This is to thank Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas for openly voicing out the hardships Catholic community is facing in Goa, on 3rd of this month at Old Goa feast while delivering his sermon. In the past no Catholic Leader of the Goa Church gathered courage to preach like this. My compliments to Bishop Mascharenhas. Our Church since te invasion of Goa by Bharat on 19.12.61 is living in fear of the majority community because our Church leaders have no trust in Indian SECULARISM though it is constitutional. Secondly, many in the majority community are become communal. Any humiliation, any hardship and any discomfort to Catholics in Goa are silently absorbed by the Catholic Church leadership in Goa without even a murmur openly. When Catholics were put into inconvenience, leader of Catholicism in Philippines revolted against the government of Ferdinand Marcos. So did Fr. Torres in South America. So much so, Fr. Torres turned like a Terrorist against government machinery there to protect his Christian duty to serve the downtrodden.
Bishop Mascarenhas said “Catholic Church and its community is a faithful and a peace loving community involved in nation building”. Moreover, Catholic community is a strong patriotic community not only in Goa but also in India. If not then General Francis Sunit Rodrigues a Goan would not have been elevated to the position of Army Chief of India and the other Christians namely Admirals Ronnie Pereira and Stan Dawson would not serve as chiefs of the naval staff and Air Chief Marshall Denis de la Fontaine as chief of air staff. The greatest patriots among Goans who fought for Goa’s freedom from colonial rule were Goan Catholics like Pintos & Abe Faria from Candolim and Parliamentarian Francis Luis Gomes from Navelim. Moreover, the Pintos were Catholic Priests who indicated greatest patriotism for Goa than for their vocation.
Our Church authority is afraid that its protest over unfair treatment to Catholics may be misunderstood because those who put fear in Catholics in Goa feel they are more Indians and Christians are less. Unfortunately, in Goa there is no leader from our community to fight for us openly but rightly. Even the late Mathanay Saldanha the Cabinet Minister on whom we were counting so much remained a silent spectator when Parricar dismantled Christian holidays. And regretfully, currently there is not a single MLA in BJP group on whom Christians can count on their open support. They look so slavish that to please Parsencar and Parricar they would condescend to any level.
I admire Bishop Mascarenhas for being open and vocal in putting forth our grievances. It is time for Christians now to be assertive of their rights forcefully and peacefully. By opening our mouth if our Church authority feels it is useless then by closing our mouth it is any better?
Goan Christians are great patriots, their patriotism and their contributions in the development of Goa and India should be highlighted in the Church sermons regularly and also taught in the Diocesan schools so that they are known for what they did for Goa. The new and young generation of Goans are not well aware of what our elder Christians have done for the cause of Goa.
A.Veronica Fernandes.