Infant Jesus Church Dombivli

Infant Jesus Church, Dombivli is church dedicated to Infant Jesus, and situated in Dombivli in Kalyan taluka of Thane district, near Mumbai.

History

The origin of the church can be traced to 1960, When few immigrant catholic families settled down in the township, with the passing time the registered population steadily grew, in 1970 there were about 100 families, These families for spiritual and Sunday obligations had to go either to Our lady of Lourdes Church, Kalyan or St John the Baptist, Thane. Realizing the difficulty Fr Joseph Victoria a retired priest from Clergy home Bandra volunteered to come to Dombivli to offer Sunday Mass, As there was no appropriate place, Mr Almeida and Mr Nathan offered their courtyard in Bhavan Chawl for Sunday Mass.

Later With the effort of Mr A.J. George The Rotary Club of Dombivli offered their Gokhale Hall for Sunday masses here Dombivli-Thakurli Catholic Association was established which in turn approached the parish priest of Our lady of Lourdes Church, Fr Francis Pereira with a request to set up a church in Dombivli-Thakurli area, Who in turn purchased a plot in 1973 from Mrs. Antoinette Bhagwath, The first Midnight mass took place on Dec 1974 and was dedicated to Infant of Jesus of Prague with Fr Jose Vincent as the first priest. The dream was accomplished for Catholics.

In 1992 Fr Thomas Kuruvilla, visualised new church with more capacity, the credit of building basic Christian community and the new larger building goes to Him, which was accomplished on 22 Feb 1997.

Currently the parish has 3500 families, 12 zones and is headed by Fr Peter Dcunha, along with Fr. Jeffrey, Agnelo Gracias, Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay.