Flora D’souza, Jerimeri
Media Release

Mumbai, Apr 19: Archdiocese of Mumbai and Bombay Catholic Sabha organized the first Mass wedding for 30 Catholic couples on April 14 at St  Xavier’s School Ground, Vile Parle (W) in the presence of Jesuit priests, nuns, religious brothers and sisters and a crowd of approximately 5000 people.

Auxiliary Bishop of Mumbai Agnelo Gracias concelebrated this Mass along with parish priest Fr Theodore Fernandes and Fr Bernard (parish priest of St Theresa Bandra).

A procession began with a live musical band and women of tribal villages welcomed all the couples by performing a cultural dance.
Bishop in his homily highlighted that ‘marriage’ is one of the most important among 7 Sacraments and  hosting weddings has become expensive currently.

“It is more difficult for one who is economically challenged so much to say that families take loans to get their children marry.  We wanted to reach out to such families and help them by arranging a group wedding making it memorable for them,” he said.

He also urged the congregation to offer their special prayers and love to these couples.  It was said that the Archdiocese is also open to inter-religion marriages.  Among the catholic couples, there were also two candidates belonging to other faiths.  Among the 30 couples, 7 couples were from Mumbai and others were from different parts of India like Ranchi, Kolkata etc.

The preparation for the mass wedding began on October 11, 2012 and the Archdiocese informed all the parishes to make an announcement about this in their own parishes. Couples interested to take part in this wedding, had to first submit their documents, which were scrutinized thoroughly and then had to undergo a marriage preparation course.  

The 30 couples who exchanged vows were either from the economically weaker sections of the society or those who did not want to spend on a lavish wedding.  The couples were between 21 to 45 years of age and some of them being love marriages too.  The couples were given a wedding kit consisting of basic things like utensils etc. amounting to Rs 25,000/- each. 

One of the couples said, "We participated in this joint marriage because it was a community event.  We wanted the whole congregation to be part of our important day and shower their blessings along with blessings of Bishop Swami."

Many Catholic families sponsored this event by way of wedding gowns, Sarees, snacks and dinner.  Mass celebration was in Hindi supported by the melodious voices of the Hindi Choir.

Bombay Catholic Sabha President Gordhan D’souza, Fr Donal Rodrigues, social workers Goretti and Vijay gave vote of thanks to all who gave their helping hand to make this event a grand success.  Snacks, soft drinks and dinner were served to all.

A special entertainment performance was showcased by  women (young and senior citizens) as they danced to the famous tunes of Hindi, Konkani and English like  “zubi zubi”, “Ye Ye Katrina” etc.

The back-drop of the stage was decorated with the names of the newly wedded couples :

Keneddy & Monica                                        Sabunus & Sunita                             Shyam & Jenebhiv
Prem & Rashmi                                              Mukti & Radha                                 Rakesh & Anima
Anuranjan & Nil Saroj Basanti                      Kastu & Jaya                                     Sushil & Pratima
Rakesh & Phirmila                                         Sanjay & Kusum                               Ronnie & Sushila
Prasan & Prabha                                            Sumit & Sonali                                  Nitesh & Shiny
Mithun & Santi Pushpa                                 Anand & Serophina                         Welchboy & Urvi
David & Sarita                                                Anil & Saloni                                     Gregory & Christine
Samuel & Geeta                                             Jerome & Arti                                  Ronny & Gloria
Ranjit & Vinay Prabha                                   Walter & Rashmi                              Aloysius & Premila
Pratap & Swati                                               Morish & Shibani                              Sanjay & Sonali

The main sponsors  of the event were :

Christopher John of M/s. Earnest John Group of Companies
Thomas W. Pinto of M/s. Seven Islands Shipping Ltd.
Parish Priest of St. Teresa’s Church, Bandra
Evelyn Wilfred Almeida of M/s. Inspirations
Walter Buthello of M/s. Bharat Coach Builders Pvt. Ltd,
Sylvester da Cunha of M/s. DaCunha Communications
Daniel Fernandes of M/s. Daniel & Sons
C A Anto of M/s. Terminal Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Geeta Rubin of M/s. Transcon Freight System Pvt Ltd.,
William Albert Noronha & Family
Avian Misquitta of Hotel Avion
Albert W. D’souza, Chairman, Model Co-op. Bank Ltd,
Oommen C. Chacko of M/s. Professional Courier
Sylvester D’souza of St. Lawrence High School, Thane
M R Varghese of M/s. Emmar Enterprises
Henry Lobo of M/s. Haniel Pack
Vincent Mathias of M/s. Velvin Industries
John D’silva
Annuuz Assawa
Pankaj C. Bhole
Loretta Gonsalves of Queen’s Beauty Parlour, Vile Parle
Parish Priest of St Francis Xavier’s Church and his team
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