Annual Report

Dear Friends in Jesus Christ,

Greetings from Bishop Lawrence Pius, Bishop of Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu, South India!

In this joyful season of Christmas I wish you God’s choicest blessings to you all in the coming New Year 2019!

On this auspicious occasion, I would like to introduce my diocese and say something about our activities in the diocese to your generous heart.

Dharmapuri diocese is situated in Tamilnadu, South India. It is the most backward district among all other districts in Tamilnadu state. The diocese of Dharmapuri was bifurcated from Salem on 24^th January 1997. It comprises of two civil districts having ten Taluks with hundreds of hamlets. The Christian population of 55,043 is very meager compared to the total population. Most of the Catholics are poor agriculturists, daily labourers. People earning monthly salary are small in number. By God’s grace, today we have 72 diocesan priests and 42 religious priests working hard in 37 parishes, 5 mission stations including hundreds of substations. There are 13 orphanages and boarding homes as well as 14 dispensaries through which we render our services to the people of God.

With the support of God’s grace and benefactors like you we are able to render our service to the real needy of my diocese which are printed for your perusal in this brochure, especially, educating the children, helping the poor and downtrodden, fighting against caste system and so on. For this I have to animate my priests in various ways possible.

Therefore, I take this opportunity during this great season of Christmas,I request your esteemed self to send some mass intentions or some generous contribution as they will be of great help for the personal maintenance of priests and for their pastoral expenses.

We would be grateful to you if you can help us in this regard. As we assure you of our prayers, we commend ourselves to your valuable prayers too. Thank you for taking the time to consider my request.

With kind regards,

Yours thankfully in Christ,

X Lawrence Pius, D.D.,

Bishop of Dharmapuri