FAREWELLS AND WELCOMES.

FAREWELLS AND WELCOMES.

These days in the Catholic Church in Goa transfers of the priests are going on in full swing. Old priests after completing their mandatory terms are transferred to the new locations and new priests are sent to replace the old locations. In this way farewells are given to those who leave and welcomes to those who come. Transfers according to my information are many times resisted because of the attachments to certain places by the priests. Because of the pressures and pulls by the priests, Panjim Altinho citadel of Catholicism conducts thorough scrutiny before finalising the transfers of the priests. Like Ministerial portfolios and Police postings some priestly postings are also very lucrative for which many of the priests are aspiring. So also there are some postings which are meant as punishment for certain priests. Our Catholic Church leadership is many times punishing some priests in a Hitlerian way thereby desecrating the principle of Christ. According to one source posting of priests to some coastal places in Bardez is like the lucrative PWD Ministerial portfolio and from where a long timer priest will simply not like to vacate.

When some priests in some villages attain the long tenure they become like naturalised citizens of those villages and in order to stick to these villages they do all nonsensical activities including political support to prevent Bishop’s Palace from transferring them from their already established village Churches. Some priests are as an act of Judas push their close friends in their localities and Churches to organise signature campaign to forward it to Bishop Palace so that Bishop stops their transfers. This type of chicanery goes when priests in their already established villages got firm grip over huge financial resources and also of best of concubines. Concubinage is very rampant in many of the villages where priests are involved and it is this sad parting of their concubines that make them hard to lose when they are transferred. The most affected priests due to their transfers are those who lose the close company of their concubines though they are easily replaceable in the new postings since this segment of women are easily accessible in every village and that too very cheaply. Females having close physical contacts with the priests are of very low strata of Goan society. Because of easy availability of concubines and plenty of Church money in many places, priesthood is become a very lucrative vocation. One priest openly told me that for a priest every existing luxury in life is easily available. During the invasion of Kuwait when expatriates started leaving Kuwait for their countries of origin, the most affected victims of this scenario were those involved in concubinage. I saw how one Goan man was bitterly crying while leaving Kuwait for separating from his Sri Lankan concubine of 7 years. This type of parting is a very sad and unbearable.

Money is the core of all evils and easy money in the name of God is the worst evil. Greed for money for worldly luxuries is an easy path to sinful life. When money flows in one’s hand easily, one is easily bound to misuse it. Judas did the same. He was in charge of the Cash and since money went into his hands without much of his personal efforts, he became slave of money leading finally to sell his own Guru, Jesus Christ. Many of the Churches are become fountains of excess money and when this money easily goes into the hands of some greedy and worldly priests, they are tempted to become slaves of money.

In many cases there is no transparency and no accountability of the money collected by the priests in the Churches. There is declaration of receipt of money thru donations and thru weekly and feastly collections but there is no declaration of how the received money has been spent. Even in the Gulf this trend is rampantly followed by the Church leaders giving an impression that the money given to the Churches by the faithfuls are gone into the hands of robbers. In one particular country in the Gulf the money collectors and money counters namely Sakistao – Kuzner – Bottler – Driver and other Church helpers built their own empires in Mangalore and Bombay because the Bishop of that Church accepted only the notes from the collections and not coins which he surrendered to those who were counting. If there is no proper transparency, the faithfuls should stop putting money in the collection boxes because it is going into the hands of wrong persons for sinful purpose. In most of the cases priests do not like the faithfuls to ask the accountability. This is like a robbery which goes against the teachings of Christianity. Because of such easy flow of money into the hands of priests many of them resist their transfers.

Kuwait Goans during the Konkani language agitation in Goa sent lakhs of rupees as donations for this Konkani campaign. Unfortunately, a good amount of Kuwait money went into the hands of wrong and crook people. Secondly Kuwait Goans went on giving donations without asking in return from the recipients accountability of their donations. Taking advantage of this situation, the recipients of Kuwait donations spent the Kuwait money for their personal benefits and luxuries thereby ignoring the cause for which the donation was sent. When there is no accountability from the recipients then there is danger of misusing the donated money by the recipients. The donors and money collectors must always make a point to ask for accountability. Even those involved in collecting funds for Church activities must do their Christian duty of asking accountability otherwise they will put the priests into sin of misusing the donated and collected funds. Kuwait Goans sent lot of money for the Church activities in Goa but many times its utility was wrongly done by the priests who received this donation.

One political scientist Prof. Laski says “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Many of the Churches are having their Diocesan Schools and normally the heads of these schools are Village Pe. Vigar or Pe. Cur. To become the head of one High School is not a joke but due to this appointment the Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs many times become corrupt, turning worldly and thereby forgetting their priestly duties. When they hold such top positions money and power go into their heads and many of them in many of the cases feel there is no end of them. They forget that they become priests not to attain worldly power to compete with other human beings. Because of this crude wordly power, many of the priests heading the Church Schools become victims of sex which they acquire illicitly from their own female teachers in their schools. One can easily check in one’s own Village Church School whether the priest principal or priest head master of the school is involved in such sex scandal or no.

