A church is not built because there is a burnt temple and surrounding land that is available. I have previously described the physical and religious impediments to building a church EXACTLY OVER the temple.
The church is built to meet the needs of a surrounding catholic community. So it is very likely that after the event of 1567 (burning of the temples and fleeing of the local Hindu population), the villages were slowly re-populated over the next 50 years by Portuguese and remaining natives. To meet the growing needs of the faithful, the church was built in the village. The location of the church was most likely dependent on the way the village expanded and grew with roads and / or river traffic. Thus there was no direct relation to the physical action of burning / destruction of the Hindu temple and the building of the present Catholic church many many decades later. Also it is very unlikely the location of the two is on the EXACT SAME SPOT. Much of the controversy can be ended if we do not connect the religions. All power to Goan Hindus to build more temples and some replicas if they so choose. They do not need anything from another religion to do so. And the same applies to Muslims and Catholics. Regards, Gilbert ########################################################################## # 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 # ##########################################################################
