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Sacred Heart, Kundukulam
Our sister parish is Sacred Heart Church in Kundukulam, Tamil Nadu, South India. Kundukulam is in the Sivagangai Diocese.
Parish Location
Kundukulam is considerably a big village, 25 kilometres away from the diocesan centre, Sivagangai. Sivagangai is also a civil district centre and Kundukulam comes under the same. The nearest Airport is in MADURAI, a city 78 kilometres away from this location. It is actually a remote and interior village with a very minimum transport, water and other facilities.
History and Background
Kundukulam parish centre is purely a Catholic community and it has 20 villages as its sub-stations with a mixed group of people. The parish owes its Catholic faith to the Portuguese Jesuit Missionary, St.John De Britto who was martyred at Oriyur in Sivagangai diocese in the year 1693. In 1958 Kundukulm was erected as a parish and Fr. Mache SJ was the first parish priest.
Today there are 523 Catholic families with 3374 people. The people are with strong faith and very much cooperative in the developments of the parish centre as well as the sub-stations. In 1996, ‘The Society of Ursuline Sisters of Sumasca’ started their service in the field education, pastoral work, medical care and social work giving more attention to the women.
About Kundukulam
There are 43 families. This comes under the Thadiyamangalam panjayat. This village is populated only by Catholics. There are two retired teachers and two are working as teachers. A few have finished studies and waiting for job. There are a few studies now. There is no public transport and the people have to walk 2.5 kilometres to reach the bus station. Many are economically poor. The main source of income is farming, woodcutting and working in petty shops for a meagre income.
The church is dedicated to Sacred Heart of Jesus. Weekly three Masses are offered excepting Sunday Mass. The feast falls in the last week of June. Every first Friday novena Mass is celebrated.
Parish Groups- Parish Council: From each Basic Christian Communities, there will be two people for the Parish Council- one male and one female. The term of the office members of the council is three years. They are really committed in the development of the Parish by contributing constructive suggestions.
- Vincent De Paul Society helps the people in need.
- The Legion of Mary concentrates in instilling the faith to our Church and our Lady.
Vocations
There are six Priests, nine Nuns, Two professed brothers. There are four Brothers under formation to priesthood and a candidate for Sisterhood.
Society of Ursuline Sisters of Somasca
There are three sisters is the Community. They are collaborating with the pastor in the parish ministry. They conduct Sunday catechism and they prepare both the children and the adults for the sacraments. They do help in the liturgy like preparing the altar, assisting in liturgy and Para-liturgy. They also visit sick and distribute communion during the Mass.
They run the Hostel named Aasha-Nivas for girls. 30 students are accommodated in it. Many of them stay by subsidy. As already mentioned our parish is both interior and rural. For this they run dispensary for the welfare of the people. They have a small nursery for the children. -
Socio-Economic Conditions
The Indian and Tamil society is rooted in Caste system. From womb to tomb the Caste distinction is maintained. It is more prevalent among Hindus. The Christians and Muslims are not very fanatic in this Caste system. The Hindus do not even consider the ‘Dalit’ people as human beings and they consider themselves the lowest in the Caste hierarchy of ‘Hindu Dharma’. The Dalits are considered untouchables and unfit to live with other human beings. Here arises the need for us to conscientize the people especially the younger generation to think that all are equals created by God as brothers and sisters.
The local inhabitants are small farmers, agricultural labourers and woodcutters. The cultivation is dependant mainly on the erratic southwest monsoon, which invariably lets down the hopes of the farmers. Drought is the main reason for poverty. For this reason they are forced to migrate to cities in search of employment. Irrigation of short term crops and the vegetables is possible for those who have wells and who are able afford to have motor pumps to manage their poverty.
This century is known for its fast achievement oriented culture. Gone are those days in which the culture led men. Now man is leading the culture and here in our people the modern culture is fast spreading because even the have-nots want to show themselves as the haves. And so it becomes the greater responsibility for us to motivate this generation into a proper culture. -
EducationR.C. Primary School
This is the first light lid by the missionary priests in this area for the growth of this people in the year 1910. The present condition of the school is simple. There are 229 students and 7 teachers. This is a Government aided school. The children sit on the ground as there is no furniture to sit over. For the children to sit and study concentrated we have to construct the compound wall. It also will stop unwanted entries and disturbances.
R.C. High School
The primary school was upgraded in the year 1991 as the middle school. And later it was upgraded in 2007. There are 221 students led by 9 teachers. This is totally self-financed. With the other curricular we also provide with catechism and moral education to the students. A few things are worth mentioning here.
The school is situated at Kundukulam in Thadiyamangalam Panjayat of Ilayangudi Taluk in the District of Sivagangai. The school comes under the Diocese of Sivagangai and the Vicariate centre is Paramakudi.
High School and the Task ahead- It is being a totally self-financed and a rural based school (not able to collect money from the poor students); we are forced to supply a very meagre salary that is around 3000 Rs each.
- Enough benches and desks are not there for the students to sit and study comfortably.
- The iron made fencing is easily viable to be trespassed and broken and the safety is not assured, moreover the Government is strict with the compound wall made of bricks and cement.
- The extension of the library is necessary by way of putting up more books for the students to read.
- Science lab is to be enlarged as the 10th students have ‘practical examinations’ which plays a major role in the score of the marks.
- A few students are not able to buy notebooks for their studies. We need to match with the world that is computer knowledge. For the 221 students, we have only 3 computers.
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Viable Future Plans
- All should have a bible and a hymn guide to participate in the liturgy
- A comfortable arrangement of pews for the aged and disabled
- Enlarging and furnishing the sacristy