SANGUEM
The Chapel of Our Lady of Piety at Uguem-Sanguem will be elevated to a Parish Church on October 20, becoming the 165th parish in Goa. The new parish will form part of the Sanguem Deanery.
Issuing the Decree of Erection, Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, said the Catholic community under the chapel, along with Chaplain Fr Ivo Fernandes, SFX, had sought its separation from the Parish of Our Lady of Miracles, Sanguem, and its erection as a territorial parish, with the existing chapel as the Parish Church.
After consulting the Diocesan Council of Priests, the Dean of Sanguem and the parish priest of Our Lady of Miracles, the Cardinal said the chapel had adequate arrangements for the maintenance of worship, parish priest and personnel, its upkeep and a cemetery for burials, and met the requirements to become a parish church.
The decree formally detaches the chapel’s entire territory from Sanguem Parish and establishes the Parish of Uguem under the invocation of Our Lady of Piety, with the existing chapel as its Parish Church. Its territory has also been defined, and the decree was signed by the Archdiocesan Chancellor.
The Administrative Committee of the Cofre da Capela de Nossa Senhora da Piedade, Uguem, Sanguem, henceforth called the Cofre da Igreja, will be responsible for maintaining worship, the parish priest, ministers and personnel, and the church. The new parish will enjoy all rights and privileges provided by law.
Besides Goa’s 165 parishes, the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman has 11 parishes in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
‘God answered prayers of parishioners’
SANGUEM: Chaplain Fr Ivo Fernandes, SFX, said the elevation of the Chapel of Our Lady of Piety, Uguem-Sanguem, to a Parish Church on October 20 was a long-awaited dream. “Pray as though everything depended on God; act as though everything depended on you. This is exactly what the parishioners have done for years, and God answered their prayers,” he said.
Fr Fernandes said the dream of the chapel becoming a Parish Church had finally come true, leaving Uguem parishioners “excited and bubbling with joy”.
