In the fifties and sixties, and, the period of time before that (consider a couple of centuries or more), every mother's wish was to have a priest in the family. And the testimony of this still prevails everywhere in Goa where most of the palatial houses belonged to the family with priests, and where most of such houses are now gifted or donated to nunneries, aged homes, convents, novitiates etc. And in Moira, which is my village, I can off-hand count a dozen such houses which have changed hands for this good.
I am talking of 'fifties' and 'sixties' because my mother was perhaps nursing the aspiration of being a mother of a priest, having four sons and no daughter/s. And whenever this topic of one son at least becoming a priest was occasionally the topic of discussion at lunch or dinner, my shippy dad, when at home, would invariably repeat the same thing again and again addressing us 4 boys. "If anyone or even all of you want to be priest/s, then you must choose a life with 'Christ' and join the 'Society of Jesus' to become Jesuit/s. That way I can cancel your name/s from my/our will because priests are not supposed to own anything to their name". My mother must have quietly confided to our parish priest that one of her sons (me) might be interested in joining the seminary. That was when I found that our parish priest was being extra good to me, asking me to see him after mass etc and even giving me chicoos. And once, he quietly told me that he was happy to know from my mother that I would like to join the priest-hood. Mind you I was 17 years old. And I remember how I had reacted to that. "Father", I had proudly said. "If I ever become a priest, I will be a Jesuit". At that time I had thought that my troubles were over with that pronouncement. But I was not to know that in days to come my troubles were going to be compounded with the parish priest telling St. Britto's (Mapusa) Jesuit provincial, who in turn, sending me a message to see him via another Moidekar seminarian, compounded further by my name being pasted on the college notice board (St. Xavier's, Bastora) to see Fr. Pallithanam, our botany lecturer, who in turn was seen vociferously and happily congratulating me on my decision to join the fraternity, where I had thought that my botany journal would be ripped-off this time, instead of being just flung out of the window, like he had done on the previous occasion. Those were the days when I had to work double hard at devising ways and means how to dodge these calls which started becoming frantic, rather than studying, ultimately ending with me absconding from the Church services just so I could avoid meeting the parish priest. And was I happy that he was timely transferred?? That was the end. And they say that it becomes a habit if you do it once, I mean, absconding from church services, as, over the years, I have not become very fond of being a decorative ornament with respect to church services. And thank God Himself for leading me away from choosing the path of priest-hood, because, if I had become a priest, I would be the most 'controversial' of them all. Meaning? Well, I shall leave it at that. Yesterday, 29 April, 2006, was the day that I realized how important it was to my mother who is 84, to have a son, a priest. Secretly, without any of us knowing, she had sponsored a boy from Savordem, by the name of Rogers (Raju) Godinho some years ago, who was studying at the Dominican Novitiate in our neighbourhood. And when Rogers came over the other day to invite her for his 'Ordination' she was full of joy. I reassured her that I would take her there. It was a tiring journey by car for her, but she was all buoyed-up and happy. Though it took her a long time to get into her best sari, which she has not done in years, she had done it well. And it was all of my satisfaction to lead her by her hand, among the first to climb the stage, to give a bouquet of flowers to her priest 'Raju" and a jolly good hug. And I wondered how happy she would have been to bask in such glory herself, just like Raju's own mother, if years ago I had paid that visit to St. Britto' s, Mapusa. Nevertheless, I was happy to see her happy to hug a full blown priest she had helped to make. On the way back, while she was fast asleep in the back seat of the car, my wife, who had accompanied us for the ordination, quietly told me the story which I had never known. "She asked me to go to Mapusa with her, some years ago, probably when you were still sailing" she said. "It was in Mapusa that she lead me to a goldsmith when she gave the gold chain to the goldsmith to weigh, I said to her 'mother, you are not selling this for want of cash are you?', she smiled and told me that she would tell me in good time" she told me. "And on our way back from the goldsmith, she told me that she was sponsoring a priest from the Dominican Novitiate for Rs. 5000/-" and that she had pledged that gold chain. And the words of the Dominican Provincial at the Ordination came back to me in a flood. He had said that Fr. Rogers Godinho was the first Goan Dominican priest to be ordained since the 15th Century. Many people from my ward have sponsored young boys for Dominican priesthood but none of them were lucky to get a Goan from Savordem. My mother was. And I think her passion to see a priest all of her own has been fulfilled. And, it would be a million dollar question if modern mothers should aspire thus. End _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)