New Syro-Malankara Exarchate at Khadki
Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Friday, 27 March 2015
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
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. 
The recent unprecedented victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi state polls reminded me of the landslide victory of the then unborn Janata Party in the 1977 general elections. At that time, for the first time, the country's sitting prime minister Indira Gandhi was defeated and the Congress was routed in nine northern cow-belt states. I, then still a higher secondary school student and so non-voter, was an active participant of this political bloodless revolution (as naively we had then called it). I was one of the polling agents representing the Peasants and Workers Party, one of the constituents of the Janata Party, in the counting of votes held at Satara. Congress candidates in Satara and Karad Lok Sabha constituencies were Union Minister Yashwantrao Chavan and Pramila Chavan, mother of former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, respectively. As the counting of votes continued, at around 2 pm, we learnt that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated by Raj Narain in Rae Bareily constituency and our celebrations knew no bounds. 
GHORPADI: St Joseph’s Church in Ghorpadi is a unique parish in Pune diocese. It is the only church in the city having a sizeable number of Telugu-speaking parishioners.
Yerawada: Jesuits from De Nobili College, Nagar Road, started Fatima Tamil Primary School in Yerawada in 1952 and this marks the beginning of the Sacred Heart Parish. In 1974, the Jesuits handed over the school and the parish to the Society of Don Bosco or the Salesians.
The Salesians later renamed the school as Don Bosco High School. The present Sacred Heart Church was blessed in 1984.
Our parishioners are very active on various fronts including spiritual, social work and environment awareness. The church services are well attended by people. The parish regularly publishes its quarterly bulletin.
Sacred Heart Church is one of the most vibrant parishes in the city. Due to its large area and population, the parish is divided into 40 zones, each zone having around 30/40 families. We lay leaders organise a variety of programmes for the parishioners and others.
Our parish has eight choir groups, four English and four Marathi. Various choir groups are assigned for singing at various feasts, including Christmas, throughout the year. We conduct singing sessions and prayers at the church as well as in the residences of people.
Khadki: Thomas Mar Anthonios Valiyavilayil, the designate first bishop of the new Kirkee-Pune exarchate (vicariate), arrived here on Thursday for the first time after he was appointed to the post by the Vatican last month.
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. 