Bishop Sebastian Adyanthra-th 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 claim-ed 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 Karna-taka. 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 ve-hicles, supported their treatment and provide food to their fami-lies. The main tasks included reaching food and medicines to the affected families, help orga-nize hospital admission for those requiring hospital care, assist in swab collection from people with symptoms, provide oxygen cyli-nders, oximeter, masks, gloves, sanitizer and other items irres-pective of people’s cast or creed.
“For us, the work was wor-ship and we experienced the Christian life more meaning-fully,” said Tom Thomas, who has led the lay movement in the parish for more than two decades as the founder president.