St Anthony’s Church, Model Colony, Shivajinagar, Pune

St Anthony’s Church caters to many communities

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Sunday, 10 May 2015 AT 07:31 PM IST

  

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St Anthony’s Church, Pune Bishop William Gomes, Vidya Bhavan

Shivajinagar: In late 1960s, then Pune Bishop William Gomes built a residential hostel (Vidya Bhavan) and a prayer hall in Model Colony in Shivajinagar for seminarians and priests studying in Pune University. The prayer hall later became the existing St Anthony’s Church. A school established on the same premises adopted the name, Vidya Bhavan.
St Anthony’s parish has a vast area under its jurisdiction, from Warje to Jangli Maharaj Road and from Aundh to Juna Bazaar. Therefore, the parish has two mass centres to cater to the devotees, at Loyola School and at St Crispin’s Church at Nal Stop on Karve Road. 
St Anthony’s Church has a mixed congregation of Marathis, Goans, Mangaloreans, Tamils and Malayalees as its members. There are over 600 families and nearly 2,000 parishioners. The parishioners are associated with various religious groups and associations and carry out religious and charitable activities.

St Anthony’s Church, Model Colony
Saturday (anticipated ) mass: 6.30 pm
Sunday: 7.30 am (English), 8.30 am (Marathi), 6.30 pm (English)
Loyola School Chapel : Sunday, 8 am (English)
St Crispin Home, Nal Stop:  Sunday, 6.30 pm (English)
Jurisdiction area: Shivajinagar, Baner, Aundh, Pashan, Juna Bazaar, Maldhakka, Kothrud, Karve Road, Warje and Pashan

‘Canonisation of St Joseph Vaz a memorable event’

‘Canonisation of St Vaz a memorable event’

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Sunday, 18 January 2015 AT 11:36 PM IST

    

St Joseph Vaz, Canonisation of St Vaz

Pune: For Fr Denis Joseph, who was among the group of 15 Puneites who recently flew to Colombo, witnessing the canonisation of St Joseph Vaz and watching Pope Francis from up close was an exciting and memorable experience.

“At the canonisations ceremony, I was hardly two feet away from the Holy Father. He is so humble and has an infectious smile,” says Fr Joseph, Principal of St Joseph School in Ghorpadi. The canonisation ceremony of Goa-born missionary Joseph Vaz was held on January 14.

Fr Joseph said that over a million people from Sri Lanka, India and other parts of the world had assembled to witness the ceremony, presided over by the pope.

“The flags of Vatican City and Sri Lanka greeted the visitors on a nearly 100-km stretch of road leading to Colombo. It was such a wonderful experience,” he says.

“St Joseph Vaz, the only Goan to be declared a saint, has done tremendous work in Sri Lanka. During our short visit there, we could see the fruits of his hard work in the island nation,” Fr Joseph told Sakal Times.  “That is why St Joseph Vaz, the pride of Goa, was also described at the ceremony as a gem of Sri Lanka,” the  priest added.

Born as a journalist

Born as a journalist

I had been visiting the newspaper office in Panaji in Goa for nearly two months, pestering the news editor there for a part-time or a fulltime time. I had just appeared for the BA final examination of the Bombay University and wanted some job to continue post-graduation studies. I was aspiring for a college teacher's post after securing the MA degree in philosophy.

The news editor had no hesitation in giving a job, the only issue was that I was inclined to accept a proof-reader's post which would have permitted me to attend my PG classes while the news editor M M Mudaliar wanted me to take up a reporter's post. I was too naïve to know the functioning of various posts in a newspaper.

Mudaliar was a thorough gentleman who gave a patient hearing to his numerous visitors. This was in stark contrast to the newspaper editor who was young, impatient to hear others and ever restless but very dynamic with his ideas. But the young editor had high regard for the middle-aged news editor and would not normally veto his decisions. I had gained these insights during my numerous visits to the newspaper located in an old one-storeyed building with a wooden stairs and floor and a typically Goan tiled roof.

During one of such visits, the young editor once sent me to a school in Ribandar where the headmistress had beat up a student with a wooden scale. The news editor also asked to write an article on the furniture sale that was going on on the banks of the nearby Mandovi river. Incidentally, both the stories got published in the same issue of the newspaper, one with a byline and the other with a tag of 'By a Staff Reporter'.

The next morning, I was in the news editor's cabin, beaming with joy of publication of my byline in the newspaper. “Sir, what about my job...?” I asked him again.

“But you have already been hired...” he said as he lit his pipe.

“Since when?” I asked, astonished.

“From yesterday, August 18..Those two news stories were your first assignment,” he replied as a matter of fact.

August 18 was my birthday. His reply meant that was also the day I was born as a journalist. I recalled this today as this incident had taken place exactly 32 years ago.