Welcome to Etawah

 

Our Inspirations

Cardinal Mar Antony Padiyara

Archbishop Dominic Athaide

 

Etawah Mission: Glimpses to the past

Missionary collaboration among the Latin and Oriental churches was a result of the second Vatican Council. The 1974 Calcutta Meeting of CBCI done in the light of the Council expounded “Priests, Brothers, Sisters and others from dioceses that are rich in vocation specially in South should be invited to work in dioceses where there is a dearth of personnel. Bishops in the North with extensive territories, especially in responsive areas, should invite Bishops, Major Superiors and Religious Institutes of Priests particularly from the South to take up territories on the pattern adopted in the formation of Exarchate”. It was in response to this call of CBCI that the then Archbishop of Agra Most Rev. Dr. Dominic Athaide, OFM. Cap., a great missionary, contacted another great missionary Archbishop of South – Mar Antony Padiyara, our Archbishop – to take up certain areas of the Agra Archdiocese and engage in mission work. In accordance with their desire on 1^st May 1975, the pioneer missionaries reached Agra and on 1^st June 1975, a contract had been drawn up between the two Archdioceses.

 

Our Pioneers

Rev. Fr. Kuruvilla Kokkatt		Rev. Fr. Jose Poovathinkal

 

Having reached an understanding and signed a contract with the Archdiocese of Agra, the copy of which had been forwarded to the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and to the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches, our Archdiocese found two of her great sons to take up the new challenges the Archdiocese has been addressed to. V.Rev. Fr. Kuruvilla Kokkatt was then the assistant at Changanacherry Cathedral and V. Rev. Fr. Jose Poovathinkal secretary to the Archbishop. They both reached Etawah on 6^th May after having met the Archbishop of Agra on 1^st May, 1975. Later they were joined by 4 CMC sisters from Changanassery on 30^th June. V. Rev. Fr. Kokkatt and V. Rev. Fr. PoovathInkal went back to the Archdiocese after serving the Mission in her difficult 30 years.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

Area: 14012 Sq. kilometers Population : 94 lakhs

Districts: Though three in the beginning now they are six: Etawah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Firozabad, Auraiya and Kannauj.

Language : Hindi and its dialects

Religions found: Hinduism, Islam Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism and Christianity.

Situated between the twin holy rivers of Yamuna and Ganga our mission territory is the Holy land of Hinduism. Close to the Chambel belt – notorious for its dacoits – the area from very long time is known for crimes. This criminal background has surely affected the psychological attitude of the people. If we, through our activities, can bring a certain amount of social change that itself will be a great missionary activity. In spite of its criminal background the area is known for its religious tolerance where different religions live without hurting the other.

Area of Activities:

When we reached Etawah Mission, Etawah already had been a centre of catholic missionary activities in the form of a school run by Franciscan Sisters of St. Mary of Angels under the guidance of Agra Vicar General V. Rev. Fr. Lawrence OFM, Cap. who helped in starting the station. The pioneers in all enthusiasm opened new stations in the nearby districts and at present we have 15 centres with Etawah as the Head Quarters. The following are the Stations of Etawah Mission:

1. Church of Portuincula, Etawah/ Christ the King Church : Started in 1967 by V. Rev. Fr. Lawrence OFM, Cap. and the Fransiscan Sisters of St. Mary of Angels the Mission was handed over to us in May 1975. We are mainly involved in the Educational activity through St. Mary’s Inter College, Etawah. In addition to the School we have a parish having around 175 catholics. The CMC sisters of Bhopal province are very actively involved in the work of the Mission since its beginning.

2. St. Thomas Mission, Mainpuri: This is our second mission station started in 1976. In February 1976 Rev. Fr. Jose Poovathinkal reached Mainpuri. Later in June 1976 he was joined by 4 sisters of the Adoration congregation from Changanassery and began the work of the Mission in a rented building. In July same year St. Thomas School was inaugurated. In addition to educational activities Fr. Jose and sisters gave equal importance to social activities like medical camps, non formal education. In October 1976 Mar Antony Padiyara visited Mainpuri for the first time and during his visit the sacrament of baptism was administered to 3 locals. In December 1991 we shifted the school and residence to the present location. At present we have a catholic population of 70 people.

3. St. Anthony’s Mission, Fatehgarh : This third mission station of ours was started by Rev. Fr. Kuruvilla Kokatt and 4 Fransiscan Clarist Sisters of Changanassery province on 29 June 1977. Here also we began our work in a rented building – the godown of a cold storage at Farrukhabad. In 1981 June the School and residence was shifted to the present location at Fatehgarh Cantt. In 1996 the Fransiscan Clarist Sisters left the mission after a glorious service of 20 years and the Sisters of the Missionaries of Little Flower came to help in the running of the Mission. Here also our main apostolate is education. We also have a catholic community of around 105 people.

