HOLY FAMILY CHURCH KANTAPALI

HOLY FAMILY CHURCH KANTAPALI

KANTAPALLI (D. ROURKELA)

Fr. Sarat Kumar Nayak Parish Priest,

Manager, St. Xavier’s High School

Fr. Sanjay Tirkey Asst. Parish Priest,

Asst. Boarding In-charge & Teacher

Holy Family Church

Kantapalli – 770 043

Via Gurundia

Sundargarh Dist., Odisha

St. Xavier’s High School

St. Vincent Pallotti Boys’ Hostel

KANTAPALI:

1986: Kantapalli Parish though it was under Bonaigarh Parish, with the appointment of Fr. Simon Nazareth, it became an independent Parish. Aim was there to start the VOC for the Northern Region but did not come true.

Kantapali mission is 65 KM away from the industrial town of Rourkela which comes under the Catholic diocese of Rourkela. The origin of the parish dates back to 1951. The parish has a total area of 340 sq. Kms. The present parishes like Barsuan, Bonaigarh and Thakurpali had belonged to this parish. Kantapali had a Catholic population of 4,000 practically the whole of it being tribal. Gurundia also had formed part of this parish.

The Pallottine presence in the parish began when Fr. John B. Singh and Bro. Benjamin Kujur who were assigned to the proposed parish at Bonaigarh had initially taken up residence in here in 1984. Shortly after, they had shifted to Bonaigarh itself. It was only with the appointment of Fr. Simon Nazareth in 1986 that Kantapali itself had its resident Pallottine priest. One motive behind taking of this parish was to build here the Vocation Orientation Centre for the students from the North. However, it was not materialized.

Under the leadership of Fr. Simon the parish soon made great progress. Various social welfare programs were launched aimed at the education, training etc. of the population and to provide them with proper medical aid. It is note-worthy that many of these were implemented with assistance from the government itself. The parish also runs a school with boarding for boys and girls and Grihini (training for girls in household management). A new school building was blessed by Bishop Alphonse Bilung, SVD and inaugurated by the Provincial, Fr. Mathew Panakal, on May 19, 1999. Following the transfer of Fr, Simon, some of the program ran into trouble. In the following years Fr. John Sobha Sunder and Fr. Libnus Toppo held the post of Parish Priest.

We have a parish in the center, a school up to high school, two boardings, one for girls and the other for boys. The boys’ boarding has 188 students and the girls’ boarding has 160 girls. Children stay in the boardings and study in our school. The girls boarding is managed by the Congregation of the Handmaids of Mary.