INDIA EAST (INE) PROVINCE
(Patron: St. Pius X, 1954)

Gangpur Mission, which began towards the beginning of last century, has developed into the present India East Province. The beginnings of the SVD presence can be traced back to July 1948 when Fr. Stanislaus Wald, former Regional Superior of Indore, and a number of other missionaries from Indore came to Orissa and took over the so called ‘Gangpur Mission’ (later Sambalpur Mission) from the Jesuits. Gangpur is part of the much larger territory of Chotanagpur, where over the last hundred years the Church in India has had its greatest numerical success. The Province (Region) was established in 1954 and Fr. Charles Schmidt SVD was its first Regional Superior. Already in 1951 the diocese of Sambalpur was established and entrusted to the Society with Rt. Rev. Herman Westermann SVD as its first Bishop. He led the Diocese till 1974. Bishop Raphael Cheenath SVD succeeded him in May 1974. Later in 1979 the Diocese was divided and Msgr. Alphonse Bilung SVD became the Bishop of the new Diocese of Rourkela. In 1985, Bishop Raphael Cheenath SVD was appointed the Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and Msgr. Lucas Kerketta SVD took charge of the diocese of Sambalpur in 1987.