Enselwatte, Sri Lanka. The Selvakanda quasi-parish, administered by the Claretian Missionaries since February 2020, was raised to the status of a parish on February 20, 2022 by Most Rev. Dr. Raymond Wickramasinghe, Bishop of Galle. The official name of the parish is “Our Lady of Madhu Parish, Enselwatte” or simply “Enselwatte Parish”. It covers 120 families spread in 13 places.
Fr. J.M.J. Jeyaseelan, CMF, Major Superior of St. Joseph Vaz Independent Delegation, Fr. Charles Hewawasam, Vicar General of Galle Diocese, and several priests and religious from Galle attended the ceremony. The faithful of the new parish and neighboring parishes and representatives from the estate management attended this grace-filled event which included the Holy Mass, during which 21 children received the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Fr. S.X. Ravikanth, CMF, was appointed by the bishop as the Parish Priest of the newly-erected parish, the 17th parish of the diocese of Galle. Fr. S. Jesuthasan, CMF, is the assistant parish priest in addition to his ministry as a teacher.
Enselwatte Parish becomes the 5th parish currently pastored and administered by the Claretians. They have four other parishes in the dioceses of Badulla, Batticaloa, Jaffna, and Mannar, where they can deepen the call of the Church for pastoral conversion and stress its charismatic contribution.
