Dear Mervyn, There are millions of Christians who believe, as you seem to, that we can pray to God directly, without the interventions of "saints", and especially without the interventions of "saints" canonized by the Catholic Church by putting simple, ordinary folk like you and me through tortuous hoops of legislation and a huge outlay of money - it has been calculated that by the time a canonization takes place these days, we are talking of more than a million U.S. dollars! These Christians are called, very simply, "Protestants." Starting with Martin Luther, they simplified life and saved a lot of money going to support the grand lifestyle of Rome by knocking off saints, and taught people to pray directly to God. Also, the reason you have heard about the Ugandan Martyrs and not about the Cuncolim Martyrs of 1583 (I think this is their date of martyrdom) is that the former were canonized while the names of the latter, the Goan Martyrs, were removed from the list of those Beatified when Jesuits "Rudolf Aquaviva and Companions" were beatified. There's no way they can reach the canonization stage and enter into the Catholic Calendar of Saints. Yes, we Goans had Martyrs too. But unlike the Martyrs of Uganda, Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mexico, etc. etc. they are not destined to get the honors of the altar. And, no amount of pleading by the Archbishops and Bishops of India that Joseph Vaz be canonized for the Jubilee as a symbol of faith and courage under persecution needed for today's world got him a canonization. As Srinivasan so shrewdly pointed out, the saints that Rome wants for India and Indians are still European. It keep us us on our knees, praying for favors from white folks. Rome does not want it known that it was Goan missionaries who built the Church up in India and even other countries like Sri Lanka during the difficult, early days, not only Europeans like Xavier. And we have plenty of devoted native clergy and other "devoted laity" who are Oreos, brown on the outside and white on the inside, who maintain this indefensible position and won't work to change the situation. If they had their way, we would still be teaching our children that the sun goes around the earth as the Church and the Bible said and we'd be sending Galileo to hell! Filomena
--- Mervyn Lobo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Filomena Giese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Most people don't question miracles or the > > requirements for official sainthood. It doesn't > > bother them that the process is unfair, > > unscientific, or any of that. They see the > > situation through the filter created by the > > establishment. > > > The question I have is, do we really need 'official' > saints? What seems to be the problem here? Is God > getting more prayers than s/he can handle? Does God > need 'official' assistants to handle all the volume? > > And if that is the case, are the chances of getting > my > prayers heard better if I pray to a popular saint > (who > has to be well organised) or will the prayers be > processed faster if they are to an obscure saint who > does not have a large workload :-) > > Personally, I favour praying directly to God. > However, > those who need a good intermediary, let me let you > onto a little secret. Try using the following > (official) Ugandan's. I heard they have almost the > same powers as other saints. > ---------------- > Uganda's Martyrs > Martyr's Name Birthplace Clan Religion MARTYRED > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca > > ########################################################################## > # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > # > # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), > and avoid top-posts # > # More details on Goanet at > http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # > # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to > reflect respect to others # > ########################################################################## __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
