Good to see a well-argued article by Filomena on a topic that is dear to her.
The article that she is responding to is a fanatical diatribe of the type we
see with all types of religious chauvinists in India and abroad. I am still
trying to track down the primary source of the Xavier story. Perhaps, we are
witnessing the beginnings of radicalization of some Buddhist activists in Sri
Lanka, as we have seen with their Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian
counterparts in India in recent years.
Cheers,
Santosh
> On Tuesday, February 4, 2014 11:30 AM, George Pinto <georgejpi...@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >T he Sri Lanka-Goa news networks and websites have been a-buzz with
> >controversy
> over our shared history under the Portuguese for the last few weeks. If you
> thought that religion and history are dull, think again!
>
> Right now we are awash with plots and counter-plots presented by Sri Lankans
> of
> the Portuguese stealing a dead Buddhist monk's body in Sri Lanka and
> switching it for Xavier's. First, we Goans are supposed to believe now that
> Xavier died in Sri Lanka, not on the island of Shangchuan, off the coast of
> China. And that, a very clever Portuguese sea Captain somehow stole the
> incorrupt body of a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka and switched it for Xavier's
> thereby causing generations of Goans to waste time and money over the
> Exposition
> of his body, when it was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk's all the time ...
>
> Second, some of us innocently thought that Goa's beloved religious figure,
> Blessed Joseph Vaz, was an amazing non-colonial and non-political missionary.
> But no, not by a Sri Lankan journalist's account ("Joseph Vaz - Did he
> take part in the Goa Inquisition?") who confidently writes that he was part
> of the Goa Inquisition even though he was working practically alone and in
> hiding in Sri Lanka with not a Portuguese in sight ...
>
>
> Anyway, here's Filomena Saraswati Giese's response, sub-titled
> "What does the Historical Record Prove?" on Joseph Vaz. It appeared
> in the e-paper Heraldo and on some other websites:
> http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=13721&boxid=5058755&uid=&dat=2/2/2014
>
> Joseph Naik Vaz Institute
> Berkeley, California
> http://josephnaikvaz.org/
>
