News Contributor: Father Cyprian Pinto, SVD
On Thursday, 15th March 2018 a Parents-Children seminar is held in Jamalkhan parish, Chittagong. 35 parents and 15 children attended the event. Children had separate sessions of games & interactions, singing and prayer. Parents had some inputs on topics “faith-religion, responsible parenthood, reconciliation-confession, Bible, Bible veneration, etc”.
Children and parents participated in the solemn mass together at the end. The seminar came to an end with common meal and thanks giving to all those who helped to conduct this Seminar.
Jamalkhan parish is situated in 18 Jamalkhan Road, Chittagong. Presently it has a Catholic population of 746. The first Church in Jamalkhan was built in 1600 A.D. in which the first missionary in Bengal Jesuit priest Rev. Francesco Ferbandez sacrificed mass on 8 December. Jamalkhan is raised to the status of a parish in 1958. Two missionary priests of Society of Verbum Dei (SVD) and four nuns of Dhaka Archdiocesan congregation Associates of Mary Queen of the Apostles (SMRA) are responsible for pastoral care of Jamalkhan parish.
There are two parishes in Chittagong metropolitan city namely Cathedral and Jamalkhan. Jamalkhan is covering a small territory while Cathedral’s territory is very vast. Soon Pahartoli will be raised to the status of a parish and some territorial adjustment will take place between Cathedral, Jamalkhan and Pahartoli in near future.