Recently our Pe. Vigar while delivering his homily in the Church indicated his anguish over our village for not producing any single priest since last 39 years and lamented asking thus: “is this village a cursed village?”
First of all, the first statement was wrong. The last priest from Candolim was ordained on 21st December 1995, Fr. Lino Lopes, a Salesian.
Regarding the word curse, I must say here that it is not the village that is cursed but some of the priests attached to the Candolim Church were cursed, they were not creating atmosphere conducive to produce priests. These priests were Satanic priests in the garb of priestly robes. Candolim Church had the worst distinction of producing the Martin Luther of Goa in Pe. Alvito Vaz who established the independent Church of Cuncolim to support the casteists of Cuncolim who were known to dig the graves of the low caste Cuncolkar and put the dead bodies out of the cemetery.
Candolim Church got another worst distinction of producing two Judases who sold Candolim Church for a certain period of time to Amitabh Bachan to film a Hindi Film allegedly with a vulgar pose inside the Church, these Judases were Fr. Santimano and his the then assistant Fr. Cipriano. The former is dead I heard but the latter is still around in my neighbourhood doing the job of Pe. Vigar.
A century and half back the remains of one non-Bamonn Candoikar who was buried in the Candolim Cemetry, were installed in the wall at the entrance of the Church, inside right side when entering the Church thru the main door. When one old feudal lady of Pinto family next to the present Bosio Hospital, got this news, very philosophically and also sarcastically she asked all the Bamonn who were instrumental in preserving the remains of the commoner coming from one ordinary family known as Kanpinn, “KITEM KELEM RE TUMI, KANPINNICHEA PUTAK IGROZ VIKLI MURE?”. Listening to this comment from the old lady of famous Pinto family, the Bamonn from Candolim realized their folly. To undo this mistake, they secretly met the Pe. Vigar who was also a Bamonn and told him on one particular night during the rainy days to keep the main door of the Church partially open so that they come with Pickaxes, remove the bones and throw the same out into the field filled with water. As planned they did their job without anybody’s notice.
Next day there was hue and cry; Portuguese security personnel came, investigated but found nobody as culprit. They never doubted the Pe. Vigar but as a scapegoat, they arrested the Church “Pedo” whom they beat mercilessly to confess but they found him ultimately innocent. I don’t think there existed any Pe. Vigar as wicked as this from Candolim Church.
Just because Candolim village failed to produce a priest during the last so many years that does not mean the village is a cursed village. On the other side, Candolim village had unique distinction to produce great and holy priests like Father and Son (Farias), such a priestly duo – father & son - never appeared anywhere else on this planet in the history of Catholicism. The other great priest from Candolim were the makers of Pintos revolution. Still other great priest of Candolim was Pe. Chico Monteiro who shook India by fighting his case on the invasion of Goa by India. Special lawyer came from London deputed by Queen Elizabeth to fight for him in the court at Panjim in mid sixties. To fight for justice with Indian government was his pastoral duty and he fought bravely while others caved in. Besides there were other priests from Candolim who made Candolim proud, they were Pe. Estanislaus, Pe. Antonette, Pe. Romanos the founder of St. Theresa High School who later on doled it to the Candolim Church and some more.
Parents and schools are also responsible to create priestly vocations in their villages apart from the priests attached to the local parishes. But they have no time to devote for this job. Parents are busy in making money and priests are busy after worldly affairs thereby giving a very bad image of the priesthood. In such a situation, how there can be priestly vocations easily? And if you have in your Church a “Rostad” type of casteist Pe. Vigar who is arrogant, proud and money grabber, vocations will never come in our villages, let the concerned Pe. Vigars bark in the Churches as much as they can. These barking Pe. Vigars are responsible to repel the priestly vocations from our villages. The Pe. Vigars who are satanising the holy Altars by preaching curseful sermons will be responsible for bringing curses on our villages.
As per my informamation, very shortly a new Pe. Vigar will take charge of the Candolim Church; whoever he may be but for his smooth functioning he must be a very humble priest and not a proud one and a money conscious worldly priest. He should work hard to eradicate from Candolim the rampant concubinage going on where many of our Catholic females are become slaves of non-Christians. There are clashes among the members of Catholic community which should be sorted out amicably by the intervention of the “Gaumcho Pe. Vigar” instead of going to the court. The Pe. Vigar who is preaching from the Altar the “Zupattis” to the faithful is unable to clean this rot.
The second point is to arrest the spread of Call Girls menace in Candolim which spoils the image of the local girls. The current local atmosphere is not conducive to produce priestly vocations easily because the Satan who dubbed Candolim village as the cursed village himself is a cursed one whose contribution in the promotion of priestly vocations is ZERO. He is fit only to give from the holy Altar Zupattis like a Tiatrist to the locals who are eagerly waiting for his exit.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel. 7507394349.Candolim, Goa.