I have nothing against
him neither I have anything common with him but as mentioned in Julius Caesar by
Sakesphere, “the good that man doth often interred with the bones, the evil
always remaineth after him”. May God
forgive him of all his sins and may his soul rest in peace. During his last speech in the Assembly session of
his last term, Vishnu Vhag was
very angry on Diocesan Society when he said like a “Rhagist Ranatlo Vagh”,
somewhat like this ‘’what Diocesan Society think, just because they built their
schools they feel they can do anything?
We can also build our own schools and show to them what we can do and we
will build”. Poor thing. He never survived to challenge the Diocesan Society. But
the anger against Diocesan Society he released from the advantageous platform
of Goa Legislative Assembly hurt the feelings and sentiments of the
overwhelming majority of Catholics in Goa.
In Goa, the Catholic
Church and Diocesan Society is not a
hindrance to any particular person or any organization or any particular
community. Catholic community as a
whole is peace loving community not bent on creating problems for others and
according to its doctrine it cannot do any problem to anyone. Because of it’s peace loving doctrine there
is peace and peaceful atmosphere prevailing in Goa since the advent of
Christianity in Goa. Because of its non-belligerent attitude, Catholics do not
fight with others as we see elsewhere in India where you see Hindu-Muslims
riots. There is no Hindu-Catholics riots
in Goa and will never happen as long as the ancestral and traditional bond
built centuries ago by Catholics and Hindus/Muslimsremains intact. However, the only fear now is that of influx
of migrants overwhelming majority of whom are non-Christians, who may sow the
seed of discord between original Catholics and original non-Cathoilics because
these migrants are carrying in their veins communalism.
In the Diocesan Schools
not only Catholics study and work but others too without any discrimination and
these schools are built by the donations mostly
of Catholics. I don’t see any non-Catholic giving donations to the
construction of Church Schools in our localities. In my village in Candolim when Fr. Alvito Vaz
fell short of money in the beginning itself when he as the principal of under
construction St. Theresa’s High School, approached with the begging bowl one
local Hindu millionaire, in early sixties, that millionaire never gave a single
paisa even though Fr. Alvito Vaz told him that in this school even your Hindu
community students study. But he never
cared however, we the locals especially the financially small people never
neglected our responsibility and somehow or the other collected the required
amount including from my Mocambique based sister and her husband, they gave 75
thousand rupees to overcome the
financial calamity. In this way we the local Catholics shouldered our responsibility to
erect that monument of learning where besides Catholics, others like Hindus,
Muslims and now a great number of migrants as well study. Leave aside
non-Catholics study there but so many non-Catholics males and females work in
these schools not only as teachers but also in the administrative jobs and thus
they earn their sustenance.
After the invasion of
Goa on December 19th, in 1961, Church in Goa took the very good lead in spreading
the education in Goa for all Goan children and because of this appropriate initiative the standard of education and
manpower in Goa has gone high. Unfortunately, many of the critics of Diocesan
Schools are those who do not belong to the Catholic community nor give any
donation, even if you beg with them but they will come sprinting to register
the enrolment of their children in the
Diocesan Schools. Yet Diocesan Society does
not harbor any revenge
.
During the Portuguese era
in Goa, Portuguese Governador Vassalo e Silva initiated the compulsory free Portuguese
schooling for all Goan children attaining the age of 6, somewhere in 1958. The implementation of this compulsory
schooling was put forward so vigorously that failure to follow this rule would
make the erring students/their parents pay the fine of around Rupees 250/-. From here it is to be noted that Portuguese
Governador was the pioneer in spreading education in Goa who was the pure
Catholic just like Fr. Lyon who established first English High School of Goa at
Arpora where not only the Catholoic studied but also a huge number of Hindus
studied too.
A.Veronica Fernandes.
