Claretians – LIFE, Dindigul

Claretians-LIFE is situated in the rural setting of Dindigul District, Tamil Nadu. It was initiated in 1998 with a small structure to empower laity and form them as evangelizers. It has now more facilities with many rooms. The normal programs conducted are: training for lay evangelizers, formation and training of Friends of Jesus and Disciples of Jesus, on-going formation for the already trained evangelizers, Bible seminars and regular Bible classes and family counselling. The centre is also made available for other groups and religious for their own training and on-going formation program. So far, eight batches of lay people have been trained and were awarded as lay evangelisers at our centre numbering around 330.

The ninth batch is started now. Apart from them, other 500 lay people have attended the classes without finishing the entire course. About more than 2,000 youth must have passed through LIFE Centre taking part in one or another faith formation program. About 100 families have undergone family counselling. The Province of Chennai also uses the centre every now and then for different program of the Province.

The community also has the associated ministry of Mission Parish called “Our Lady of Lourdes Church” at Vembarpatti, which was entrusted to the care of the Claretian Missionaries by the Diocese of Dindigul in 2017. It has one substation called “St. Xavier’s Church” at Vadugapatti. The total catholic families of the parish are 160 as in 2019.