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THE SPREAD OF THE CHRISTIAN
FAMILY MOVEMENT IN INDIA

The spread of CFM to parts of India was slow. It was mainly the clergy, the religious clergy in particular, who helped spread the Movement. Prominent among these priests were Fr.J.M.Cassasnovas, SJ, Fr.Anthony D'Souza, SJ, Fr. Oswald Dijkstra, ofm, Fr.Arnaut Pinto, SJ, Fr.Nascimento Mascarenhas, Fr.Antonio Rodrigues, CssR and others. Between 1959 and 1976 CFM spread to several cities and towns. There were CFM cells in Jamshedpur, South Calcutta, Panjim, Margao, Mapuca and Old Goa, Bangalore, New Delhi, Madras, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Ernakulam, Cochin, Chakradharpur (Bihar), Poona and Mumbai.

In the sixties, Archbishop Angelo Fernandes started three CFM groups in Delhi which caught the spirit of the CFM and kept at it. When his ecclesiastical duties did not permit him the time, he appointed Fr. Anthony D'Souza, SJ Director of the Indian Social Institute Delhi, to look after the CFM.

In Ernakulam, the CFM was sponsored by the United Christian Association as a means to foster unity between the families of the two rites who met simultaneously.

Tom & Tilly Colaco of the first CFM group at Holy Name, Colaba, returned to Bangalore after retirement. They took the CFM with them and established it in Bangalore in 1964 with the help of Fr. Oswald Dijkstra, ofm, as an answer to parents who had convened at the Catholic Club for a talk on "The Catholic Home Today". The couples wanted something for married people. There was enough interest and scope for starting the CFM there.

In August 1970, Jose Antonio and Alcina D'Souza of Mapuca wrote to say that the couples who had been meeting with Fr. da Veiga Coutinho had decided to adhere to CFM. CFM had taken off in Goa with three groups in Mapuca, Panjim and Margao. The group at Mapuca had Fr. Arnaut Pinto, SJ for their Chaplain.