Catholic Sabha Udupi Pradesh (R)

Vision

“Totally Empowered, egalitarian, harmonious society cherishing Christian ideals

Mission

Empower all, with equal opportunities, particularly the most backward, women, laity and economically and socially weaker sections; upholding justice and Christian values, of fairness, service and sacrifice, and strive to bring about social change by creating a harmonious society with continuous dialogue and involvement, love and respect among Christian and all other communities

Objectives

1. Equality and empowerment through equal opportunities
2. Promotion of Christian Values, particularly Unity and Service
3. Dialogue and harmony among all communities
4. Social change giving priority to human values and human rights
Founded in 1979, as an official Laity Orgaisation of Diocese of Mangalroe. Catholic Sabha Udupi Pradesh is a grass root level laity organization, working on the democratic principles for the all round development of the community. It is a Registered Society affiliated to All India Catholic Union ®.
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Catholic Sabha is a 3 tier organization.

1. Parish Level: Basic functional unit in every Parish, consisting of a Parish Uit Executive committee, elected by the members affiliatied ti the particular Parish. The Parish Executive Committee elects its office bearers, during every year.
2. Deanery Level: Office bearers of Parish units form Varado (Deanery) Executive Committee. The Executive elects its office bearers.
3. Central Executive Committee: The Deanery office bearers, along with Active Past Pesidents and the Office bearers of the CEC for the immediate preceding year, together, form the Central Executive Committee.
Catholic SAbha, was bifurcated from Catholic Sabha Mangalore Pradesh® With the formation of Udupi Diocese from 1-4-2013. Udupi Diocese has 51 Parish Units, 5 Varado(Deanery) Units and 1 Central Executive Committee.
Membership: All Adult Practicing Catholics of age 18 years are eligible to be the members of CSUP, pledging allegiance to the Constituition of CSUP, along with application for Membership.
Genesis of Cathoic Sabha:
Vatican Council-II, paved the way for Laity active role in the Catholic Church. As a part of initiative to participate in the Royal, Prophetic and Priestly mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Formation of Catholic Sabha Mangalore Pradesh was a result of similar initiative by the Laity in Mangalore Diocese.
On 29th April 1979, at Don Bosco Hall Udupi , then Bishop of Mangalore, Rt Rev Dr Basil S. Dsouza inaugurated Catholic Sabha Mangalore Diocese . 122 Representatives of 88 Parishes, along with distinguished Laity ad Religious leaders were present. Rev Fr Stanley Pereira was the Founder Spiritual Director and Mr Oscar Fernandes was the Founder President.
Achievements Catholic Sabha:

1. Political awareness: conducted awareness campaigns on the rights responsibilities as citizens of the country and provide guidance and encouragement for participation in electoral process at all levels.

2. Career Guidance: motivation & assistance to youth for higher, professional education.
Played a key-role in starting the First Grade College at Shirva.
Put in great efforts to open schools at Madantyar.

3. Mediation: to resolve some disputes between the employees and management of Fr. Muller’s Hospital,Mangalore.
Has strived hard to solve the dispute that arose between the Mudarangady Church and the public with regard to the church compound.
Has tried to find a solution to the problems of the teachers of the catholic Board Education by approaching the President and secretary of the CBE.
Has worked to find a solution to the problems of the Christians by meeting the Goodwala Minority Commission appointed by the govt. of Karnataka at its sitting in Mangalore.
When a problem of languages arose among the catholics in Bangalore, the Sabha interacted with the concerned parties and tried its best to resolve the issue amicably.
4. Organisation of Community: Decennial celebration of the Sabha with the participation of Sri George Menezes, the President of the All India catholic Union and released a Soouveier to commemorate the occasion.
Has collected the addresses of most of the catholic graduates.
Grand celebration of Silver jubilee of Catholic Sabha, on 1st may 2004. Shri. J Alexander the honorable tourism Minister of the govt. of Karnataka was one of the chief guest.
Organized the ‘World convention of Canara Konkani Catholics on 26-27 December 2004at Mangalore

5. Agitations and Rallies for Rights of the community: Leadership in organising the massive rally of 1 lakh 10 thousand people at Mangalore, in support of of reservation for Dalit Christians.
Guided and encouraged community members tio contest the electons and win places in the Senate and Syndicate of the Mangalore University.
6. Promotion and Establishment of 5 Co-operative societies.
7. Movemenet for providing basic needs of marginalized the families in the Parish.
8. Advocacy of community need to get political positions (from the Panchayat member to the Prime Minister, Vice President and President of India).
9. Personality Development of Youth: Orgaised regular Annual Competetions -Elocution, Essay writing and Ex tempore speech-for personality development of the youth and children of our community.
Established and arranged corpus for ‘Annual Late Denis D Silva Memorial Annual Essay competitions and Creative writing Workshops’, to encourage young writers/Journalists
10. Installations of Awards: Installed Annual ‘Dante Memorial Annual Literary Awards’ to felicitate and honour writers of our community, to encourage writers in languages other than Konkani.
11. Established Specialised Institutions: “Manasa Rehabilitation and Training Centre, for mentally challenged children at Pamboor near Shirva, in 1997. There are 160 children at present at this centre..
12. Upholding Social Dignity: Has worked for the reintroduction of the Christmas holidays that were cancelled by the Mangalore University .
13. Assistance to the needy: Collected donations and gave Rs 1 lakh compensation, to the family of the late Canute Crasta, who died in an accident ;
Contributed funds to the martyrs of the Kargil war, Rs 1 lakh each to the physically handicapped children of Palimar and Badyar Parishes,
Rs 50 thousand to St. Joseph’s Engineering college and
Established a Medical Relief Fund for helping the poor patients.
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14. Health Cards: Health Card facility of Free inpatient and out patient treatment at Manipal Group Hospitals, to every family of the Diocese, 14,000 families of Udupi Diocese enrolled in 2017-18.
15. Established Sashakt Samudaya Seva Trust : financial assistance provided for the needy for higher studies, health and housing.
16. Established Revolving Scholarship Fund : to encourage Youth to take up Professional Careers in Essential Vocations: Law, Journalism, Chartered Accountancy, Teachers in Govt Schools/Colleges, Public Service and Social Work: Medical Psychiatry & Community Development.
17. Awareness and Assistance campaigns to popularize Govt facilities of Minority Department and Development Corporation.
Major projects of Catholic Sabha Udupi Pradesh:
1. Manasa Rehabilitation and Training centre Pamboor Udupi.
2. Sashakt Samudaya Seva Trust-a charitable trust to help the needy
3. Amcho Sandesh- Konkani Monthly in the 27th year of publication.
4. Danthi Memorial Annual Literary Awards
5. Denis D Silva Memorial Annual Competitions for creative writings
6. Annual Elocution competitions and Effective Public Speaking workshops
7. Help line to help our students