Siddhpur Mission 2012 by Xavier James

Brief History of Siddhpur Mission Parish:  by Xavier James

In the thirties and forties of last century the few isolated Catholic families mainly Railway employees of Siddhpur and nurses who served in the hospitals were ministered to from far away Rajkot, Gujarat.  From 1951 North Gujarat was put under the care of the Cathedral Parish of Ahmedabad city.  From 1966 the present parish was part of the kalol Mission started by Fr.M.Diaz Garriz sj who was in charge of Siddhpur from 1964 and pastoral needs were fulfilled by late Fr. Stephen D’souza sj. Regular Eucharist used to be held in the residence of Martin Fernandes and John Baptist Braganza who were the famous mechanics of North Gujarat. There was a Christian cemetery in Siddhpur which was eventually taken by the Muslims. Many good Christian doctors and nurses had served in Siddhpur town in the past. The parishioners were going to either Mehsana or Deesa for Sunday Mass in 1975. In 1998 Palanpur was made a new parish and the faithful used to go for the Sunday Masses to Palanpur which is thirty five kilometers away. On 11^th November 2002 Ahmedabad was bifurcated and Gandhinagar was formed a new Archdiocese being the capital of Gujarat. After a decade the Metropolitan Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandes dreamt of a new parish in Siddhpur. Thus it became a separate mission parish in June 2012, when Fr. Xavier James was appointed as the first parish priest. The parish covers the civil Taluka (Tehsil or Block) of Siddhpur at present in Patan District. The present plot for the Church was bought in the year 2009 at Umru village. This mission parish continues the work of evangelization among the catholic community of migrants from Kerala, Goa, Karnataka and other parts of Gujarat in the given area. The grand children of Martin Fernandes are of great help in their own way. Mr. Joy Thomas and Mr. Shaji are the oldest catholic migrants in this area beside John Baptist Braganza. The Catholic Church reaches out its evangelical mission to the other people of this Taluka. We intend to begin a high school for this area to provide quality and Christian education which will make known Christ in these areas. We also need a place of worship since we have the services in a rented house. We are determined to start Legal Aid and Human Rights centre in this area. The little daughters of St. Francis Xavier sisters also help in the progress of the mission.  This mission is the adventure of the Archdiocesan clergy. By God’s grace we really work for the development of the faith of these communities of this area. At present we help children and elders in their pastoral needs.

Aim of this Mission

This mission is for the propagation of faith among backward communities of North Gujarat, who are educationally and economically backward.  The level of education among the communities is very low, and practically nothing among the girl-child. There is hardly any interest for education and it is here that we feel that giving them quality education would help the communities to be educationally, socially and economically vibrant.  The main aim of the mission is to cultivate a taste for education to backward and marginalized communities of North Gujarat who are educationally backward. We try to implement our vision of the Archdiocese in this mission parish i.e “We are called to experience Jesus Christ and to strive for a liberated society where His values of love, equality, justice, forgiveness are lived and nurtured”.  We also keep in mind our mission that is ‘to strive towards a liberated society by proclaiming God’s love in Christ through witness and loving service to all especially the poor and the marginalized’. The communities here of different caste groups and are among the poor and the marginalized of North Gujarat. Hence we opt to work for these communities generously and willingly. We are ready to take up this challenge in catering to these communities through God’s grace. We are going to work and promote Legal Aid and Human Rights in these areas and Fr. Stanny Jebamalai has agreed to help us with the approval of the local ordinary. May God guide every step we take.