PANAJI
The solemn Eucharistic celebration will be presided over by Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao and Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general at Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India will join the celebration.
The Pilar Sisters are presently spread in six archdioceses of Goa and Daman, Simla-Chandigarh, Gandhi Nagar, Agra, Bhopal and Miao, involved in pastoral work, social activities and health care in 14 communities spread all over India.
The history of the Pilar Sisters goes back to 1942 when then archbishop Don Jose Da Costa Nunes had envisaged in one of his messages to the Pilar Society, that the Society of Missionaries of St Francis Xavier, at a later stage would have a similar society
for women.
The X General Chapter of the Society at its session in 1975 had discussed and debated the proposal and two years later, decided to start an association of girls with a genuine apostolic vocation and zeal with a view to form a congregation of its own.
In 1985, five girls wrote to the Superior General of the Pilar Society that they wanted to start a new religious institute based on ideals of the Society of Pilar.
Two years later, the Superior General of the Society of Pilar recommended to the Archbishop to consider their request for a provisional recognition as a Pious Association. Approval for the Statues of the Association of Pilar Sisters was granted provisionally for three years by then Archbishop Raul N Gonsalves in August 1988.
After the approval of the Statutes, the first group of five candidates made their first pledge at Our Lady of Pilar Church in Pilar, in
the presence of Archbishop Gonsalves.
The First General and Elective Assembly of the Association of Pilar Sisters was held on October 31, 1988 at Khanwel, Dadra Nagar-Haveli. Sr Nina Lopes was elected as first president of the Association in 1988.
Archbishop Gonsalves then requested the Association of Pilar Sisters to come to the territory of Goa. Fr Galdino Monterio was instrumental in getting the house of late Dr Inacinho Monteiro from Loutolim, which serves as a principal house of Pilar Sisters.
