Among all the Christian
denominations, Roman Catholicism is the most powerful one having its presence
in every part of the world. It is the best
organized organization headed by the Pope based in Vatican – Italy and who by
virtue of being the Pope he automatically becomes the head of the State of Vatican though he need not be the citizen of
Italy. He is considered as the powerful
head of Roman Catholicism and also the Political head of his State Vatican. Its financial empire is very strong and also
its numerical strength.
RC Church creates
openings for the laypersons to be of help to its members thru the formation of
Church related groups in our villages, one such group is called SOMUDAI. It
came into being if I am not mistaken about a quarter of a century back at least
in my local Chuch, it was not in existence during my younger days when I was actively
involved in the Church affairs.
Somudai is a Vaddo
based group, each Vaddo having one Somudai, however, if the population of one particular Vaddo is
more, then this Vaddo can have more than one Somudai groups to cater to the
needs of all the Vaddo people.
The main function of
the Somudai is first of all to create a contact between the locals and the local
Church headed by the Pe. Vigar to be helpful to the people of its Vaddo in
spiritual as well as material aspects of the faithful. It also helps in the
Church affairs to help the priests in the matters where they can be of help to
the Church. The members of Somudai regularly visit every house in its Vaddo to
find out if any problem they encounter and accordingly they put these problems
in front of higher authority in their Church headed by the Pe. Vigar for the
final solution.
In one village named “X”
at “Y” Vaddo two neighbours are fighting
a court case for a long time now for a small piece of land and incurring heavy
expenses, both these neighbours are
regular Church goers and recipients of Holy Communions. One of the neighbours involved in this anti-Christian
and Satanic war put this matter in front of their Somudai but like an impotent
body manned by the useless people as it is existing almost in every Somudai everywhere
in Goa, this Somudai is not doing anything to bring this matter amicably
settled at least in the name of Jesus Christ who will surely dislike both the warring
parties belonging to the same RC religion, going to the court. In fact, Bible
guide us the Christians how to go about
in such cases.
According to my information
collected from reliable sources from different parts of Goa, most of the
members of Somudai are good “Pamprelam”, they are least interested just like some
of their “ghanvche Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs”, in doing anything good for the
faithful. Most of the Pe. Vigars are not
interested in doing good for the locals neither they are much interested in alleviating the sufferings of
the faithful. It is a hard fact that most of the Pe. Vigars in Goa are busy in
somewhere else thereby denying their time to spend after their job of Pe.
Vigar. They are busy in spending their time in the Church run Schools and
Colleges. Is it the job of the Pe.
Vigars and Pe. Curs to do “Principalpon” by denying their time for their “Pe.
Vigarponn and Pe. Curponn”? Did they become priests to do the secular job
when they are duty bound to fulfill their priestly obligation of saving the
souls from going to Hell?
In some Churches, there
are big funds accumulated from the contributions of the locals to help the
needy but in some cases these funds are
kept idle in the custody of Pe. Vigars who if everything goes well, these funds
will be on one fine morning silently transferred to Altinho and nobody will talk on
this funds because people by then will forget this fund.
Coming back to the two
warring parties, the same party that approached to the Somudai for finding a
solution for their problem, approached the local Pe. Vigar but like a coward
and useless one as most of the Pe.
Vigars in Goa are, the most idiotic minded Pe. Vigar refused to intervene in
this matter to create a peace. On the
conntrtary he is advising to hire a good lawyer. See the philosophy of this idiot Pe.
Vigar. In fact we have most of our Pe.
Vigars in Goa and even below my nose as idiots who are totally impotent to do
anything worthwhile for the faithful.
Today we the Catholics are suffering
because of the useless Pe. Vigars and just because they are useless we are shadowed
by the Believers and other non-Roman Catholic denominations that are all out to
devour the RCatholicism. Inspite of the
danger of these Non-Catholic denominations looming over our heads, our Church
leadership at Panjim Altinho is doing nothing.
As long as they get their
luxurious mode of living they don’t care for anything, so too our P.
Vigars. Even if tomorrow our Catholicism uprooted from our land and replaced by
the Non-RC denominations, they will not
feel anything because their contribution in the development and protection of
RCatholicism is noting much. If
RCatholicism is reached to this high level today at least in Goa, it was due to
the efforts of common faithful, great priests like Pe. Agnelos and Saints like St. Jose Vaz and St.
Francis Xavier. The Bishop and the
Church leadership so also our Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs are enjoying their
Catholic life it is only because they got this level of Catholicism ready made,
they have done nothing extra ordinary to bring the Catholicism up in Goa because
they are impotent to do this.
These type of incidents
of Catholics fighting against the Catholics are very rampant in Goa everywhere
and it is regrettably happening in my own village too just below my nose. It is a pity that many of these Somudais are
totally unfit and useless to do anything good for the people especially among
those who are fighting with one another and mainly when they belong to the same
religion. Disgraceful people are they
who on top of it are regularly going to the Church and receiving Holy Communion,
even twice to indicate how holy they are and regretfully they receive the
Communion from the very Pe. Vigars who are so well aware of the fights going on among
those people. These Pe. Vigars are a curse on Christianity because they don’t
want to do anything good for the people in their localities and because of
these useless Pe. Vigars the Believers are mushrooming now all over Goa and
because of the selfishness of custodians of RC the non-RC denominations are increasing
and multiplying in Goa
These Non-RC
denominations are doing a great job of helping the people not only spiritually
but more than that materially which is more important because material poverty
leads you to commit the sin which will put your soul into Hell. If our RC
Church and the groups like Somudai do not become receptive to the needs of the
weaker segment of our society in general and of faithful in particular, then
more and more of our Catholics will embrace Non-Catholic denominations that are
doing a wonderful job for the benefit of its members especially by helping
their followers to pray for them to help them to overcome their troubles and
of course not forgetting their spiritual needs. The greater challenger for
Roman Catholics now will NOT be the Satan or Devil or Lucifer but the
Non-Catholic denominations that are all out to devour the Catholicism, if not, then at least create a solid damage to the RC.
A.Veronica Fernandes.
