GPCC General Secretary Vijai Sardesai met AICC Gen Secretary Oscar Fernandes to express concern at the raid on Fr Romano who was Chaplain of the Lady of Rosary Church Fatorda.

The GPCC in a statement said, “We are very hurt and demand that IT officials desist from such actions and verify their facts”. The party has termed this as “an embarrassment to Goa”. face="'Times New Roman'" size="3">

OUTRAGE

Power Minister, Alexio Sequeira: It’s the “height of irresponsibility”. The officers should have been sensitive and should have maintained minimum sanctity.

GPCC President, Subhash Shirodkar: The action by the officials in the Velim Church was bad in taste. 

PWD Minister, Churchill Alemao: They just cannot go the Temples, Churches and Masjids. The Election Commission should immediately look into the matter.

Velim MLA, Filipe Neri Rodrigues:  The raid and search conducted on the Parish Priest of St Xavier’s Church has caused unrest in the village which may not lead to free, fair and peaceful elections unless immediate investigations are conducted in the entire episode.

Benjamin D’Silva: The attack amounts to an assault on religious freedom of the church and the Catholic community. The raid appears prompted by extraneous considerations other than anything to do with the religious functioning of the church and its management.

Shalom Sardinha:  This cannot be done to a Priest. The Archbishop could be the next target. I am not saying the Congress is behind the incident, but there has to be someone who has ulterior motives.

SUJAY GUPTA

Did we really live to see this day? A disciple of the Lord, the Parish Priest of St Francis Xavier Church, Velim gets raided by the election flying squad and a team from the Income Tax and humiliated. In our very same Goa, the very same I-T Department does not have the guts to even question, leave alone raid a minister against whom the Department has poof of receiving over Rs 25 crores of kickbacks to convert land to settlement as part of the regional plan.

The anguish, hurt and anger of not just the parishioners of Velim, or just Catholics, every right thinking and sensitive Goan is speechless with shock at the sheer insensitivity and brazenness of the raid at the Church premises. While the Department may well say that it was doing a job, was there any serious prima facie evidence or information to suggest that the priest was the custodian of ill gotten wealth? In place of wads of cash which the I-T officers expected, they found a box of chocolates. Then he was asked how much money he had in his personal account and that of the church and even if he had a PAN number. This to say the least, are meaningless questions with a motive to harass. The priest will obviously have some money and savings in his account and money for the church in the Church account. Those who have ill gotten wealth, like some of our ministers, do not put them in bank accounts. Black money is sent abroad through a hawala network operating in India and the Gulf.

Recently, there were a spate of reports about huge kickbacks for land conversions reaching the then TCP minister Babush Monserrate. The reports were based on an Income Tax assessment order signed by V S Chakrapani, Dy Commissioner I-T-Central Circle. When this minister has not been questioned or raided even after available evidence as per I-T investigations, on what grounds was a priest, who has been loved and regarded by all his parishioners raided?

There is a far more worrying backdrop to this. Father Romano, had of late, had been preaching to parishioners not to vote for money but according to their conscience. The Council for Social Justice and Peace too has advocated the same. Interestingly, the Parish Priest of the St Andrew’s Church Vasco Father Jose Antonio Costa was raided by the local Mamlatdar and the police barely two hours before a football match organised by him between the Archbishop’s XI and the Hallelujah Club of South Korea. The raiding party sought details of ticket sales and profits from the match. Interestingly, Father Costa too was preaching against corruption and the need to have clean candidates. It doesn’t require a political chanakya to guess what the Priests’ message was and who he was referring to. Both Father Costa and Father Romano Gonsalves have similar back stories. They preached against corruption and got raided. It seems that wrong arm of the law doesn’t even spare simple, well meaning priests who give out the right messages.

A society that protects corrupt ministers and humiliates holy men is diseased. This needs to be cleansed and voting for the right people is the best way to do it.