It is hurting to see that the Catholic Church and its faithful in Goa, particularly, and India, in general, have always been at the receiving end of the political and communal games played by those in power at all levels. However, no one spoke up against all the injustice and atrocities faced by the minority community. Even, recently when the Income-Tax notice was served to the Archdiocese of Goa ‘demanding’ the transactions in three days’ time, none of the religious leaders spoke up knowing that the Catholic community was selectively targeted. Silence is ambiguous, but that does not mean that we should keep quiet. The Church established by Jesus and entrusted to the care of His appointed leaders has the prophetic role also associated with the pastoral ministries. However, we hardly see the anointed leaders of the Church using their prophetic voices. The question that remains unanswered is WHY? Are they scared to voice out for their community or do they want to be seen as ‘good ones’?
Last year when Fr Bismarque Dias died under mysterious circumstances the entire church, except for a few, remained silent. When the catholic population of the state face issues why don’t the appointed leaders take up a stand for its faithful? The same goes to the Catholic population of the state as well. Everyone has his or her own comfort zone, however, that does not indicate that we should remain in our comfort zone and let the injustice prevail. And for how long are we, the anointed leader of the Church and the Catholic faithful, going to stay with this kind of lethargic attitude? Every other religion in India will raise their concern in public on issues that affect their communities, except us. Even Jesus Christ questioned the soldiers that were hitting Him unjustly.
I really appreciate and thank Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas for voicing out the hardships faced by the Catholic Church, on the solemn occasion of the Feast of St Francis Xavier. As rightly stated by Bishop Mascarenhas, the Catholic Church and its community is a faithful is a peace loving community involved in nation building. And Goa too is a peaceful state. The Indian constitution gives right to every citizen of its country to live and practice his or her own faith. And very truly, we deserve our right to live our faith without any interference of the political parties and politicians. But the sad part is that the Catholics who are part of the political parties do nothing to support and safeguard their community. It’s a shame to have such people represent us, the Catholic community, at the state level and the national level and yet are doing nothing for the welfare of the community apart from begging votes during elections.
Bishop Mascarenhas has rightly made the correct move for the entire Catholic community, however, the questions now is, are we the representatives of the Church and the faithful going to take it up from now on and do something in solidarity or just be contended with Bishop Mascarenhas’ speech and leave it at the thunderous applaud? Thank you Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas for the request made on behalf of us, may your request motivate us all towards a common good.
