PANJIM: Questioning whether the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Filipe Neri Ferrao, does not have the right to express his anxiety to the people, the Secretary to the Archbishop, Fr Joaquim Loiola Pereira, said that the pastoral letter which remarked that the Constitution is in danger is not aimed at any political party or the government.
“People should read the whole letter. Don’t take this statement or that statement out of context and make it look as if the letter is against political parties. First of all there is no name of any political party; there is no name of any government. There is a commentary about what is happening in India and in Goa,” Fr Loiola Pereira told reporters
He added, “The fact is that he has said that there is danger to Constitution. The word danger is there. But if you read the letter, it is not all that great a danger mentioned in it. Even if it was a small danger, I am asking you, hasn’t the Bishop the right to think that way and to express his anxiety to his own people?”
Pereira clarified that some peripheral statements from the 15 page letter have been taken out of proportion by sections of the media.
“We have to look at this pastoral letter as a letter of the pastor to his people. The Archbishop has written this to the members of his Church in Goa. This is the 15th pastoral letter that he has written. The focus of the letter is poverty. There are some peripheral statements that have been taken out of proportion by the press and now everybody is talking about that statement as if the pastoral letter is about politics and about going against the powers that be,” Fr Pereira said.
Asserting that the letter is not against any political party, Fr Pereira said it has no connection between the circular issued by the Archbishop of Delhi, Anil Couto and the letter issued by the Archbishop Ferrao.
“There is no connection with what the Archbishop in Delhi has said and earlier there was another Archbishop of Gandhinagar who had said something. People think that this is the trend. It should not be seen that the Church in India is up in arms against the government. This is a letter that always comes in June. It happened that it came one month after the Delhi Archbishop’s circular.”
Archbishop Ferrao, in his pastoral letter that heavily relies on Church doctrine, refers to poverty and mentions in one section that people often sell their vote for selfish, petty gain, and added that the Indian Constitution is in danger and most of the people live in insecurity.
