Preparatory work to build a New Church

It has been about 300 years since the Kamma Catholics (Gandikota Kammas) received faith. There were Reddys, Salis and Thogatas as well who have accepted Christianity at about the same time. Kammas were among the prominent group to receive faith and they have been living their faith vibrantly in spite of the unfriendly and insulting attitudes of their fellow people. Many vocations to priesthood and religious life came from these communities. Archbishop Pothakamuri Thomas and Archbishop Gopu Mark were the first ones to be raised to the episcopal level and they had governed the church with great dedication and commitment. They had led the Catholic people with vision and example.

His Grace Archbishop Pothakamuri Thomas was from Ravipadu village. Today there are more than 500 Catholic families in the village of Ravipadu and this number is growing day by day since many Catholic Kammas are choosing to make Ravipadu their home. Ravipadu is not only close to the Town of Narsaraopet, but the state high way is passing through this village. Since the division of Telugu state into two, the town of Narsaraopet has become significantly important in the new state of Andhra Pradesh. This has boosted the land price in the neighbourhood of Ravipadu beyond all proportions.

The present Church was built 130 years ago and it served the people well so far. But it is now too small and old to do any significant renovation or extension to serve the growing number of people. Besides it is only right to build a new church keeping in mind the next 100 years as a gratitude to God for the gift of faith. God has blessed the people not only with faith, but also with education, skills in business and agriculture. Hundreds of young people are working overseas. Many have become carorepathis almost overnight since the land price has shot up. There are almost 30 priests and more than 50 sisters from this village alone. There are many more priests and sisters from other villages of this community. People and priests are certainly in a position to build a new church as a sign of their gratitude to God for all the blessings they received over the years. This will also be a symbol and sign of their 300 years of history in the Church. Old Church will remain as it is and it will also get a face lift. A new Church will adorn the village of Ravipadu to celebrate and proclaim their faith loud and clear. This will also give a boost to the faith of the dormant Catholics and help to bring them back to Jesus.

A group of Priests and Elders have been assigned the task of looking at some churches and make suggestions as to what kind of Church we must build in Ravipadu. They are Fr. Chinnaiah Nagothu, Fr. Pudota Dasaiah, Fr. Pudota Rayanna and elders Mr. Medabalimi Bala Raj and Mr. Pudota Rayanna. Fr. David Raju Maddineni and Fr.Desam Bala Reddy (Nellore) were also asked to join this team.

Visit to Churches in Tamilnadu

Visit to the Cathedral in Trichy: This group had set out their journey from Guntur on 10^th noon. They had travelled the entire after-noon and night and arrived in Trichy at 6.00am. The group had gone to the Redemptorist house in Trichy and refreshed themselves. After their break-fast, they hit the road once again. Their first stop was at the new Cathedral of Trichy. This is a new Church under construction, but it has almost reached the finishing stages. It is magnificent in size and architecture. It has 175 feet tall elevation in front with three domes and one at the back over the sanctuary. The size is 100 feet width and 165 feet length. It has a cellar which is larger than the church on top. The cellar has two large halls in front and at the back and each can accommodate 150 people. The presbytery is situated at the back of the Church.

The group was impressed by the size, structure, architecture and the beauty of the Church. The Parish Priest was with us for two hours explaining to us about the church and answering our questions. He had also called the Engineer who gave us a booklet with pictures and designs.

The Parish Priest explained to us the different strategies he followed to raise the money and execute the construction. He had in fact started with only rupees 25 lakhs. He said that many had laughed at him, but today the church is almost complete and it has cost them rupees 13 Crores. The pictures and PowerPoint presentation will reveal the rest to you.

We left Trichy at about 11.am and arrived in Tanjoor at 12.00 noon. There is a historical temple and we paid a visit to see the beauty and architectural skills of our Indian minds. After a quick meal in a restaurant in Tanjoor, we left for Velankani. We arrived in Velankani at 5.20pm and we celebrated the holy mass at the shrine of our Lady of Velankany at 6.30pm. We prayed with our Mother for guidance and for God’s will to be done by all concerned.

Comments: We will not probably need a Church of this size for our village. But we can with some modifications adapt the front elevation of this church. Fund raising tactics used by them can also be followed.

12^th Sept. Friday: We woke up 2.30am and started our journey to Chennai. We reached Pinjuwakam at about 9.00am. The Church at Pinjuwakam was built recently and it looked good.

Our Comment was that we need something better than that to suit our needs.

Vadagaram: our next stop was at Vadagaram. This church was also built recently and it looked quite impressive.

Comments: The front elevation of the church was not in proportionate to the rest of the structure. But the interior designs, flooring and the position of the shrines just inside the main door of the church were simply magnificent. We felt that we can adapt the interiors of this church and only make it a little bigger in length and width.

After this we entered Chennai and stopped at Poonamalli seminary. We only paid a short visit since many of our priests studied at this seminary.

On our way to the Pastoral Centre of the Arch Diocese of Chennai, we had our meal in a restaurant and arrived at the centre at 5.30pm. We met an Engineer there and he escorted us to his house which is nearby. He had showed us his designs of some churches and volunteered to help us in our project.

Anna Nagar: Medabalimi Bala Raj’s sister, Showrilu and brother-in-law live in this area. Bala Raju wanted us to see the church at Anna Nagar. The inner size of the church and pews were impressive. We felt that the size is ideal for our needs.

After this we went to the house of Showrilu, Bala Raju’s sister. They gave us a beautiful dinner and helped us to relax with their loving hospitality. We had returned to the pastoral centre at 10.30pm and retired to bed. We woke up again at 2.30am and left for Nellore to escape the traffic of Chennai. We arrived in Nellore at 8.00am and got ready to attend the golden Jubilee of Sr. Nagothu Basilisa of Kanaparru. After all these hectic and tiring journeys, the group returned to Guntur at 6.00pm and they had dispersed to their respective places.

Final Comments:

The visit was absolutely fruitful from the point of securing a lot of information and ideas to get our ambitious project get started. Some churches were a bit small and not to our liking, others were too attractive and tempting not to copy. However, keeping in mind our need, people, finance we need to be realistic and practical. Therefore, the suggestion of Fr. Maddineni David Raju is that we go for the interiors of Vadagaram Church, keep the front elevations of the Trichy Cathedral with some modifications, and the size of the inner measurements of Anna Nagar Church. We also need to get two separate estimates one with these above specifications and another estimation with cellar and this church.

1. Trichy Elevation + Vadagaram interiors + Anna Nagar Church measurements.

All the above in number one + Cellar (a multipurpose hall)

Others in the group have different opinions. All concerned need to sit down to listen, view the presentations and dialogue before finalizing what type of Church we need.

Second Visit to Kothagudem, Kukatpalli, Gagillapuram

The same group of people had once again set out from the Pastoral Centre of Guntur on 18^th morning at 5.00am. They stopped at Thadepalli near Mangalagiri to see the Franciscan church which was built recently. It is a good church, but it does not serve our purpose.

We continued our journey to Kothagudem. We stopped at Pudota Innaiah’s (Fr. Dasaiah’s brother) house for breakfast and then proceeded to the Protestant church (C.S.I.) in town. The Church was of great size, but the finishing was very poor. It has a cellar and the church is above. It has also a big elevation and stone tiles were plastered. Some were impressed by it while others felt that this has a serious defect and will cause problems in the future.

After this we proceeded to the Catholic Church built by the OCD fathers in Palavancha. This too was impressive enough, but nothing like the churches in Tamil Nadu.

From here we continued our journey to Hyderabad. We first went to the church (Kalvari Teimple) of Pastor Satish Kumar in Nizampet. A huge edifice, built only in 52 days. Some 20,000 people can be seated with all the different facilities. We went to see this church out of interest, but not to imitate in our work. After this we went to the Catholic Church in Kukatpalli. This church has been built recently and it looked quite impressive.

We went to Khairatabad where Fr. Paul Raj Narisetti is the parish priest. We spent the night in his house and once again started our trip to Gagillapuram at 5.30am. Gagillapuram church too is quite big in size with great looking elevations. The photos will show the church to you.

After this we came back to the city and went to the house of Karnati Thomasaiah and Amala. They gave us a big breakfast and treated us well.

We also made a quick visit to Reddimasi Maraiah’s house which is very close to Karnati Thomasaiah’s house. Rayanna and others explained to him the idea of the new church in Ravipadu. Maraiah has given us some of his own ideas and suggestions regarding the new church. After this we dispersed to our various places on our own. Frs. Rayanna Pudota and Desam Bala went back to their parishes in their car. Frs. David Raju and Dasaiah took a bus to Vijayawada.