Today, 17thNovember is the birthday of the late Pe. Nicholau Noronha who was the Pe. Vigar of Candolim Church. He was an exceptionally gifted priest born and brought up in Margao and not in the land of “Khapri” to behave with the parishioners like a Khapri. His term in Candolim was a golden period for the locals with whom irrespective of their religions he had very good rapport. He treated the parishioners with respect and dignity without barking like a dog from the Altar against the parishioners by even cursing them like a Lucifer. Personal matters of parishioners he never raised in his sermons but instead if found wrong he called the wrong doer privately in his room and discussed the relevant matter for satisfactory result. He never liked to insult any parishioner from the Altar and his sermons were very philosophical and full of matter besides being precise. He desliked wasting precious time of the parishioners by unnecessarily harping on one topic a hundred times. He was a very decent priest coming from genuinely decent family background having a very high intellectual capacity.
It was somewhere in 1954 he was appointed as Pe. Vigar of Candolim Church from Rachol Seminary where he was a Professor of Philosophy and immediately he took up the job of building the left side Church Tower which was collapsed on 18th August 1948. To rebuild this Tower he did not tax the local parishioners but by using his intelligence with the help of undeclared sources he got the work completed nicely. Today if one sees that Tower again it is because of his tireless efforts. The collapse of the Tower and the history of this Church was beautifully decribed by the late Alexinho de Candolim in his most memorable song “Torre Moddon Ekan Ek Organvancho Churo Zaun Gelo”.
Then he planned the construction of School building in early sixties but to his dismay the Bishop of Goa transferred him from Candolim leaving this herculean task of building the School into the hands of Pe. Alvito Vaz who was his Pe. Cur.
During his tenure in Candolim, the parishioners were very happy. He was not creating nuisance for the parishioners by acting like a Hitler. During his time to avoid his arrogance and pride, no parishioner was going to the neighbouring village Churces.
He was like a fatherly figure to the villagers. One day one lady in our Vaddo fell very sick and everyone thought she is going to die. Pe. Vigar Noronha was called to give the last sacrament to the sick lady. When Pe. Vigar saw the lady he asked “why she was not shown to the doctor?” When he came to know that it was because of money problem, he answered saying “why didn’t you tell me? I am not only your Pe. Vigar looking after your spiritual need but I am also your father looking after your material need as well”. Then he hired a Taxi, took the sick lady to Panjim hospital, all the expenses borne by him and within few days the sick lady returned home cured.
In my village one man fathered an illegitimate male child and refused to marry the mother of that child even when the child attained the age of 6. When Pe. Vigar Noronha got this news, he called the father, warned him of dire consequences if he refuses to marry the girl who borne him the male child. Though reluctant yet finally he succumbed to the warning of Pe. Vigar, got married and had a nice married life.
There was also one unmarried man in our village who was everyday visiting his concubine who was a widow. One day Pe. Noronha stopped him and warned him to change his sinful life otherwise he said he will not allow his burial in the Cemetry. The man then changed his life.
In 1959 one man in our village at Orda committed a suicide by hanging himself. When the time came for his funeral, Pe. Noronha refused him the burial in the Cemetry and thus he was buried outside the Cemetry.
His motto as a Christian leader was to inculcate spiritual discipline into the parishioners. Because of him the parishioners were leading a good moral life as not seen even today. He disliked immorality and would not accept any donation from a person known to live an immoral and sinful life. Any person living an immoral life he would not allow that person to do Church service. He would not allow “Pamprelam” in the Church service neither male rascals. If he was alive now he would never allow those with questionable character to distribute the Holy Communion. Allowing any Altu-Faltu person to distribute holy communion is become a big joke because many of the Pe.Vigars are themselves become big jokers. Some Pe. Vigars even selected their concubines for this job.
Pe. Noronha was a very good preacher and as such he was known almost everywhere. He was not a casteist even though a high caste priest but never believed in caste system which he said goes against the teachings of Christ. He disliked the casteism going on in the Church and preached a lot against casteism. He said once that those priests practicing casteism have got no right to wear the priestly robes and preach virtues to the faithful, such priests are traitors, he opined.
To show their pleasure the local Brahmins when he joined Candolim Church organized a lavish reception for him with a gift of a big Radio Set. But true to his genius of intellectual capacity he told them openly thus “you should not have spent so much of money for this reception. I don’t need it, neither the gift of Radio Set; I already have one with me. Instead you should have spent this whole amount for feeding the local poor some of whom may be starving”. Even for Sunday’s collection he was not very particular. He did not have the craze for money because as he said once “craze for money and Satanic acts go together”.
He was very choosy in accepting donations for the Church activities. Once one lady doing domestic job with meagre wages went to him with a donation of one hundred rupees (in Portuguese Escudos). When he asked her from where she brought this money which was a big amount at that time, replied she, “it is my saving from many years”. Then Pe. Vigar replied saying “you are a poor domestic woman and you must have made immense sacrifices to save this amount for your personal need. Please keep this money for you only for any emergency need. God will reward you for this kind gesture but your needs are more than the need of the Church which will never end”. To this I add, Church needs will remain unending when the Pe. Vigars are corrupt like politicians.
He also said that priests must never accept donations from those people who collect money thru illicit means and if he was alive he would surely refuse donations given to the Church by the current corrupt rascal politicians who accumulated wealth thru bribe and extortion which are sinful methods of accumulating wealth.
Today I write this piece to highlight the greatness of this Pe. Vigar of whose type we are not getting anymore anywhere in Goa leave aside in Candolim and for this reason Catholics are suffering from moral degradation because many of our Church leaders are morally corrupt. If our Church leaders are corrupt then naturally there will be corrupt faithful. Let us pray for them. Amen.
May the soul of our late Pe. Vigar Rest In Pepace.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim,
Goa.