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On Thu, 4 Nov 2004, Helga do Rosario Gomes wrote:
Too many embarrassing Qs George - they have no time for you. They are busy 'celebrating feasts of European saints' and preparing for sermons that have no relevance to the present day Goa.
To me, the Church (mini) directory drove home a strong point.
From the listing of institutions, the Church in Goa does have a powerfulnetwork available to it. By 'powerful', I do not mean in the sense of power-politics.
Infact, this machinery seems to be only waiting to be effectively deployed for the benefit of the people of Goa, whatever their religion and ethnicity. It could really help to make Goa a better place for all.
Unfortunately, as of now (i) Church institutions, such as schools, seem to be badly caught up in working within the government-funded system, doing all the requirements thereof, and not really concentrating on what more it can do (ii) most of the institutions seem to lack an efficient system of communication, so, oddly, the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing, or how a good idea could be replicated across a larger area.
I was told by a friend in Findland how the (Lutheran, I think) Church there played a significant role in national development of a country which was a poor one till a little over two generations ago. Sometime in the late nineteenth century, the Church there, quite bluntly laid down a diktat that people could not get married (in Church, obviously, which was the norm then) without being literate.
In Goa, the large infrastructure is not being sufficiently deployed. If manpower is a problem, then perhaps the Church could build alliances with well-intentioned people. Couldn't so many schools be used to fight illiteracy? Or for life-long learning? Or for so many other good purposes?
On another point, I don't think it's fair to blame Fr Velho alone for the attitude of the religious that they don't need to respond to the lay people, or keep them informed (as Godfrey JI too pointed out). This is part of a wider trend. In addition, the Church seemed to be unsure of how to deal with the media, which is a multi-religious, secular-world entity. FN
