Udupi: The annual feast of St Lawrence Shrine, Karkala Attur will be celebrated from January 25 to 29 sad Fr George D’Souza Rector of the Shrine.
He was addressing the mediapersons at the press club here on Friday January 23. The Celebrations will begin on Sunday January 25 with the Confraternity Sunday Holy Eucharist at 7:30 am which will culminate with the Eucharistic Procession.
On Monday 26 January a special Eucharistic Celebration has been arranged at 10:00 am for children and senior citizens it will be at 3:30 pm. On that day vehicles will be permitted very close to the church to enable the elders to participate in the special mass without any hurdles
About 39 Holy masses will be offered during the festival. Apart from Konakni there will be mass in Kannada, English and Malayalam too. Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo, bishop of Udupi, Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza Bishop of Mangalore, Dr Francis Serrao, Bishop of Shimoga and Dr Lawrence Mukkuzhy, Bishop of Beltangady will be present and will offer the prime mass.
Fr George also said that for the safety and security of the devotees and pilgrims we have installed 48 CCTV cameras and will be installing 16 more cameras at the festival arena. On the eastern side of the shrine more space is created for the convenience of the pilgrims and devotees so that they offer their prayers, petitions and light candles without any hassles. The Sacrament of confession for the Catholics would be administrated on the western side of the shrine in the newly constructed block. The old church will be available only for quiet personal prayers and meditations.
On the eastern side of the church there will a big space for those who would be offering their prayers, petitions and all kinds of offerings. The holy water and flower (Thirtha and Pushpa Prasda) will be given there itself. Clean and hygienic drinking water is available at three places around the shrine.
Around 40 toilets/Washrooms are available on the left side of the main entrance to the shrine. There will be separate toilets for the differently abled and senior citizens. For law and order and for the safety and security of the pilgrims there will be a host of police personnel monitoring the shrine arena 24×7. Apart from the regular police personnel, the Reserve Police team and bomb diffusing squad will also be stationed.
Under the help of Vinay Kumar Sorake district minister in-charge and Gopal Bhandary former MLA Karkla, all roads have been re-constructed for the convenience of the devotees. Ample space is been created for parking the vehicles of devotees. The Home guards will monitor the parking area. To avoid traffic jam on Kabettu route, the route has been reorganised. Vehicles will exit via Pulkeria-Doopadakatte so that those who come to the shrine, come at ease and park their vehicles closer to the shrine. Those who come via Doopadakatte will park their vehicles on the left of the Dwara near Doopadakatte and on the left and right side before Garden House. Those who come via Kabettu, parking space is arranged near Prasad tailor junction, on the High School ground arrangements have been are made for two wheeler parking.
Begging is strictly prohibited in and around the shrine. The contribution given by the devotees for charity will be distributed to all the needy on 30 January at 12 noon along with lunch. The special attraction of this year’s festival is the Bible based “Thala Maddale” programme called Mahachethana on Tuesday January 27 morning at 2 am.
Fr Denis D’Sa PRO of the diocese; Goerge Castelino Nakre, national-level award winning teacher; Richard Pinto vice president and Santhosh D’Silva Secretary of Parish pastoral council were present.
