We are told in different ways by the worshippers of reason, haters of superstition, and defenders of secularism, that we have made unbelievable progress since Europe came out of their “dark ages” and “discovered” the rest of the world and stole its resources. In exchange the Europeans taught the civilizational backward people to cover their nakedness to avoid provoking the base instincts of the civilized thieves, with little or no consideration for the cultures that had shaped the dress needs to meet the tropical or equatorial heat.
In Goa too men from villages could not enter the urban areas, where the colonialists were largely based, to enter with kashti or loincloth that they usually wore in the village to cover their manhood, and women had to wear choli and cover well their breasts. There was legislation enacted for this purpose, but the rural folks were preached in anticipation by their parish priests through the teaching of catechism and methods of making good confession.
To those interested in these methods since the beginning of Portuguese rule in Goa and their conversion drive, I would suggest reading a study I published in Sod- Konkani Research Bulletin Nº 9 (2005) of Thomas Steven Konkani Kendra about Confessionários pp 21-40, available for downloading at http://recil.grupo lusofona.pt/jspui/handle/10437/501
Who matters to us here is St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a known Church pedagogue, a key representative of the so-called Scholastic philosophy and a master theologian who wrote massive tomes entitled Summa Theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles. He sought to harmonize theology and reason, a trend that prepared medieval Catholic Europe to move into Renaissance and modernity, unlike the Islamic savants who failed to make that transition despite their advance knowledge at that time.
Thomas Aquinas was physically obese and his colleagues would make fun of him and called him a ‘dumb ox’. We are told that later in age Thomas Aquinas had a place on dining table where a cut permitted to let his protruding tummy fit in. We are told that one day, one of his fellow monks told the saint that there was a pig flying around in the sky over the courtyard and he should not miss seeing it.
The saint promptly went to the window and looked out. The monk then laughed at him, but the saint responded, “I can believe that a pig could fly than that a monk could lie”. This incident is often quoted to reveal his zeal for truthfulness on the basis of scholastic methodology of balancing a priori propositions with sense experience. His novel concept of futuribilia permitted him to say that while it is physically impossible for pigs to fly, it is not logically impossible.
The incident about St Thomas Aquinas reminds me of something I read in the internet about a journalist speeding on his motorbike to his office. He saw on his way a large crowd gathered to see an accident. He was eager to report about it. He stopped and tried to move into the crowd to observe the victim of the accident, but could not make a way. He resorted to a trick and cried aloud “Please let me in. It is my mother. Please!”
Hearing his appeal the people moved to either side and gave him a way to go in. He squeezed himself into the crowd, sobbing. He believed that he had fooled everyone, but what did he see? There was a street dog hit by a car, badly wounded and lying in a pool of blood. The people jeered at him. Ashamed, he escaped in time, before the mob could leave the dog and turn on him. What has this to do with a modern democracy?
It suggests that clever politicians turn to lies converted into party programs, bullying gullible people, who live a reality that hardly ever corresponds to past promises. Those familiar with the Bible may consult the Gospel of St John and the synoptic (Mt 21:12-17; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48; Jo 2:12-25) about Jesus cleansing the Temple and driving out the businessmen. He was in the Temple for the Passover celebration and performed many miracles there. He refused to be taken in by those who loved miracles and wished to follow him. We are told by the Gospel writers that Jesus did so knowing well how fickle the humans are.
Jesus preferred to die for a human cause, unlike a Goan Catholic politician who told me recently that he considers it good for cowards. While Jesus continues to be remembered through live Eucharistic celebrations that sustain welfare communities worldwide, a politician may be lucky to get a statue that makes the Indian crows (or pigeons in the West) happy for finding a new collective toilet.
(Teotonio R. de Souza is the founder-
director, Xavier Centre of Historical
Research, Goa (1979-1994).
