Kolkata: Salesians of Kolkata will hand over to Calcutta archdiocese a 77-year-old parish that played a major role in the relief and rehabilitation works post Bangladesh war of 1971.
Among those leading the relief works were Blessed Teresa of Kolkata and her nuns.
The official transfer of St Joseph’s Church Choyghoria, Bongaon, parish will take place on January 5 at a concelebrated Mass presided over by Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta in the presence of Kolkata Salesian provincial Fr. Nirmal Gomes.
The church is situated on the Kolkata-Dhaka International Highway, just a kilometer from the Petropole-Benapole International border.
Petrapole near Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is the Indian side of the border checkpoint and Benapole is on the Bangladesh side.
The Petrapole border, the only land port in South Bengal, is also the largest land customs station in Asia.
Benapole is about 300 km from Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh.
Joseph Njaliath, a student volunteer during 1972 Bangladesh relief program recalls how he and ten other students of Salesian College Sonada Darjeeling joined Mother Teresa and her sisters to distribute relief material supplied by Catholic Relief Services, Caritas India and Seva Kendra Calcutta.
He had left the Bongaon church compound with a convoy of truck loads of relief material for refugee camps in Dhaka.
He recalls: “As our convoy approached the border, we found border patrols stopping and inspecting a line of trucks. When the patrolmen approached our truck, the driver pointed to his traveling companion who organized the trip. When the patrolman saw Mother Teresa sitting in the front seat of the lead truck and her sisters in each other trucks, they promptly escorted the convoy to the front of the line and allowed it to cross the border.”
Fr Paul Valiaveettil, the Salesian parish priest, says the missionary zeal, sacrifice, dedication and tenacity of the Salesian priests, brothers, sisters and catechists toward the spiritual, material, educational and social development of the parish reached 23 substations around Bongaon.”
The Bongaon parish was set up in 1938 by Italian Salesian missionary Fr. Vincent Lazzaro of Shimulia and Chandrakanta Basak from Krishnagar parish. Both are no more.
In 1964 the mission was recognized as a parish under Krishnagar diocese.
In 1971, just before the Bangladesh war, Thakurnagar parish was carved out of Bongaon and in 1988, the Monsada parish.
In 1975 Bongaon parish was brought under Calcutta archdiocese.
A year later, Kolkata archdiocese handed over the parish to the Salesians for 30 years on contract. In 2006 the contract was renewed for 10 years more.