By Fr. Adolf Washington –
Bengaluru: Parishioners of St Anthon’s Church, Munnekolala (near Maratahalli) in Bengaluru along with its first parish priest Fr. Antony Mahendran greeted Archbishop Most Rev Dr. Peter Machado before the start of the festal mass of St. Anthony’s feast on Sunday. The church was blessed open on 2nd October 2016. Fr. Mahendran was former Secretary to the Archbishop.
Addressing a packed church of the faithful, the Prelate stressed on the importance of unity among people of all communities and language groups. He spoke in relation to the unity of the Holy Trinity. The Archbishop spoke eloquently on the perfect unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and pointed out that every parish that expresses that unity reflects a truly worshipping community. He was celebrating the mass of the feast of the Holy Trinity. The mass concluded at 6.45 pm and was followed by a sacred car procession in honour of St. Anthony.
St. Anthony’s Church, which has been inaugurated on 2nd October 2016, is one of the biggest churches built by the Archdiocese of Bangalore in the recent times, both in terms of space and capacity.
This church was the subsidiary of St. Anne’s Church, H.A.L. Colony. Due to the expanding catholic population in and around the Munnekolala and surrounding areas, mainly due to the employment opportunities created by the IT and BT sectors, and the influx of migrant catholic populations, the new church was built in the area. The property of this church was bought by Fr. K.C. Abraham in 1958-59.
Originally, the land was of 4 acres. In 1960-61, the Southern railways came up with the rail track and so it lost some land. Until 1989, this place was just a vacant land when one of the layman, late Mr. A.A. Nathan got a vision of St. Anthony and was inspired to build a church in his name. The then Parish Priest, late Fr. Albert Saleema agreed to build a small chapel dedicated to St. Anthony in 1994.
Once again in the late nineties, the widening of southern railway lane took up more of this land. Fr Zacharia Mattam, who was in charge of the church took a lot of interest to restore the remaining land and built a wall to protect the rest of the land to his best. The succeeding parish priest maintained the status quo and meanwhile lots of devotees and people started flocking to St. Anthony’s chapel.
As the crowd increased steadily, the demand for service in the church also increased from mere Tuesday and Saturday to Sunday services also. With the initiative of a few members, the mass on Sunday became a regular event. Unable to manage the increasing crowd and the need to cater to the growing Catholic population in the area, the proposal to build a new church was in the air. It was then, that the then Archbishop of Bangalore, Most Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras took keen interest to build a new church and school to cater to the spiritual and social growth of the people.
Consequently, a church building committee was formed to look into the monitoring, fund raising and assisting the Archdiocese in building of the church. The beautiful and magnificent church building that we see today was not built in a day. In spite of all the hurdles and struggles, the Church is today a reality.