TAIPING : The Taiping Catholic parish held a food and fun festival on Oct 4 to raise funds for the repair of the roof and flooring of St Louis Hall. The St Louis Hall, which is situated adjacent to the present St Louis Church building, had fallen into disuse since the wooden floor and roof of the double story building were infested with white ants and had collapsed.

The St Louis Parish Hall had been used as the parish church before, replacing the first all wooden St Louis Church. It in turn was replaced by the third and present St Louis Church built by Msgr I.J. Aloysious in 1938.

After the new church was built, the second old church building was used as St John Bosco School, before it became St Louis Parish Hall when the school closed down.

Another objective of the Parish Food & Fun Festival was for the parishioners to experience the sharing of the theme: One Bread, One Cup, and One People with one another. This was achieved by the friendly participation of a great number of parishioners in one way or another. Many were involved in the food preparation and sale.

Parish priest Fr David Lourdes declared the Food Festival open after a short speech and the grace before meals.

The Food Festival is the second parish event for 2009 with the Basic Ecclesial Communities taking the responsibility for organizing it under the able chairmanship of Cyril Santhanasamy.

The event was expected to raise RM 40,000. The turnout at the festival was very good with the stalls often having clients waiting patiently in line for their share of the food.

In his closing speech, Fr David expressed satisfaction at how the parishioners demonstrated their cooperation, understanding, tolerance, and enthusiasm. He was happy to note that parishioners who usually did not come to church were also there to participate and support the food fair. — By Raphael A.T. Ng