--- On Sun, 24/1/10, A. Veronica Fernandes <averonicaf...@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: A. Veronica Fernandes <averonicaf...@hotmail.com> Subject: Kuwait Church and New Parish Priest Fr. Gaspar Fernandes. Date: Sunday, 24 January, 2010, 10:27 PM G O A --No plans in this revolution are written for retreat-- January 23, 2010 KUWAIT CHURCH AND NEW PARISH PRIEST, FR. GASPAR FERNANDES. The Kuwait City Roman Catholic Church is christened as Holy Family Cathedral which can accommodate around 1000 faithfuls at a time. It was built in 1960 and in the same year it was inaugurated by the late Cardinal Valerian Gracias from Bombay. Cardinal Gracias was a Goan from the village of Navelim, Salcette, brought up and studied at Karachi. From Bombay he especially came to inaugurate this Holy Family Cathedral. Next to the Cathedral in the Church compound there is a magnificent 4 storey building constructed 10 years back. Actually the Church activities first time in Kuwait started in mid fifties at KOC Center, Ahmadi with the arrival of Bishop Ubaldo Stella who was especially recruited by KOC to look after the spiritual needs of the faithfuls from different nationalities employed at KOC. When Bishop Stella came to Kuwait he was not a Bishop but consecrated as Bishop later on in 1960 at Rome by the Pope Pius XII. The first Church of Kuwait was built at Ahmadi by KOC and as per the contractual decree, it is still maintained by the KOC. Though it is the first Church of Kuwait yet it is much smaller in size than the Holy Family Cathedral.. It caters to the spiritual needs of the people residing in Ahmadi, Fahaeel, Mangaf and other surrounding areas. Earlier in seventies, Sunday Masses were also conducted at Fahaheel in a especially rented House mainly for the spiritual needs of the huge number of domestics working at Fahaheel. Before the construction of the Holy Family Cathedral, there was a small Chapel for Catholics at a place where now we see the Evangelical Church. This place was also utilized by the other Christian denominations to perform their rites. Later on Bishop Stella at the site of present Cathedral constructed a residential house for the clergy to conduct Holy Masses on Sundays and other week days. Regretfully, soon after the completion of the construction of the Holy Family Cathedral, in 1961 on one fine Sunday evening after the 7.00 PM Mass, the roof of the Cathedral collapsed and since this sad incident occurred after the Mass, luckily nobody was hurt because at that particular moment the Cathedral was empty. To repair this roof finally top Architects were especially hired from Europe. Interestingly, the main Alter of the Cathedral is having a piece of Stone from Golcotta, Calvary Mountain in Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was crucified. Bishop Stella according to elders and especially those who interacted with him was an upright person. Being an Italian of that era of Fascist Mussolini, an ally of Hitler in devastating humanity, Bishop Stella was a generous man devoid of racist attitude normally associated with Mussolinians including clergy and Bishops. He worked very hard to lay a very strong foundation for the Catholicism in Kuwait. He created a very good rapport with the ruling family of Kuwait. He was a great lover of Goan Catholic community that was responsible to serve Kuwait Church from the beginning. Goa is called Rome of the East and during the Lent season, only in Goa Motets are sung. Bishop Stella loved listening to Motets sung in the Cathedral by the Goans especially on Maundy Thursdays and on Good Fridays. Motet is an unique form of sorrowful song in Latin describing the sorrows of Jesus Christ and rendered with different voices with very serene and sorrowful music played on Violin, Clarinet and Double-bass. Monsg. Victor Sam Minguel an Spanish missionary was the second Bishop of Kuwait who came to Kuwait as an Administrator on 4th June 1966 and was consecrated as Bishop at Baghdad by the Vatican Ambassador Monsg. Rutt. Bishop Sam Minguel was a very literate man having scripted number of books on Christianity in this part of the world. One of his books with his signature he presented to me. He was an authority on Christian background and history in this area. During his tenure, he worked hard and tirelessly to repay the loans borrowed during his predecessor for the construction of Holy Family Cathedral. A short stature man with majestic appearance he had great love for the poor and worked tirelessly to help the persecuted maids and other domestics in Kuwait. After his retirement in 1981, he went to India and settled down at Hyderabad where he served the poor. The third Bishop of Kuwait was Monsg. Frances Mechallef a Maltese by nationality who was consecrated as Bishop at Vatican on 6th January 1982 by the late Pope Paul John VI and in the same month he took over the reins of Kuwait Catholic Church. He undertook lot of developmental work in Kuwait since money was not a problem because his predecessor has already repaid the loans of the Church and made his reign very smooth. It was during his reign that the painting of the Cathedral was done and the 4 Storey building in the Church compound besides residential quarters for the Church employees and for Deacon and his family built. With this developmental work, the Church compound gives a very good look. A few years back, when we invited Indian Ambassador as Chief guest to address a meeting in the Church Hall, on Solidarity with persecuted Christians in India, the Ambassador Sri Prabhu Dayal entering the Church compound, remaked thus “ Oh!! What a wonderful edifice!! Really, it is magnificent.” Bishop Camillo Ballin is the 4th and the current Bishop of Kuwait who was consecrated as Bishop in Kuwait and about which I wrote exhaustively with photographs of the events in the local daily Arab Times. During the last half a century the Kuwait Catholic Church was manned by the Carmelite congregation. However, from this year, Carmelites are retired from Kuwait and instead Kuwait Church was handed over to the Capuchin congregation. On Friday one of the Capuchin priests from Aldona Bardez Goa, Fr. Gaspar Fernandes was installed as the parish priest of the Holy Family Cathedral, Kuwait, by the Bishop of Kuwait in a very well organized ceremony. This ceremony was also attended by the visiting Capuchin priests from other parts of the Gulf. Fr. Gaspar came directly from Qatar where he served for 3 years before coming from Monte de Guirim, Goa. It is really worth mentioning here that Fr. Gaspar Fernandes is a very good preacher, I witnessed his preachings and found him full of matter on very high and intellectual topics.. We are very fortunate first time in Kuwait to have such an extra ordinary preacher. He is the need of the hour. Fortunately for us in Kuwait, we have 2 more preachers whose preachings satisfy the wants of the faithuls and these 2 priests are Fr. Lionel and Fr. Tony of Dom Bosco School. If these priests were to be in Kuwait a bit earlier, many of our Catholics who have deserted Catholicism and embraced other Christian denominations would not have abdicated Catholicism. On behalf of all the like minded members of Goan and Konkani community, I welcome Fr. Gaspar Fernandes and request him not only to take care of the spiritual needs of the Catholics but also material needs of the down trodden especially the persecuted maids and other domestics in tune with the excellent work done by the earlier Goan and Konkani priest Fr. Gabriel Dias. To protect the interest of the persecuted maids along with me and with the approval of the then Bishop, Fr. Gabriel moved mountains to help the persecuted and abused maids. Below are the pictures of the installation ceremony and of the Cathedral. In first picture below Fr. Gaspar Fernandes in front while on second picture he is seen on left side accepting his responsibility as Parish Priest. Two pictures below showing the front view of the Cathedral. Down below are the pictures one showing inside view of the Church compound and the other showing the magnificent 4 storey building. A. Veronica Fernandes, Kuwait. Posted by KRANTI at Saturday, January 23, 2010 0 comments Links to this post === A frequent, chronological publication – exclusive, unpublished and hybrid personal thoughts of A. Veronica Fernandes -- can now be read at http://goa-kranti.blogspot.com/ Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/
