‘Mother of Victory Parish’ at Yelahanka:
The Catalyst Role of the MST in its Beginning and Growth
The Regional Director and the Councillors of St Thomas Mission in Mandya, in consultation with the General Council of the Missionary Society of St Thomas the Apostle (MST), requested His Excellency Mar Antony Kariyil, the then Bishop of the diocese of Mandya, for permission to begin a new parish in Bangalore in 2016. Bishop Antony Kariyil, after consultations with his pastoral team, assigned a new place to the MST at Yelahanka New Town. Rev. Fr Sunny Perumpuzha MST was appointed to organize the Syro-Malabar Catholics in the area and to establish a new parish. Very Rev. Fr Mathew Koikara, the Vicar General and Rev. Fr Roy Vattakunnel, the Forane Vicar of Sulthanpalaya, along with some parishioners, outlined the boundaries and the area of the proposed parish. The new Mass Centre had a humble start when Very Rev. Fr Mathew Koikara, in the presence of the MST Regional Director and councillors, Rev. Fr Sunny Perumpuzha and a few parishioners, celebrated the Holy Eucharist in a rented house at Kattigenahalli on 12 September 2016.
Fr Sunny Perumpuzha contacted around 20 families in a short time and on 11th December 2016, Bishop Mar Antony Kariyil, in the presence of the MST Regional Director, councillors and priests, officially inaugurated the new ‘Mother of Victory Mass Centre’ and entrusted it to the MST for pastoral work. Rev. Fr Sunny visited families, started active liturgical celebrations, conducted parish feasts and gatherings, set up catechism classes for children and thus, organized the Syro-Malabar faithful in the area, staying in a rented house.
About 50 families started attending the Holy Mass on Sundays and around 20 to 30 people on weekdays. For about two years, the Sunday Eucharist was celebrated at Yeshaswini Vidyaniketan, a private school owned by a Hindu family that voluntarily gave its school and premises for the liturgical services. However, when its management expressed its inability to continue to give the school building and premises for the liturgical celebrations and services of the Mass Centre, the search for a new place began.
As the MST bought two acres of land within the parish boundary, the parishioners under the leadership of Fr Sunny requested the MST Regional Team for permission to make a shed there for their liturgical celebrations and catechism classes. After getting permission from the MST, they constructed a shed on the eastern corner of the land and started liturgical celebrations and catechism classes there. They extended the size of the original shed twice as the number of Catholic faithful attending the Sunday Mass increased.
Today, when ‘Mother of Victory Mass Centre’ at Yelahanka is raised to the status of an independent parish, --- families are registered in this parish with .... family members. On Sundays around .... faithful attend the Holy Eucharist and 70 children attend their catechism classes. Thus, the Mother of Victory Mass Centre at Yelahanka, Bangalore, has had a simple yet, providential beginning and then, rapid and sustained growth with an ample number of Syro-Malabar Catholic faithful and families who are vigorous in their faith and active in their parish life, liturgical participation and catechetical formation. The Missionary Society of St Thomas the Apostle (MST) has been generous in providing efficient personnel and vital financial assistance for the extensive and rapid growth of the parish and its sound formation and growth.