The work of the priests should be related to Church affairs in the promotion of spiritual aspects of the faithfuls to save their souls though spreading the gospel of education is not wrong but to do this job as well do our priests have sufficient time? Surely no and hence they should be removed from the job of education especially those who are also doing the work of Per. Vigars and Pe. Curs. The greatest educationist of Goa was the late Fr. Philip Neri Mendonca the then Principal of Arpora School. He attained this peak because he confined himself only to one job of educationist and not of Pe. Vigar or Pe. Cur also of Arpora Church. In every village the discipline and quality of Catholics have gone down in Goa. Most of the corrupt and worst people in Goa are Catholics. Worst of the criminals, robbers and politicians are Catholics in Goa. This is happening in Goa now because our Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs are more involved in things which are not meant for priests. Spreading of education is no more a job of Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs. Two in One job is unattainable and as such Bishops should split these two jobs into two different persons.

Meantime, Farewell to those who finished their terms and welcome to the new comers.

A. Veronica Fernandes.

Saving the motherland is defamation according to the Goa Miners.

SAVING THE MOTHERLAND IS DEFAMATION ACCORDING TO THE GOA MINERS.
By Francis Sequeira.

If saving the Motherland is Defamation then I will die for the motherland.Francis Sequeira MUMBAI “DEFAMATION IS a serious offence in India; it's both a civil wrong as well as a criminal offence and the aggrieved party can initiate either a civil suit or file a criminal complaint. Or both. Filing a defamation case is a particularly useful SLAPP strategy, a neologism that stands for 'Strategic Legal Action against Public Participation' and signifies all manner of legal action initiated to harass those working on public interest issues,” writes Sajan Venniyoor in an article on thehoot.org, a media related website. G

Green activists from Goa are upset over the Rs 500 crore defamation suit filed against anti-mining activist Seby Rodrigues by Fomento Industries, at the Kolkata High Court. They feel that it is yet another ploy to stifle the freedom of speech of the tribal people of the state. Yet another tactic to suppress the agitating people into silence.Fomento claimed it was being defamed by Seby. Among the other prayers to the court, Fomento made to the Calcutta High Court was a claim of Rs 500 crores from Seby for the damages caused by the blog mandgoa.blogspotthat he manages.Questions are being raised as why the petition has been field in Kolkata in West Bengal, when the same could have been field in Goa state or the Bombay High Court. An editorial in Gomantak Times on the issue says: “The Rs 500 crore defamation suit alters the equation a bit.

While we agree that every aggrieved party has a right to approach the courts for redressal, in the case of Seby Rodrigues, we question why the case was filed in Kolkata and not Goa? Both Seby and Fomento are based in Goa, the mine in question is in Goa, why go to a far off place like Kolkata? One does not have to be Arun Shourie to conclude that the purpose is to transport Seby to a place where he has virtually no support and no access to friendly lawyers and to make it financially difficult for him to run the case. Hence the court case has two objectives – defamation and harassment. This approach was adopted to silence Rajan Narayan when he was editor of 'O Herald' and leaders of the anti-Meta Strips agitation.”It further adds, “It might be important to recall that an earlier attempt to neutralise Seby by labeling him as a Naxalite failed when the proof failed to match up to the charge.

Then, Seby emerged victorious and the sobriquet 'Naxalite Seby' was stuck on him by those who wished to easily identify him in a state, which probably has a thousand Sebys. Nobody is questioning the technicality of whether the case can be filed in Kokatta or not. But if justice is the issue then the case should be transferred to Goa where it can be heard. In other words, the Vice-President (Communications) who has filed the case should play with a straight bat.”It has been filed in far away Kolkata, so that poor Seby will have to travel back and forth endlessly and at major expense. Why Kolkata? Because it is the only High Court where you don’t have to deposit a percentage of the amount you are suing for.

To think that the blogspot run by Seby Rodrigues has caused a loss of Rs 500 crore to Fomentos, which has a mining lease in Colamb village is hilarious. However, the fact that the company has gone to lengths to file a defamation suit against Seby for reports published on his blog is proof that this Siolim-based green is a thorn in the flesh of the mining company. The petition filed by the company lists blog entries which are defamatory to it. We do not intend to discuss whether these entries are indeed defamatory or not. A court of law is the right platform to test this charge and if found guilty, Seby will have to face the penalty decided by the court. There aren't any other issues involved because the blog is not anonymous.

In that respect, Seby plays with a straight bat.Researcher and Lawyer Jason Keith Fernandes writing in his column in Gomantak Times brings yet another interesting story related to defamation: “The case of one Hans Dembowski, who subsequent to his research and the award of a PhD degree published a book, via the Oxford University Press titled Taking the State to Court – Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India. This book was concerned with the issue of governance in metropolitan India and sought to elaborate the manner, in which the Indian courts are playing a vital role in making public institutions more accountable.”

“Unfortunately for him however, two lawyers of Calcutta High Court, one of them being a government pleader, initiated a contempt petition before the Calcutta High Court stating that the book contains 'scurrilous derogatory and scandalous remarks against this Hon'ble Court' and has 'scandalised and/or tended to lower the authority of this court'. Acting on this petition, the Calcutta High Court in an interim order ensured that the national and international circulation of the book was stopped. Dembowski hangs in limbo ever since.”Did Fomento in fact initiate a dialogue with Seby prior to filing this suit in the High Court of Calcutta? Was this dialogue attested to by some form of written communication? Ideally, Fomento ought to have; in such a case displaying its commitment to an open society and arming itself against the now widely prevalent accusations that it is seeking to harass an activist who is raising valid questions about the nature of mining in Goa.

For all the challenges that Goa has been dealing with, every challenge is an opportunity for dialogue. Unfortunately, it seems that at almost every turn, this opportunity is being rejected in favour of the legal; a route that is really in confrontation with the social.