Need of the Diocese

Current Needs of the Diocese:

Sacred Heart Cathedral

From a missionary and pastoral point of view, Dharmapuri offers a very good chance to our work. A good number of Catholics are now living in this area. The faithful from other outstations could find a natural centre of reference for their religious life. Every Diocese in the world has a Cathedral for its Diocese, which is the soul pride for a Diocese. This newly born Diocese does not have a Cathedral in its Diocese.

Sacred Heart Church in Dharmapuri was an ordinary Church like any other Church in the Diocese. The size of the Church is about 70 x 24 Sq ft. Its roof is made of asphalt. It is one of the oldest Churches ever built by the Diocese of Salem. The Sacred Heart Parish, Dharmapuri has around 300 Catholic families. Any one can imagine the space is not sufficient for the Parishioners itself. Usually the Church is so much packed that during the celebrations like Ordinations, Deaconates, and for other big festivals, the people are forced to stand outside the Church.

Since we don’t have a Cathedral in the Diocese, this Little Church is now considered as the Pro-Cathedral. The Parish is managing, administrating and controlling the implementation process and recourse outlays of various programs, which should have been taken care by the Cathedral.

Our main objective for building the Cathedral is to proclaim the kingdom of God to the people in this area. We hope that the result of this proclamation will be the formation of small catholic communities that can witness the joy, faith, hope and love bestowed on it through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit. These people have a strong faith in our Lord. It is a right time for us to built a Cathedral in this area.

Society is characterised by a widespread religious atmosphere, which extends to every aspect of human existence. Many people keep up their fundamental devotional practices and religious ideas, even though these may not always permeate their personal life or prompt them to a serious and decisive social commitment.
Evangelisation is not of recent origin; a growing adherence to the Church has been accompanied by situations in which the faith is still superficial. Unity between faith and life is still weak and equivocal, especially in the fields of family values and social life.

The Diocese of Dharmapuri strongly feels that the construction of a Cathedral would definitely help the Catholic Community of the Diocese to grow in their Catholic Faith and in their Spirituality.

The people of Dharmapuri and the Catholics of the Diocese have a lot of expections for this new coming Cathedral. With the poor resources that we have we had only purchased the land of 13 acers which costs Euro 2,88,465.00 and due to lack of funds the building work has not yet started. This money was donated by the laity of the Diocese for building the Diocese Cathedral. This piece of land is not only meant for building the Cathedral but also for the Bishop’s House, Diocese Financial Administrative office and for the office of various commissions and activities. This land will be used for various Episcopal Activities of the Diocese.
Everyday the people come and see the development in the new construction work of the Cathedral and it seemed to be the same for them. It seems to be a real sign of disappointment. Slowly the hopes are fading away.

We are also trying our best to start the construction of the Cathedral but it seems to be very difficult with the poor resources that we have. So we are once again seeking your help for the same, hoping you will be able to make a contribution towards the construction of the Cathedral

2. Bishop's House: The present Bishop's House has just 8 rooms of which one is used as a Chapel, in one the Bishop stays, in another one the Procurator stays and another one is used for accounts purpose. So only 4 rooms are left over for other Priests or visitors. On many occasions, it becomes very difficult for accommodating Priests who come from far places to meet the Bishop.

As the priesthood vocations are increasing day by day, a good number of Priests are being ordained every year. Since the place is so small, it is very difficult to conduct meetings, retreats and other important activities. All these days the Retreats were conducted in other places other than the Bishop's House. During Retreats, at the end of the day, the Priests have to stay in classrooms for sleeping. Every time, the Bishop had to visit every locality for having discussions, or meetings. A meeting for all priests at the Bishop's House is simply unimaginable.

Many times when the Volunteers come for helping us in various projects, they are requested to stay in schools. If the programs are during the holidays, then the diocese would not mind requesting them but the holidays in Europe and in India doesn’t coincide. Even if some one wants to help us in developing our Diocese, we are unable to provide them the basic shelter.

Keeping all the above necessities in mind the Diocese of Dharmapuri strongly feel to have the following basic infrastructures for the smooth running of the Diocese:

• A small Chapel
• 50 rooms for the priests and religious (which includes the room for the Bishop).
• Dinning hall and a Kitchen (which includes the store room ) and a
• Meeting hall

These basic requirements are really felt as the timely need of the hour for the Diocese.

• Administrative Office:

As mentioned earlier, the Administration is carried out from a single room. It is very difficult to monitor and execute various programs of the Diocese. We strongly feel that an Administrative building is needed for the Diocese to its various activities.

The Administrative office will include the following infrastructure:

Bishop's Office

• Office room of the Bishop
• Living room of the Bishop
• Meeting room of the Bishop for meeting the People
• Room for Archives

Library and Reading Room:

• Room for Library
• Room for Reading

Servant Quarters:

• Room for the Cook
• Room for the servant

Rooms for the retired Priests:

• Two rooms for the Retired Priests

The above-mentioned rooms together form the Administrative office of the Bishop.

1. Pastoral Centre:

There are 20 Commissions which takes care of the Pastoral Work of the Diocese.
The various Commissions are as follows:

• Bible Commission
• Evangelisation Commission
• Social Communication Commission
• Laity Commission
• Family Commission
• Schedule Caste/Tribe and Backward class Commission
• Social Service Commission
• Action Commission
• Dialogue Commission
• Ecumenism Commission
• Pious Association Commission
• Catechetics Education Commission
• Charismatic Movements Commission
• Labour Commission
• Social Justice Commission
• Youth Commission
• Liturgy Commission
• Alter Servers Commission
• Basic Christian Communities Commission
• Vocation Commission

The Pastoral Centre will have office for all the Directors of the above commissions.
The Office of every Commission will contain the following rooms:

• Office of the Director
• Room for Communication and Publication
• Activity Room and
• Archive Room