Our Lady of Fatima Church, Kallukoottam

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R.C. Church, Kallukoottam
கல்லுக்கூட்டம் தூய பாத்திமா அன்னை ஆலயம்
R.C. Church, Kallukoottam
8°06′49″N 77°10′19″E / 8.1135°N 77.1719°E / 8.1135; 77.1719Coordinates: 8°06′49″N 77°10′19″E / 8.1135°N 77.1719°E / 8.1135; 77.1719
Location	Tamil Nadu
Country	India
Denomination	Catholic
Weekly attendance	300-500
Website	Kallukoottam R.C. Church, Tamil Wiki Page
History
Founded	1952
Associated people	Tamils
Architecture
Status	Parish Church
Specifications
Capacity	500
Administration
Parish	Kallukoottam
Archdiocese	Madurai
Diocese	Kuzhithurai
Circuit	Mulagumoodu
District	Kanyakumari
Clergy
Archbishop	Anthony Pappusamy
Bishop(s)	Jerome Dhas Varuvel, SDB
Priest(s)	Fr Andrews

Our Lady of Fatima Church, Kallukoottam (also known as Kallukoottam R.C. Church), is a place of worship for the Catholic Christians living in the town panchayat of Kallukootam. It is an active Catholic parish church in the vicariate of Mulagumoodu of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kuzhithurai.^[1]

History

Our Lady of Fatima Church, Kallukoottam, traces its humble origin as a Bhajan Kurusady (a thatched shed for carols during Christmas) in 1951. After a decade of coming together to exercise their simple faith, the community of 18 families, under the leadership of Mr Anthony Muthu, was raised to the status of substation of St. Francis Xavier Parish, Mankuzhi, in 1960. From then on the Eucharistic celebration for wedding and funeral was conducted. To bring the children up in the Catholic faith, rudimentary catechism classes were organised on one of the week days. The Eucharistic celebration] at Christmas and Easter was introduced from 1963.

The administration of the substation of Our Lady of Fatima Church was shifted to St. Francis Xavier Parish, Konamkadu, in 1964. With the new administration, it gained the status of substation with Sunday Masses. To cater to the spiritual development of the adults, the Christian Life community for women and for men were started respectively in the years 1965 and 1978. In order to help the sick and the poor, the St. Vincent De Paul Society was started in 1979. As part of spiritual reformation, Basic ecclesial communities (anbiyangal) were introduced in the substation in 1994. There was no practice of individual tax in the church until 1988 but then the majority of the people felt the need of paying an affordable tax, agreed by the faithful, for the maintenance and upkeep of the church. Over the years the physical structure of the church too got transformed from a simple thatched house to a concrete church that could accommodate about 400 parishioners.^[2] In 2008, the substation of Our Lady of Fatima Church, Kallukoottam, was raised to the status of an independent parish and Fr Mariadasan was appointed as the first parish priest of the newly formed parish. Under the leadership of Fr Andrews, the second parish priest of the parish, a community hall and a new presbytery were constructed in the years 2013 and 2014 respectively.

References