St. Lawrence’s Church Wagle Estate

Where once mango groves and lush green paddy fields regined supreme, one finds today only a concrete jungle. It was inevitable, when accommodation became an cute problem within Bombay city limits, people flocked to distant suburbs in search of cheap residential quarters. So, natural habitat gave way to human habitat. Thus, came up D’ Souza Wadi, Sivaji Nagar, Shanti Nagar, Hira Moti Nagar and lot of other ‘Nagars’ in and around Wagle
Estate area.

People living in these areas had to naturally fulfil their religious obligations. To serve this purpose, today stands a loft a simple and elegant St. Lawrence Church- a symbol of people’s perseverance and devotion. It carries with it a history that is marked by sheer hard work, sincerity of purpose, paucity of funds and close co-operation between laity and the clergy.
The story goes back to 1964-65. Very few Catholic families then resided here and went

to attend Sunday Mass either at St. John the Baptist Church, Thane, or St. Joseph’s Church, Vikhroli. While people walked adistance off 7 Kilometres to reach Thane church in the absence of a direct bus service, Vikhroli was accessible either by train or by bus.

Meanwhile, Associated Cement Company at Mulund had made arrangements for its workers and nearby people to attend Sunday Mass in its premises. A priest from Thane used to come and offer Mass at the small shed built in the compound. “Going for Mass at the Cement Company was slightly better than going for Mass at Thane or Vikhroli. But it had its own problems, specially during rainy season, says Mrs. Caroline D’ Souza (77), who has had a ring-side view of the developments that led to the building of the present Sr. Lawrence church.
Then in 1970, Fr. Valerian Godinho started St. Pius Colony at Nahur and people found it convenient to go there to fulfil their religious needs. When Mgr. Vincent Gonsalves arrived as the parish priest of Thane, an Episcopal Decree declared that people living beyond the Check Naka nullah belonged to Thane parish. This created lot of hardships to people of Wagle Estate area as they were fulfilling their religious Duties at St. Pius X Church ever since it was started. Reaching the Thane church was inconvenient as

there was no direct transport available. It became very difficult for people to organize their baptisms, holy communions, weddings and burials. Whenever people approached St. Pius Church, they were told to approach Thane parish. Even school admissions were stopped. Sending school children to St. John proved to be very laborious and expensive because school bus did not come to Wagle Estate then.