4. St. Paul’s Mission, Chibbramau: Started on 3^rd July 1983 by Rev. Fr. Kuruvilla Kokkatt and sisters of Little servants of Divine Providence this mission is popularly known as Sevashram Mission. It is situated in the heart of a village Lalakpur near Chibbaramau town and is mainly involved in non-formal education and social work. As a silver Jubilee gift we have also opened an English medium school. Initially together with village work the Sisters of Divine Providence used to run a home for the physically handicapped children, which was stopped when the Little Sisters left the Mission in 1989. The Sacred Heart Sisters of Changanasserry province help in the running of the Mission through their valuable service. Through our educational, social and medical activities we try to give a new dimension to the lives of poor villagers of this area.

5. St. Peter’s Mission, Jaswanthnagar: On 14 Feb. 1990 Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Mattam MST started this Mission. He was continuing the work initially started by Fr. Isaac Kochupura in the christian village of Tameri near Jaswant Nagar. On 3 Feb. 1991 Archbishop of Agra Rt. Rev. Dr. Cecil de Sa blessed the new building at Jaswant Nagar. From 1993 for a few years the Minor Seminary of Etawah Mission was also functioning at Jaswant Nagar. From July 1999 we opened a school, St. Peters School, at Jaswant Nagar which is a plus two school now. We have a catholic community of nearly 60 people there.

6. St. Joseph’s Mission, NTPC, Dibiyapur: On 15 July 1989 when Agra Archbishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Cecil de Sa inaugurated the St. Joseph’s School in the NTPC complex Dibiyapur the tireless efforts of Fr. Isaac Kochupura was coming to fruition. It was the desire of many NTPC employees to have a missionary institution in their complex and this long cherished desire came true with the blessing and inauguration of the School. At present St. Joseph’s is a Senior Secondary School catering not only to the children of NTPC employees but also those from the town. The CMC sisters of Bhopal province help us here too in the running of the Mission. In addition to our educational ministry we have a catholic community of around 100 people here. It is a full fledged parish community bearing witness to the Gospel through their various activities.

7. Sanjos Mission, Canal Road, Dibiyapur: Started on 19^th July 1993 we are mainly concentrating in the field of education. The children from nearby town profit from the existence of the School. In the initial days of the institution the CMC sisters helped us in the running of the same. At present the Adoration sisters of Jagdalpur province share our work in this Mission. We have a catholic population of 40 people here. Though initially we were in the GAIL campus we have shifter the school to our own land.

8. Asha Niketan, Alampur Hauz: Started on 1^st July 2001 by Rev. Fr. Kuruvilla Kokkatt this house for the differently abled children tries to give a soothing touch to many children who are not always cared by the society. A school for the mentally challenged children was opened on 28^th August 2001.The Holy Family sisters of Mary Matha Province, Jal gaon help us in running this institution. In addition to this we are also actively involved in social and medical activities here. It is also the centre of our social work activities – Etawah Samaj Kalyan Samiti.

9. St. Dominic’s Mission, Shikhohabad: Initially started by Rev. Fr. Thomas Varikil MST in 1990 in a rented building we are running an English medium School in the nearby village of Booda on the Agra Road. St. Dominic’s Academy is a senior secondary school now. The Adoration sisters of Jagdalpur province help us in running the station. We have a catholic population of 45 in the parish.

10. St. Mathew’s Mission, Kannauj: Here too we are mainly involved in educational apostolate. We also plan to spread our social upliftment porgrammes to the nearby villages. Christ Jyoti Academy is a senior secondary school, affiliated to ICSE . We also have around 40 catholics in the parish.

11. St. John’s Mission, Kaimganj. This mission is a substation of Fatehgarh St. Anthony’s Mission. We have around 15 catholics living there for whom we celebrate the Eucharist at least twice in a month since 1998.The work here was started by Rev. Fr. Mathew Thanniath.

12. St. Francis Mission, Auraiya. At Auraiya we aim to involve in both educational and social activities. We opened a school on 3^rd July 2006. This mission is the result of the hard work of Rev. Fr. Raju Francis Koippally. The Sacred Heart Sisters of Changanacherry province help in the running of the mission. We have around 70 catholics in the parish.

13. St. Alphonsa’s Mission, Saifai: Saifai is the native village of Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former Chief Minister of U.P. There is a big medical University in Saifai and many Catholics work there. We have around 70 Catholics in Saifai and the Mission takes care of their spiritual needs.

14. St. Xavier’s Mission, Chakarnagar: Chakarnagar is a Tehsil of Etawah situated at the border with Madhya Pradesh. The area was famous for its dacoits once up on a time. It was a very undeveloped area of the district. The Mission decided to begin its educational and social outreach program in the area. St. Xavier’s school is affiliated to CBSE and has classes upto Secondary level now. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint Marc (SJSM) help us in managing the station. We are also actively involved in the social out reach programs like tailoring classes and non formal education for village children. We have a small catholic community of 30 people there.

15. St. Mother Teresa’s Mission, Bidhuna: The Bidhuna mission station was established in 2021. We are involved in educational apostolate with a primary school. The SJSM sisters help us here also. We also have a small community of 20 people.

16. Kanpur Mission : Mission is also involved in providing pastoral care to the migrant community of Syro Malabar catholics in the city of Kanpur. We offer monthly Holy Mass for them.

The Catholic population:

When we took up the mission activities in the region we had very few catholics . At present the Mission has around 1000 Catholics.

Important Areas of Activities:

Educational Apostolate: Education being the best means of reaching out to the people and bringing positive changes in the society was given priority in our missionary activity. More over these backward regions lacked good educational institutions. We run 8 higher secondary schools, two secondary schools, two primary schools and a Hindi medium school for the poor village children. Together with the English medium education we give equal importance for non-formal education thus helping the drop outs.

Charitable Activities: Together with the educational apostolate the Mission has given equal importance for other charitable activities by which the love of the Lord could be shared with the downtrodden and under privileged. At Chibbaramau we run the Sevashram dispensary giving medical help to many poor villagers. We also run tailoring centers to help poor women to earn a livelihood. Mission is also involved in development programs at Chakarnagar, Nagla gadaria in addition to Lalakpur, Chibramau. Taking into account the education of differently abled children the Mission runs a school for them – Asha Niketan which is taken care of by the Holy Family sisters.

Etawah Samaj Kalyam Samiti

This is the Social work wing of the Mission. Under the guidance of Fr. Roshan Ovelil it is involved in non formal education, tailoring class for women, self help groups, medical camps, Anganwadis, care of street children and many other activities. Through these activities we try to bring to the main line many more lives.

Jeevan Jyothi Minor Seminary: As years advanced in mission activities it was strongly felt that the personnel for the Mission is to be formed in the locality itself. It was also a suggestion from the then Archbishop of Agra Rt. Rev. Dr. Cecil de Sa. With this in view the Jeevan Jyothi Minor Seminary was started at Jaswant Nagar on 3 July 1993. Late Rev. Fr. Joseph Mathoor was its first Rector and we had 5 inmates many of them are missionaries in the Mission today. Our Philosophy and Theology students have their studies mainly in Ujjain, Poona, Varanasi, Jalandhar and Satna seminaries. Rev. Fr. Martin Ninaparampil takes care of it now.

Religious Congregations of women in the Mission: The women religious, through their dedicated service and prayer is an integral part of the Mission. It indeed is commendable that they actively share the sufferings and joys of this Mission and contribute a lot for its success. At present Etawah Mission is blessed with the services of the following Congregations: The Congregation of Mother of Carmel (CMC), Bhopal Province; Sisters Adoring the Blessed Sacrament (SABS), Jagdalpur Province; Sacred Heart (SH), Changanasserry Province; Missionaries of Little Flower (MLF), Changansserry Province; Congregation of Holy Family (CHF), Jalgaon Province, Nazereth Sisters of Thalassery Province, The SJSM sisters of Angamaly province.

The Mission and the Proclamation of the Word:

“Go and preach the good news to the world” is the command of the risen Lord to his disciples and this remains the raison d’etre of any missionary activity. We in Etawah Mission try to be faithful to that command of the Lord. Very often a question is asked to us in all meetings : How many conversions have you achieved after 47 years of Missionary activity. The answer is nil in the sense of conversion as change of religion. The people of the region being deeply religious minded in their traditions, change of religion may not be that necessary and that is in the plan of God. But should we not aim at the creation of a new hearts and a new world for the Lord. We aim that through our contact with them, through our interactions they should be able to get something of the teaching of Christ which they should be able to make their own. Then the society could be transformed by the teaching of Christ and I feel that too is a great success of the Mission. Same time we continue to pray that more people become part of the folk of the Lord that we may have “one sheep and one Shepherd”.

Etawah Mission and Ecumenism

In the domain of mainline churches Ecumenism has become very important aspect after the Second Vatican Council. We in Etawah Mission from the very beginning tried to maintain a very cordial relationship with our brethren of the Church of North India who are present in the region even many years before our arrival. In two of our stations, Etawah and Fatehgarh, we both share the same Churches for worship; we also have taken on lease the CNI property at Etawah and Fatehgarh for running Schools. We have joint celebrations of important feasts and CNI children are given education at a very concessional rate in our institutions and some of them are also employed in our institution. Thus our Mission remains an example of Christian unity in the midst of division.

Our Intercessors

 

Fr. Issac Kochupura

Fr. Joseph Mathoor

 

Two of our great missionaries departed us at the prime age : Rev. Fr. Isaac Kochupura gave away his life in saving the lives of many children while a portion of our school building collapsed in Etawah in 1994. Rev. Fr. Joseph Mathoor lost his life in an accident in 1997. They both intercede for the Mission before the Lord. Examples of their lives remain a great inspiration for the younger generation.

Etawah Mission: A new experiment proved successful

In our knowledge it is for the first time in the history of the Church a territory in another Diocese is handed over to a Diocese for evangelical activity with a view to create it into a separate ecclesiastical entity. Though our growth is slow due to many reasons, like lack of personnel and funds, we are able to achieve a lot in our activity. Above all we are able to prove to the doubting Thomas’s about the possibility and feasibility of such a missionary collaboration. It encourages the Church to come out of the built patterns and make new experiments in the field of evangelization. We hope that more Dioceses will have the courage to follow our example and help each other in a spirit of Christian fellowship to proclaim the Word.