Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Kalena Agrahara
Situated near Mount St. Joseph, Kalena Agrahara,was a village of about 300 people of whom only 60 were Catholics. They were said to be the descendants of a single progenitor who settled down here form Chikkakammanahalli. A small church with some paintings of Br. Bignami was built for the Catholics of that village. Fr F. Viegas added a grotto of our Lady of Lourdes when he was in charge.The first Rector of MSJ, Fr J. C. Pereira SJ, was himself taking care of the pastoral needs of the people. For many years it was a substation of Chikkakammanahalli. But as the Jesuit community was going to be a stable entity there, the Jesuits were given certain functional autonomyby Archbishop Pothacamury.
As there were a number of priests and scholastics looking after them, the Catholics received a good amount of Christianity. The original church was built for a small congregation. After 40 odd years, the population of the village and its surroundings multiplied manifold, and the building was found to be too small. The idea of a new church came up. On the same spot where once stood a small chapel, there now stands a magnificent large church, spacious and colourful, at KalenaAgrahara.It is the fruit of the hard work of the PP Fr AnandPrabhu. It was inaugurated on 6 Dec 1998 by the Provincial Fr Ronnie Prabhu and blessed by Archbishop Ignatius Pinto.
Though the boundaries of the parish were demarked in 1993, it was only in 2002 that KalenaAgrahara became a full-fledged parish. Fr Maxim Rasquinha was the first Parish Priest in the full sense. With the extensionof Bangalore city limits, a lot of families and also a few religious congregations have come and settled down here. To respond to the growing needs of people English masses were introduced, groups like St Vincent De Paul Society, Jesuit Volunteers, Marian Sodality, choir group, youth group, women’s group, ward groups, divine Mercy Prayer group started to function.
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