Bay Area Tamil Catholic Community - BATCC

Area Served

About Bay Area Tamil Catholic Community - BATCC

The Bay Area Tamil Catholic Community was started in August, 2003. There were many hands that helped to form this community, but the foundation was laid by a group of students from St. Joseph’s college, Trichy, India. In the late 1990’s, there were many techies from St. Joseph’s college in Trichy, India, who came to the San Francisco Bay Area for work. Most of them were Catholics. They stayed --in close contact with each other and participated as one family on all the important religious occasions like Christmas, New Year’s and Easter Masses. This in turn invited other Tamil Catholics to join through their contacts. Back in April, 2003, about 30 families jointly celebrated Easter at Lake Elizabeth Park in Fremont, CA.After this great celebration, we established contact with Fr. Paul Varuvel from New York. Back then, he visited the San Francisco Bay Area every year during summer for a diocesan appeal. This really geared us to have a Tamil Mass on his next visit in August, 2003. The very first Tamil Mass was celebrated by Fr. Paul Varuvel on Friday August 1, 2003, at St. Joseph’s Parish in Mountain View, CA. About 40 families attended the Mass, and everyone was interested in having a Tamil Mass once a month.Around that time, we established contact with Fr. Selva S.J. who is also an alumnus of St. Joseph’s College, Trichy, who was completing his PhD at U C Berkley, CA. He was willing to say Tamil Mass and celebrated his first Mass with our group on September 13, 2003 (2nd Saturday).We are blessed to have dedicated Tamil Catholic Priests in past and present service in our community. They are the guiding force for our community’s religious growth. They are always with us whenever we need them. That helps our community grow in strong Catholic faith.