John Fernandes, senior citizen and resident of Vanxim Island points out that Vanxim was of a few people who chose peaceful lives and had no dreams of ruining their little treasure like the rest of Goa.
“Vanxim is so beautiful and has lost so much when the bunds were breached and we couldn’t cultivate and we have to get everything from Divar but we still live here and love Vanxim. But our own church has betrayed and sold our lands with us on them,” explains John.
While John says this, a sad discord strikes the island as the few islanders fight for Vanxim from the land grab of Ozone group. The villagers come together daily to say a rosary and the litany to St Sebastian.
Sadly the church which teaches and propagates the faith is the one that sold these lands and even worse the Church has written to Mahendra Gaunekar that he may do away with the lands and homes and other structures of the so-called tenants. They also added that it doesn’t recognize the Church of Jesus on the island.
The Church on the island has Sunday mass at 9.15am and a feast mass on the 2nd Sunday of May and is the only Church with Jesus as the patron saint and is known as the Sao Cristo Church. But even this Maggie Silveira, Vanxim island resident and activist said, “We face the threat of being bulldozed anytime. The tenants from Bicholim who used to cultivate once upon a time on the island first sold their fields to Gaunekar and slowly people are being paid off and are selling their lands. This is an eco-sensitive zone in the CRZ regulation but all laws are bulldozed to pave way for Ozone group to develop the island. The Church is to be blamed.”
Fr Michael Fernandes, a priest turned lawyer asserts that the Church has a surplus of funds and the Archbishop’s justification to sell Vanxim to fund the repairs of Santa Monica Chapel is a lie and untrue and feels that Vanxim is the fraud of the Catholic Church.
“The Church needs to be transparent. What needs to be explained is where the money from the sale of this land is going and how the Bishop can justify sale of this land. The Church needs to come under an RTI and make it public on this fraud. Bishop Neri is guilty of selling Catholics here and that too in defiance of the Canon law,” asserts Fr Michael.
Seby Fernandes who married Maggie and moved from Siolim to Vanxim explains to us that the Church says that 47 odd acres were sold to Gaunekar at Rs 20. The math says the sale of land should have been Rs 97.05 lakh but the sale deed says Rs 55.04 lakhs. Where is the balance? Can the Church and the Bishop justify this glaring fraud?” asks Seby.
Divya Rangel from Divar who gives us directions to Vanxim and discusses how she moved to Divar after marriage from Curtorim and how she works in Vasco and does the ferry daily, explains that Vanxim island is beautiful and definitely a gem with stories of struggle by the islanders and the news of sale and development scares not just Vanximkars but also the Diwarkars as they have lived secluded lives, helping each other at marriages and funerals and don’t want a mega project to change the dynamics of their island.
Meanwhile, Vita Fernandes asserts that the Holy Cross chapel is miraculous and that the island has a few Hindus and Catholics who live without crime and strife and the sale really hurts them and the next generation. She also mentions how people are leaving the island in fear.
Maggie and Dumacine Oliviera like many others, boast of homes that are older than 200 years and 6th generation homes of Vanximkars and they cry in sadness wondering if the Bishop never thought of them and selling the property to them as original tenants. They question why the Archbishop had to take a decision like this to sell Vanxim and tarnish the entire image of the Catholic Church in Goa and that too at the cost of the Vanxim villagers.
