Madri

How it all started:

Madri is a small village town in the Jhadol Tehsil of Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in India. It is located in an interior area about 56 kms away from Udaipur city. It is situated in the Aravali Mountain ranges. Therefore this area is mountainous. Madri is a Panchayat (Village level administrative unit) which consists of seven villages and Janathpura is one of them. This village has 96 families. The people in this area are Tribals. There are also some people belonging to other castes like Brahmins, Gujjars, Mahajans, Meghwals, Telias and Takurs. They are found in Madri proper and in other small village towns. The people belonging to the business class play an important role in the lives of tribal people. The people of this area have not yet understood the value of the education. This is the main reason for their backwardness. The literacy among the Tribal people is very low as low as 30-35% even though there is a school in most of the villages. We have quite big land given by the diocese. There is a well in the property through which we have drinking water and also for farming. The boundary of the property is not clear how much belongs to the Sisters and how much belongs to the Parish. We have house of three rooms, a small dinging hall and kitchen which was built by the first Parish priest John Kennedy in the year 1994. So far no renovation is done. Earlier the mass was celebrated in the veranda. Then in the year 2003 the church building was built which is in bad shape. Direct evangelization is not possible as a lot of opposition is there. Fr. John Kennedy (now left the Society and married) has taken up a literacy programme and has organized as many as 25 centres. Twenty to thirty children and adults come every evening for classes and the young men who have come forward to teach show a lot of interest and responsibility to serve their own people they are paid a meager stipend as encouragement.

Initially this was an out station of the Jhadol Mission, 22 kms from here. Jhadol is the Tehsil head quarters of this area. Those days there was no public transport system from here to Jhadol yet many people from here used to go to Jhadol by foot for Sunday Mass. The priest who used to go visit this place felt the need of starting a new centre here. He also noticed that there were many people who were attracted to the teaching of Jesus. So with the permission from the bishop, a small property was purchased here. A mud house was built and the sisters of St. Mary of Angels started to live here from 1986. A priest was appointed to look after this mission while staying in Udaipur. He used to visit Madri for three days every weekend.

Later this mission was entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) who at that time was managing the Jhadol Mission. With that a residence for the priest was but and it was blessed on 17^th May 1994. With this new Parish house it became an independent Parish. When this mission was started here, there were plenty of oppositions from the people around here but the priests, sisters and the faithful were strong enough to withstand them. Though problems came up now and then, the attitude of the people towards us has changed. This mission is growing steadily. On Sundays about 200 people come for mass. They have tremendous faith in Jesus. This parish has 17 villages far away from the main station. The far away village is 35 kms away from the parish. The transports and the road are not in good condition. When we go to the far away place we remain there for a night and visit other houses next day and come back.  Out of 17 villages SCC prayer meetings are held in almost 11 villages. People long for spiritual blessings. People come for the mass from far and wide. Some come from as far as 35 kms by bus or taxi. Special liturgy is organized during the feast days and specials days like Christ the King, Christmas and St. Arnold’s feast. It was felt need for the catechism class for all the fitful. This catechism class is divided into three groups. We have an organized youth group, namely, St. Arnold’s Youth Group. There are 42 youth registered in our mission. Most of them are baptized. Among them 19 are studying above class 9 just close by village, namely, Bhagpur, Jahlod and Phalsia.  The main need is that we need to motivate them, guide and give them proper education. We have stated a small computer coaching centre for the youth already. At present there are four computers for training the youth.

Milestones

1986       Arrival of FSMA Sisters for the medical ministry.

1988       A piece of land was bought by Udaipur Diocese. Fr. Benedict Dodiyar and Fr. James visited this mission from Friday to Tuesday. They were staying with a family

1994       A residence for the priest was built and it was blessed on May 17, 1994

2003       New church, namely Guru Chhaya was blessed.

2005       Dispensary was inaugurated

2007       School building was inaugurated; Anugraha Primary School funded by The Word Among US benefactors Mr. John Knobell  and then Mr. Phil Knobell and Peter Knobell.

Confreres who worked so far: