Our History
On June 24, 1980, Fr. John B. Thakur SJ was consecrated Bishop of Muzaffarpur Diocese in Bettiah.
On march 28, 1980, Muzaffarpur Diocese was created.
The diocese of Muzaffarpur at the time of this division comprised of 17 civil districts to the north of the River Ganges in the State of Bihar namely, Begusarai, Darbhanga, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Khagaria, Madhepura, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saharsa, Saran, Samastipur, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Siwan, Supaul, Vaishali and West Champaran. The Diocese mostly concentrated on charity, relief and non-formal education in its initial stages.
A group of people in the Diocese met monthly to plan and review the scope and capacities of the Diocese to engage in developmental works. In 1981, the Social Service Society of the Diocese started functioning informally with the support of Indo- German Social Service Society and Caritas India with a three day planning workshop conducted at Khrist Raja School, Bettiah.
The workshop came forth with a decision to conduct a baseline data collection to gather information on Social, Political, Educational and Cultural aspects of the reference population.
A need assessment was also initiated along with this. Mr. L. J David was appointed as its first Executive Director in 1983. Mr. James Seraphim took charge of the informal society in 1985.
By a decree of His Holiness, Pope John Pall II, dated August 4, 1998, the diocese of Muzaffarpur was bifurcated and the new diocese of Bettiah was erected comprising of five civil districts of Bihar namely, East Champaran,West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan and Saran previously under Muzaffarpur Diocese.
In 2001, the social service society got registered with the name “Muzaffarpur Diocesan Social Service Society” and started functioning as the Socio-Economic Development Office of the Diocese.
Even though the diocese was divided in 1998, its social functions were operated from Bettiah Seva Kendra. Mr. James Seraphim was its executive director till May, 2003.
In July 2003, a new Socio-Pastoral renewal center was constructed at Bibiganj, Bhagwanpur Chowk, Muzaffarpur and the social wing started functioning from its premises. Fr. Joseph Oreya was appointed the director of MDSSS in June 2003, followed by Fr. Julius in 2005, Fr. Saji Augustine in April 2006 and Fr. Maria Selvam in 2008.
Since May 2018, Fr. Peter Charles has been serving as the director