Sept. 25, 2005 Today is the 320th anniversary of the founding of India and the modern Third Worlds first fully native religious Congregation by Blessed Joseph Vaz and his Oratorian companion priests on September 25th, 1685. Blessed Joseph Vaz has the official title of Apostle of Kanara and Sri Lanka" for his heroic work in re-founding the missions around Mangalore and the Church in Sri Lanka under Dutch persecution. The process for his Cause for Beatification and Canonization was started in 1713. It took until 1985 for the Church to declare him a Blessed. Why? Because the documentation and miracles submitted to Rome were annulled and rejected more than once on account of the Churchs earlier racial prejudice.
It is not enough for Goans to support Church-related activities in India, Portugal, Africa, Pakistan, or in California such as the Indian Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Oakland. We should also be questioning why the Catholic Church has still not canonized a single Goan or Indian candidate while giving saints to many other countries and communities. For more than 500 years, the Goan Catholic community has provided formidable support for the Catholic Church in India and around the world. We have manned and founded churches, missions, religious Congregations, schools, hospitals. As in Mangalore and Sri Lanka, sometimes our priests and missionaries did so under hostile conditions and persecution when no European missionaries were allowed to work there. Why, then, is there still not a single Goan fit to be given the full honors of the altar and given the title of saint? In the year 2000, for the Grand Jubilee, of the founding of Christianity, the Pope and the Vatican declared that they would be righting many injustices caused by the Church. Many saints from various non-European countries were canonized without miracles. For example, the Martyrs of China and Martyrs from Mexico were canonized without required miracles. The Joseph Naik Vaz Institute collected many signatures for a Petition to the Pope, asking that Blessed Joseph Vaz be classed as a Martyr and be canonized for the Grand Jubilee without further miracles. This Petition and the pleas of Indian Bishops like the Archbishop of Calcutta for Blessed Joseph Vaz to be canonized for the Grand Jubilee were denied. Are the rules of Beatification and Canonization so rigid that they are never changed according to circumstances? Quite the contrary. In our own time, we have seen them changed for the causes of Maximilien Kolbe, Mother Teresa, Juan Diego of Mexico, the Martyrs of Mexico, the Martyrs of China, and now for Pope John Paul II. Can Blessed Joseph Vaz be classed as a Martyr? Yes, most definitely. The Joseph Naik Vaz Institute investigated this matter and found out that he is a Martyr because he worked under Dutch persecution. The Prefect of the Congregation of the Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, agreed with those of us who met with him in the year 2000, that he could be classed as a Martyr. He could have been beatified without a miracle decades ago under new rules of Beatification and Canonization. Instead, his Cause was dragged out, miracles submitted for him were rejected, then re-instated again. Could he be canonized without further miracles? If Maximilien Kolbe, the Martyrs of Mexico, and the Martyrs of China were canonized without miracles, why not Blessed Joseph Vaz? It seems to us that Goan Catholics have little or no influence in Rome and in the churches and dioceses they serve. It seems to us that those Catholic churches such as the Portuguese Church and dioceses around the world that Goan Catholics have faithfully served could and should petition the Vatican to be as flexible in its rules for a Goan and other Indian saints as it has for those of other communities and countries. It amazes many of us that while the Catholic Church has bent its rules to give saints to other nations, she continues to withold from India, the mother of great religions and land of saints, the honor of having a single fully native Indian Catholic saint. It amazes us that the churches around the world that benefit from the service of Indian Catholics are silent on this lack of Indian Catholic saints. Joseph Naik Vaz Institute Berkeley, California
