Around 15,000, including Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, on May 9th attended the golden jubilee celebrations of Berhampur diocese in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. “I am glad and happy to be with you and for you to celebrate this jubilee Mass,” the nuncio said in homily during the jubilee Mass at St.Peter Parish Mohana under Berhampur diocese. The Vatican ambassador expressed happiness that the diocese, founded by the Congregation of the Missions in 1974, now has 71,000 Catholics in 26 parishes, served by 29 women and 10 men religious congre-gations, and 379 catechists, besides the dio-cesan clergy. The seed your ancestors sowed 50 years ago has produced plenty of fruits, he added.
As many as 10 bishops and more than 100 priests and nuns too attended the celebrations. Catholicism was first introduced in the region back in the 17th century when it was under the care of Madras-Mylapur archdiocese. By 1845, Odisha came under the diocese of Visakhapatnam. The first missionaries were the Fransalians, who worked in the hilly region of Ganjam and Phulbani and the coastal belt of Berhampur and Cuttack. The Cuttack Mission was declared self-governing by Pope Pius XI on July 18, 1928, and Vincentian Father Valerian Gumes was appointed its administrator and ecclesiastical superior. In 1937, the mission was raised to the status of a diocese. On January 24,1974, the Cuttack Mission was divided into the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese and the diocese of Berhampur. Berhampur’s first prelate was Vincentian Bishop Thomas Thiruthalil, who served the diocese until 1990. He was succeeded by Bishop Joseph Das who served the diocese during 1993-2007. The current bishop is Sarat Chandra Nayak.