Today, 17th
November 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. 
