On Tuesday 7th of this month, in the compound of Holy Family Cathedral (Church) in Kuwait City, in front of the Statue of our Lady Mother Mary, under the skippership of Albino Fernandes, a Bombay settled Goan but originally hailing from Agacaim, Ilhas, Goa, the Legion of Mary group organized at 7.00 pm a Rosary in English followed by Goan style Litany in Latin which was attended by a good number of faithfuls from different regions and nationalities. The singing of Litany and Hymns was provided with musical accompaniment by young musicians under the leadership of Choir Leader and a well-known musician and music teacher in Kuwait Francis Machado from Taleigao, Ilhas, Goa. It was lovely scene to watch the young and budding boys and girls playing so beautifully Goan Craze Instrument “Violin” and also Organ.
At the end of the Litany, all the faithfuls were served with traditional Goan “ Ukoddlole Chonne” (boiled Grams), snacks and cold drinks. In the name of such Litanies, lot of goodwill is generated which is very essential in this part of the world. Such activities in Kuwait create lot of interactions among people of diverse cultures, traditions, regions and nationalities. For organizing such events Albino should not only be applauded but he should be also encouraged and supported. But unfortunately inspite of doing so much of for the cause of our Religion, Society in general and community in particular especially for Christians, according to information he is showered with abundant jealousies by some of the people in the same area, from top to bottom. Why this is happening? Because many people in his area are incapable of doing what Albino is doing. He is spotless as far as his Christian faith and Catholic affiliation is concerned. He was not involved in bootlegging and selling illegally distilled liquour to his colleagues. By associating with Church activities he was never involved in vulgarity and other such scandals. He never made use of his Church association to do personal business and make money in the name of promotion of religion. In fact, he used his association in the Church only to serve God and to serve human beings. He has been serving the Kuwait Church since the last quarter of a century. He was the founder of Holy Family Choir in Kuwait. When he landed in Kuwait for the first time, he was not a novice in Church activities. He was well experienced in this area in Bombay where his activities as a young boy was even appreciated by the late Cardinal Gracias. Unfortunately, many times such talented persons are not very much liked by the top, middle and bottom classes of people not only from the Laity but also from the Clergy because they are suffering from cancerous and anti-Christian, anti-Catholic desease called “Jealousy”. The vice of Jealousy is an antitheses of Christianity. And yet they say they are serving the God. By discriminating one’s fellow beings on the basis of regionality and nationality one will never serve God.This year Legion of Mary congregation in Kuwait completes 35 years. It was formed by Fr. Domnick Santamaria a Goan priest from Cunchelim Bardez, Goa, serving Kuwait Church almost during the last 40 years. This congregation is the oldest one in Kuwait. I joined it in 1975 and from that group I see none now in Kuwait. Fr. Domnick was our spiritual director as he is still now and that time he was full of youth, vigour and wisdom, a very knowledgeable priest. Knowledge is the most essential part of priesthood otherwise a person of my caliber will never listen any preaching from any “Ladru – Pedru’ type of priest. Knowledge is the source of strength of religious leaders. Any “Sankistao”, “Kuzner” and “Bottler” cannot acquire knowledge as priests can do to impart it to others. For this reason, our Catholics are leaving Catholicsm in good number and joining other Christian congregations because the preaching there is done by the highly literate and highly knowledgeable pastors. Secondly in these groups there is lot of transparency especially in financial affairs. In Goa and in our community because of financial jugglery done in an organized manner lot of discontent is created leading to the splits in our religious congregation.
Talking about Fr. Domnick Santamaria’s wisdom, let me cite one example during one of our Legion of Mary meetings in 1975. One of our activities as Legionaries was to visit the sick in the hospitals and to their homes. One young girl complained to Fr. Domnick that she was insulted by the sick lady in her house for visiting her and that young Legionary girl cried in front of everyone in the meeting. Immediately Fr. Domnick retorted saying – “My dear young girl, if you are not ready to accept humiliation and insult then you cannot serve Christ because Christ Himself suffered humiliation and insults”. What a wonderful answer!! Can any Sankistao or illiterate Deacon gives such a reply within a split of a second?
When I joined Legion of Mary, I was young, full of youth and exceedingly attractive, well dressed capturing lot of attention from lot of girls in our circle, well educated and well social mannered. In our Legion of Mary group I was attracting more attention of girls and tempting them to woo me because of my charismatic attitude and abundant knowledge on diverse topics. Bible and its quotations were on the tip of my tongue because 8 years I was Bible student in School at Arpora under the secular priest Fr. Peter D’Souza besides 4 years in College at St. Xaviers – Goa, under the strict disciplinarian Jesuit priest Fr. Pallitanam. But inspite of my strong charismatic influence on this group, I had to leave it for two reasons. Reason One: There is a saying “In order to avoid sin, you must avoid the occasion of sin”. I had my beautiful and lovely girlfriend in Goa whom I promised to marry. But when I felt Legion of Mary like most of the Church groups are filled with opportunities for illicit relationship or hunger to find life partner legally, I said I must decide seriously whether to stay or quit. Hence, I opted for the latter. I was afraid to control the weakness in my flesh. After all I am a human being. When Adam who was created by God himself was the victim of weakness in his flesh then who and what am I to resist the flesh temptation which was abundant in such activities? Don’t we know so many males and females involved in Church activities are having illicit relationship and yet they move in Church area shamelessly? Why lay persons only? Even priests are involved in this illicit relationship. For this reasons, many of the sensible parents are restricting their young daughters from mixing up with the priests in Church activities. Many of the splits in marriages in our communities are the creations of some of our priests who are become devils in the robes of Christ.
Reason Two: There was one sick Pakistani Muslim lady in old Amiri Hospital. When I and my other colleagues went there to see her, she recounted her pitiable story and desired to return to Pakistan but had no money to buy the ticket. It was coming to around KD 45/- one way. Based on the dictum that “charity begins at home” I told my colleagues that we all contribute from our pockets and buy her the ticket but my proposal was rejected outright. Then I said if we cannot do this then we have no right to involve ourselves in visiting such people. These sick people need concrete help and not just abstract consolation like “we will pray for you”. Only praying without concrete help when required is a big “tamasha” of hypocrites. Then somebody suggested “why not we utilize money coming into the Church coffers from weekly collections? There was no answer from anyone because nobody knew where and in whose kitty it goes. Having no choice, disgusted, I quit Legion of Mary the very year of my joining. But after so many years, on 7th of this month I realized this group is still existing under the same spiritual director who unfortunately was not visible during the Litany.
May God Bless Legion of Mary congregation in Kuwait and all those who are involved openly and from behind the curtain to make this Litany a big success.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
