By Thomas Scaria
Mangaluru, Oct. 4, 2021: Bishop Sebastian Adyanthrath of Mandya has hailed the Covid volunteers for their exceptional service to mankind during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Covid posed a serious crisis in Bengaluru and the Catholic laity under the Vincent De Paul Society have played a remarkable role as frontline warriors,” the Syro-Malabar prelate said.
Bengaluru is the capital of Karnataka where Covid19 claimed more than 8,500 lives.
The bishop was speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the St. Vincent De Paul Society at St. Thomas Church, Jalahalli in Benglauru, capital of Karnataka.
The parish unit of the St. Thomas Church that celebrated the jubilee on September 27 decided to build five houses for the Covid-19 victims as jubilee gifts.
The bishop called upon the society members to imbibe the Vincentian spirituality and increase charity activities in all the parishes of Mandya diocese.
Tom Thomas, a pioneering member of the unit, said his most gratifying moments in life came when he reached out to the needy.
The parish unit of the Vincent De Paul Society worked round the clock to transported Covid patients to hospitals in their vehicles, supported their treatment and provide food to their families.
The main tasks included reaching food and medicines to the affected families, help organize hospital admission for those requiring hospital care, assist in swab collection from people with symptoms, provide oxygen cylinders, oximeter, masks, gloves, sanitizer and other items irrespective of people’s cast or creed.
“For us, the work was worship and we experienced the Christian life more meaningfully,” said Tom Thomas, who has led the lay movement in the parish for more than two decades as the founder president.
A major task of the group was to reach out ration and medicine to hundreds of poor people in villages and city slums who were affected. “This task is still continuing,” Thomas told Matters India.
The parish unit was started with eight members in 1996 by the then parish priest Claretian Father George Kannanthanam. Currently, the society has 40 active members in the parish.
“Very satisfying to be part of the 25th year celebrations of the Vincent De Paul Society at St Thomas Church,” said Father Kannanthanam, who has recently introduced Mother’s Meal, a food for the hungry program during the pandemic,.
“A parish is not complete without an organized program to express its compassion to the people in distress around it,” the priest told Matters India.
The Vincentian lay members have mobilized and spent more than 4 million rupees for Covid relief work in the past 18 months and volunteered to implement its mission among the Covid victims and the poor affected by the lockdown.
Frederic Osanam founded the St Vincent De Paul Society in 1833 in Paris. The society has more than 800,000 members in 153 countries. The Catholic Church in India has over 7,500 parish conferences.