DIOCESE OF SAGAR: Diocese

Diocesan Map

Diocesan Emblem

Diocesan Patroness

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

History of Sagar Diocese

The diocese of Sagar was erected as an Apostolic Exarchate by the bull ‘Quo Aptius’ dated July 29, 1968, cutting out from the Archdiocese of Bhopal the civil districts of Sagar, Raisen and Vidisha. Again at the request of the Bishop of Ajmer-Jaipur, the district of Guna was added to the Exarchate of Sagar by the decree of ‘De Bono Animarum’ on 2^nd April, 1973. The civil district of Guna was further bifurcated on August 15, 2003 to form the district of Ashoknagar. At present, diocese of Sagar consists of five civil districts in Madhya Pradesh, namely Sagar, Raisen, Vidisha, Guna and Ashoknagar. The Holy See by its decree ‘Divina Verba’ on 26^th February 1977 raised the Apostolic Exacrchate to the Status of a proper diocese. The diocese covers an area about 40,000 sq. kms. Bp. Clemens Thottungal CMI was the first bishop of the diocese. Bp. Joseph Pastor Neelankavil CMI succeeded him as second bishop of the diocese. After his retirement in the year 2006, Bishop Anthony Chirayath is the Bishop of the diocese.

The area is rather under developed due to various social, economic and cultural reasons. 85% of the people are farmers or farm-workers. The labour is not well organised, and consequently a lot of exploitation prevails. 80% of the people are Hindus belonging to various castes and the rest are Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Adivasis and a very small minority of Christians. Out of the total population of 6 million peoples, the Christians are only 12,000 of which 7,000 are Catholics.

The various Socio-Pastoral, Medical and Educational apostolates of the Church are being carried out in the diocese under the Sagar Diocesan Service Society, which is a registered society under the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

The diocese has 15 parishes and about 55 mission centres. Through various pastoral activities, the missionaries take care of the spiritual needs of the Catholics and other Gospel proclaiming programmes. There are many developmental programmes by which the poor farmers and poverty stricken people are helped. Missionaries in Sagar have always tried to venture in to new areas of apostolate according to the need.

General Statistics

Catholics	3,361
Parishes	15
Mission Stations	55
Diocesan Priests	62
Religious Priests	19
Religious Brothers	04
Religious Sisters	261
Seminarians	29
Priests ordained for other dioceses/congregations from the Eparchy	04
Educational Institutions	19
Social Welfare Centres (Orphanage, Hostels, Rehabilitation Centres)	22
Health Care Centre (Hospital/Dispensaries)	06
Centre for Religious harmony	01
Press	01