Bonpara (eng)
Bonpara
Our Lady of Lourdes - consecrated in 1940
From "Catholic beginnings in north Bengal" by Fr. Luigi Pinos
On the fall of 1926, Francis Kandra Gomes, Bichanti Corraya, and Monai Costa came to explore Bonpara, via Mathurapur and Chamta, where they visited Nagar Rosario who was still living all alone.
Then in February 1927 the heads of eight families came to settle down permanently.
They were the above-mentioned Kandra, Bichanti, and Monai plus Peter Poju Gomes, Tona Costa Alshia, Pocha Palma, Ali Cruz, and Thema Costa.
All these people belonged to the old Christian community of Bhawal, a zone twenty miles north of Dhaka. By the end of the twenties, there were large groups of Dhaka Catholics all around Borni and Bonpara. Borni and Bonpara had the first visit of a priest on February 7, 1928 when Fr. L. Martinelli, PIME came from Krishnagar. The second priest to visit them was Fr. G. Obert, PIME who, in 1930, came from Dhanjuri to Bonpara to bless four marriages.
Ten years later, in 1940, Bonpara was made a parish, with Fr. P. Carnevale, PIME as its first parish priest. Other pastors of Bonpara who deserve to be mentioned here are Fr. T. Cattaneo, PIME, Fr. L. Verpelli, PIME who built the church and ministered to his flock with overflowing Ambrosian zeal, Fr. A. Maggioni, PIME who started the Mission High School, Fr. L. Pinos, PIME, Fr. O. Gerlero, PIME whose name shall be remembered because of the many buildings erected by him in the parish, and Fathers A. Baio, PIME and G. Beretta, PIME who built the outstanding structure of the High School.