St. Thomas Church, Cheriyala, Warangal (2008)

In the beginning, this parish was a substation for Nermetta parish later shifted to Kanchanapalli Parish and Fr. Thiranjan was taking care of the spiritual needs of the parish. Later on, the parish was given to the care of SVD priests working in the Janagoan Parish. Fr. Rego was the first priest to support the needs spiritually and constructed the church existing at present with the support of the parish faithful. The sisters of presentation congregation started an English medium school in 1999. Inna Reddy, ThummaChelma Reddy, and Later some more families like BeereddyRayapu Reddy, GopuPapi Reddy joined them. For the spiritual needs of the people Beereddy Inna Reddy contributed a piece of land for the church construction. Later GopuPapi Reddy In the year 1921 some Catholics migrated to Cheriyala from Podapadu, Patibandla villages of Guntur district. They were Beereddy Inna Reddy, Yeruva Inna Reddy, kandhula Marreddy, udumula contributed 2 acres of land for the cemetery for the faithful departed. In 1951 Fr. Sundar Charles constructed a Chapel. The present Church is constructed by Fr. Rego, SVD on 21- 12-1989 and was blessed by Bishop Thumma Bala on 7-6-1990. This Parish is given to us in the year 2008. Fr. Ambrose along with then Provincial superior Fr. Roy John, Fr. Balaswamy and Fr. Anand Bhaskar have taken charge.

At present there are 55 families and 200 Catholics in this village. These are all traditional Christians living their faith with their daily Eucharistic celebration, adorations, rosary and celebrations of the church with serenity and unity. After our arrival to the parish, they have regular masses unlike other years before; they had hardly once in a month. They are so happy to be under the spiritual care of our Holy Spirit Fathers. Not only spiritual support but with the good education, most of the children got educated and went abroad for studies and working as well. Now the parish have reached to the 100 years of their village foundation and getting ready to thank the lord for all the graces received by the almighty with the jubilee celebration.