TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The battle to save and protect the lush green fields opposite the Colva Church gained momentum with parishioners invoking God’s blessing to save these from destruction. A thanksgiving Mass was celebrated at the Our Lady of Merces Church on Monday evening, followed by a candle lit procession to the fields.
The thanksgiving Eucharistic celebration and the candle-lit procession focussed on the protection of the fields admeasuring around 30,000 sq mts acquired by the Colva panchayat for a playground.
In his homily, Colva Parish Priest Fr Joseph Silva, who has taken up the battle to save the fields from destruction, said that it is time for the people to save the wonderful nature given by God to humanity.
Fr Silva later led the parishioners to the fields in a candle-lit procession, where prayers were recited asking God to prevail upon the government, the local MLA, local village panchayat and the people in general to save the fields from destruction. In his prayer, Fr Silva sought God’s blessing so that the fields were retained and protected for posterity. “The thanksgiving mass was held to seek blessings for the whole village and its people and for all the creations of God in Goa, including the fields, water bodies etc. God has given Colva village wonderful nature. We have accepted the fields lying opposite the Church as a gift of God to the people of this village”, he said, while coming out against the conversion of the fields for the proposed playground. “We don’t want the fields to be turned into a parking lot or a football ground. People want these to be retained for posterity. The fields are God’s treasure and we have to protect the same for our future generations”, Fr Silva added.
The thanksgiving mass and the candle-lit procession come against the backdrop of moves by the panchayat body to push the proposal for the football ground in the acquired land. Recently, the Goa Bio-Diversity Board had carried out a site inspection of the fields and other water bodies to ascertain the ground reality.
