Media Release
Udupi, Jun 21: It is said, man proposes, God disposes. Mount Rosarians, Santhekatte – Kallianpur planned to celebrate the community or parish day on May 16. The Bishop of Udupi, Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo, was requested to celebrate the Thanksgiving grand high mass in the morning and consented to preside over the cultural programme in the evening.
Due to the ever spreading Covid-19 pandemic and prevailing government rules restricting the public gatherings nothing that planned got executed except the making of ‘Rozaricho Gaanch, a decennial year commemorative special issue.
A brief background:
About ten years ago, when the buzzword in Mount Rosary Church was to have a new spacious church building replacing the more or less dilapidated, congested church to accommodate ever-increasing parishioners and more precisely found beyond economical repair the then parish priest Fr Philip Nery Aranha, specially entrusted to materialise these aspirations of the faithful, thought it apt and more than that necessary to have a media to reach out to the parishioners spread in every nook and corner of this planet to seek their cooperation, guidelines and most importantly communicate en masse the vision and plan for having a new church building.
He handpicked few resourceful people with 11 of them, both members and office bearers of the Parish Pastoral Council and gurkars of the ward to shoulder these responsibilities. Michael Mendonca was its first editor. A colourful first issue of the Rozaricho Gaanch was brought out during Easter 2011. Since then there was no looking back, as the issues were regularly published thrice a year to coincide with three popular feasts – Easter, Monti Feast and Christmas.
A success story:
To the best of our memories, thus far, 25 issues of Rozaricho Gaanch were successfully out. Much of the credit deservedly goes to the talented team led by Cynthia D'Silva, who took the reins as editor in December 2012, who set on roll a well-planned structure, with a dual objective, to include information about the parish in a nutshell and encourage budding writers to write, even correct and guide them in their efforts.
Since a special souvenir was planned to commemorate the inauguration of the newly built church on January 6, 2015, which was an all-time monumental document, four regular issues were not released namely, September 2014 to September 2015.
Editor Hilda Cornelio and her team took charge in May 2019, while continuing with the well-adapted principles and policies of her predecessors, and with the special care and guidance of parish priest Fr Dr Leslie C D'Souza. The publisher, with the support of the assistant parish priest Fr Steevan Fernandes, she and her editorial team is successful to make the magazine self-supporting, economically stand on sound footings by generating required revenue by way of advertisements and sponsors. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic too had its adverse effect on RG and the April 2020 issue could not be brought out.
Special issue of Rozaricho Gaanch to commemorate 10 years of publication:
The growth of the Rozaricho Gaanch is spectacular over the decade as the number of pages is increasing with every next edition and the quality of contents, matured articles, information and reports of all pious organisations of the parish and school, its availability online, colourful design using both Konkani and English languages to attract youngsters etc are always appreciated by the parishioners and other well-wishers.
‘Rozaricho Gaanch’ crosses a milestone of being a relevant and integral part of the parishioners for the last ten years. The decennial celebrations are rightly an occasion both to look back and evaluate and plan to make the forthcoming issues still more attractive and vibrant.
Release of special issue of Rozaricho Gaanch 2011-2021:
As we mentioned in the beginning, the church had various programmes planned for this wonderful occasion, which did not take off. However, the editorial team of Rozaricho Gaanch, under Hilda Cornelio, took on the challenge and brought out a 180-page colourful and exhaustive special issue which was released to the parishioners and public during a simple ceremony held on Sunday June 20. The parish priest of Mount Rosary Church and publisher of the magazine, Fr Dr Leslie C D'Souza, highlighted the contents, its need for publication and applauded the efforts and hard work of all concerned - especially its editor and her team, writers, and all who sponsored by way of advertisements etc.
The assistant parish priest, Fr Steevan Fernandes, office bearers of the pastoral council – vice-president Baptist Dias, secretary Ronnie Saldanha, convenor of 20 Ayogs Santhosh Cornelio, co-editor Daisy Mendonca were present during the programme.
At the beginning of the programme, Hilda Carnelio welcomed all the dignitaries present and thanked all for their cooperation, support and involvement.