St. Anthony’s Parish Kuntalnagar Celebrates Annual Feast with devotion and gaiety

Report by Eugene Moodubelle
Pictures by Anil Alva

Kunatalnagar, 20 January 2010: The annual parish feast in honour of the patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua was celebrated with great devotion, fervour and gaiety by the parishioners of Kuntalnagar on Wednesday, 20th January 2010 at 10.30 AM. The solemn feast mass was concelebrated by thirteen priests with Rev. Fr. Wilson D’Souza, Secretary of the Catholic Board of Education as the chief celebrant who also delivered the homily.

In his homily, Rev. Fr. Wilson D’Souza appreciated the location of the church building and the small parish community. He said that the annual feast is the family feast of the parish. Like the early Christians of the church, the families in the parish should be of one mind and one heart. He further said that as flowers increase the beauty of a woman so also the families like flowers should enhance the beauty of the parish. The families should be of service to those families of the parish who are in need.

Rev. Fr. Wilson elaborating on the need to build parish and individual families said that in order to build the parish family,  we should build our own  individual families, teaching the children to love and respect their elders. Give them what is needed to them rather than pampering them with excess money on the pretext that our parents could not afford to give us these facilities which we would like to give to our children. In the same breath he said that while giving to the children those things which our parents could not afford to give us, we should not forget to pass on to these children what our parents had handed down to us such as respect for the elders, the virtue of giving to the less advantaged and the life of prayer and sacrifice. Rev. Fr. Wilson asked the parishioners to take the example of their patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua.

Prior to the feast mass, Fr. Charles Lewis, the parish priest of Kuntalnagar distributed candles to the sponsors of the annual feast.

The parish of St. Anthony of Padua at Kuntalnagar is relatively a young parish that was established in 2003. The origin of the parish can be traced to the proposal of Fr. Alexander Lobo who was the parish priest of Moodubelle of which Kuntalnagar was a part, to start prayer and liturgical services at Kuntalnagar for the benefit of the people living in Dendoor and the surrounding regions of the Kuntala Gudde. It was during the tenure of Fr. Harold Menezes as the parish priest of Moodubelle that a small chapel was built on the land donated by late Rosario D’Souza.  Francis Danti, who was given the Power of Attorney by Rosario D’Souza, worked hard to get the necessary permission and clearance of the land title from the relevant government authorities.

The mass for the people of the area around Kuntalnagar  was offered for the first time in the newly constructed chapel by Fr. Ronald D’Souza during the term of late Fr. J.J. Saldanha as the parish priest of Moodubelle. Fr. Saldanha was also instrumental in purchasing the land over which the present church is located. The construction of the new church building dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua was completed during the tenure of Fr. Charles Lewis as the parish priest of Moodubelle. Camil Sequeira supervised the construction of the entire church building and the residence of the priests. Camil Sequeira got involved in the church activities right from the inception of the parish as the Vice president of the Parish Pastoral Council successively for two terms.

The newly built church of St. Anthony of Padua at Kuntalnagar was blessed and dedicated by the Bishop of Mangalore, Most Rev. Dr. Aloysius D’Souza on 17th May 2003. With Fr. Charles Lewis as the first parish priest of Kuntalnagar from May 2003, the new parish of Kuntalnagar was constituted.

The Church of St. Anthony at Kuntalnagar is located on the western edge of the Kuntala Gudde with a panoramic view of paddy fields and coconut groves below and the town of Manipal to the right side and the famous Kunjarugiri to the left. The vast expanse of green valleys and hills at the horizon are a sight of delight during the day time. Because of its high location, St. Anthony’s Church of Kuntalnagar can be seen from far off spots.

The parish of Kuntalnagar has 114 families with a population of around 500.

As the parish is quite small, the fair that is one of the hallmarks of such annual parish feasts is also limited to few stalls selling fancy items, religious articles, toys and sweets. There were also few ice-cream vendors.  St. Anthony’s Youth Club had put up a stall for lucky games and raffle draw for a rooster which was sponsored by John Sequeira. The raffle tickets for the rooster were charged at rupees five. The proceeds of the youth stall will be utilized by St. Anthony’s Youth Club for various activities in the parish during the present year.

Following the solemn feast mass, Fr. Charles Lewis wished the parishioners a happy feast and the small parish community members were also seen greeting each other and proceeding to their homes after a cursory look and purchases at the stalls to celebrate the feast with family members, relatives and friends.

Also Read

• The Eve of the Annual Feast of St. Anthony’s Parish-Kuntalnagar

• Kuntalnagar: Christmas celebrations at St. Antony Church