Team Herald
VASCO: Fr Bismarque Dias was forced to give up a lucrative preaching business in USA and adopt a lifestyle, like that of a mendicant, to continue his liberative and salvific work for mother earth in Goa, said Fr Michael Fernandes, assistant to the Director of Clergy Home at Porvorim.
He was reacting to the statement by the Archdiocese of Goa and the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament on his death.
Fr Bismarque made his choice to serve in Goa rather than in America, Fr Fernandes said.
“Fr Bismarque, admittedly, made his choice, in those circumstances, as he found the sinful situation of Goa was demanding his presence in Goa rather than in America,” Fr Fernandes said.
He said that once a person is ordained a priest, he continues to be a priest always. “There is nothing on record to show that any of the sanctions of the Canon 290 has been attracted to the late Fr Bismarque as a priest.”
He alleged that the transfer imposed upon Fr Bismarque “was to silence his voice, which was even against the irregularities committed by the Church in the sale of Vanxim land”.
