Pastors’ Day

Rui Ferreira  

On 4 August the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St John Vianney, the patron saint of Parish priests. He was a French priest who dedicated his life against all odds for the Catholic Church during the trial period of the French revolution.

This day is thus dedicated to all parish priests for their uninterrupted service to the building up the lay faithful for serving God. The Parish Priest and their assistants do reside and work in the vicinity of the Church where they serve the Lord. They hardly do get any rest, as even Sunday is the important day of worship for the parishioners.

The Priest of the Parish has a challenging task to understand and accommodate all the faithful in his Parish and to lead them to understand God`s love and mercy.

Hebrews 13: 17 “Obey your spiritual leaders and follow their orders. They watch over your souls without resting, since they must give God an account of their service. If you obey them, they will do their work gladly; if not they will do it in sadness, and that would be of no help to you”.

Pope Francis has called upon Bishops to be true pastors and not mere pilots.

 In a current address to the newly ten ordained priests, which batch of priests consisted of two Indian priests, who had prepared for ordination in one of the three diocesan seminaries of Rome, Pope Francis told them to be merciful pastors and not functionaries of the Church.

 The Holy Father insisted upon the priests to show mercy and concern to the people and not intermediaries.

 However the recent killing of an octogenarian Parish Priest in France brings forth the dangers a Catholic Priest has to face in carrying out his duties in a very secular country.

 The certain attacks on Catholic Churches in Mangalore and Delhi as well as some States in the North India has brought forth the dangerous life of a Priest in otherwise spiritually inclined Nation,  wherein a religious leader is much revered and respected .

The immigration of educated Catholics from Goa for better employment opportunities out of India and in other metro cities of Bengalaru and Mumbai, displays that there are lack of fair opportunities for jobs for the section of minorities. This cultural change of diminishing of presence of the spoken Konkani local language and our religious traditions is a worrisome trend to ponder for the priests of Goa due to the demographic change slowly creeping into our peaceful State.

 The economic dependence mainly on Tourism in our State has led our youth to be distracted with addictions of drinks, drugs and dice for which the pastors have a challenging task to identify such ills and divert their energy towards life sustaining skills that will make them productive and free from such vices, by adopting  a positive approach for better sustainable tourism.

The Panjim Parish Pastoral Council is celebrating the day with a concelebrated mass consisting of about 30 priests of Panjim Deanery for which the Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao will be the main celebrant at 6 pm at the Immaculate Conception Church, Panjim, followed by a cultural evening dedicated to all the religious in the Church Hall.