and Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre.

 

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शशिकांत बोर्डे - Friday, 3 April 2015 AT 06:37 PM IST

कमिलजी मराठी भाषेला थोडतरी महत्व द्या कारण आपण मराठी मातीतूनच शिकलो सावरलो बागडलो तेव्हा मराठीला विसरू नका /

 

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Mother Teresa : Conversion

Mother Teresa

Sakal Times
 CAMIL PARKHE | Thursday, 26 February 2015 AT 07:37 PM IST

    

Mother Teresa Home in Goa is located at an important junction in Panaji, connecting the 18th June Road and the road leading to St Inez. And yet, the existence of this typical Goan tiled house is hardly noticed just as the silent works of the nuns of Missionaries of Charity who reside there. St Don Bosco School located nearby is an ideal landmark to help a visitor to find the Home for the Aged and Destitute run by the Missionaries of Charity sisters. Many years back I was a frequent visitor to this institution when along with my college friends, I offered my services to the poor, disabled and senior citizens inmates there. 

On Sunday mornings, our group of three to four college youths used to arrive at the Mother Teresa Home equipped with aprons, pairs of scissors and razors, our mission being giving a new or somewhat civilised look to the male inmates who most often looked barbarian with their long dishevelled hair and unkempt beards. 

The sisters there, a majority of whom were Keralites or Bengalis, would entrust us with the inmates and get themselves busy catering to the large number of destitute women, children and elders living there. 
The next two to three hours, we would give the inmates haircut, shave their beards and also cut nails of their fingers and toes. One by one, the inmates would step into the chairs placed before us and by the time we finished our job, they would have a complete new look as they would get haircut and shaving done only once in three months. At that time, as a teenager I had not even started shaving myself on a regular basis and so as a precautionary measure I offered my services only for giving haircuts. 

During these visits, I saw how the Missionaries of Charity nuns tirelessly worked for the poor, destitute, abandoned elders and persons with chronic diseases. And yet, they always managed to retain smiles on their faces. After our visits back home, we used to cleanse ourselves thoroughly with soaps and disinfectants, lest we contact any diseases after spending time with the inmates of  home for the aged and destitute. However, like those nuns, none of us ever wanted to know about the religion or the caste of those whom we were helping. 

The last time I visited the Mother Teresa Home in Panaji was in mid-1980s when Mother Teresa arrived in Goa for the first time after she was conferred the Nobel award. At that time, I had gone there as a reporter of a local English daily. I shook hands with the Nobel laureate, spoke to her a few sentences and lingered around her for some time, hoping to get a good copy for my newspaper. But I was disappointed. The Living Saint spoke very little almost in a whispering voice, about loving everyone, especially those in need.  Next two days, I covered Mother Teresa's visits to Mapusa and other places in Goa and experienced the same. The short, old frail woman was most humble, always wore a smile on her face and often held hands of those who greeted her. 

The question now raised is whether this woman was serving the poor and the destitute with a motive to convert them to Christianity. The Mother spoke very little and let her actions and deeds speak for her. Her thoughts and actions for the destitute attracted the most powerful political leaders and personalities like Princes Diana towards her. The fresh controversy about her motive for social work has indeed revived memories of Mother Teresa and once again underlined her work for the poor and destitute.  

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed within this blog is personal opinion of the author. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the blog do not reflect the views of Sakal and Sakal does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.The author can be contacted at @camilpark on Twitter.

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Malcolm Sequeira - Friday, 27 February 2015 AT 09:48 AM IST

True and real picture of the Missionaries of the Charity. People should first experience the kind of work done by Mother Teresa and her Sisters and then talk. The shallow and wrong talks are coming out of mere prejudice and nothing more.

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Diago Almeida - Friday, 27 February 2015 AT 09:35 AM IST

Your writing should open the eyes of the people who pretend to sleep. God bless you for your yomen service to the Christian and also to the people at large

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Ani Chakra - Thursday, 26 February 2015 AT 11:07 PM IST

Respected Sir, Thanks for writing this. It is indeed a service to the great soul. Of Course, whether one writes good or bad, speaks well or ill of any great soul, ultimately he/she exposes his/her true self. In words of the Mother I would like to quote: “People are unrealistic, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.” ― Mother Teresa On Abortion: “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is 'Abortion', because it is a war against the child... A direct killing of the innocent child, 'Murder' by the mother herself... And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love... And we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts...” ― Mother Teresa Thank you Ani Chakra

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Kuruvilla SJ - Thursday, 26 February 2015 AT 09:40 PM IST

Truly great writeup. Mother was truly an inspiration for me