Dear Joe, Actually this is an interesting discussion because it is sort of parallel to separation of church and state. Now, the wily Portuguese probably had a good reason for making the Confraria supreme as opposed to the Parish priest, but like any body with powers vested in them, they tend to abuse these powers.
I agree with you that a Confraria can be corrupt to the point of stealing from the Church itself. It does have a few checks and balances in places, but by and large these can be manipulated. There have been instances of Confraria members taking valuable statues to their homes for "safe keeping", etc. The Confraria has been stripped of certain collections, specially during festa time. This has given rise to a whole new problem. These collections now go to the priest, who is often as corrupt as any member of the Confraria. He has even less audit-accountability than a confraria and on many occasions, his relatives live in the lap of luxury while the Church property dilapidates. This incidentally was one of the chief reasons for incorporating celibacy into the Catholic Church law. That often, Church property was passed down from generation to generation when priests could actually marry and the Church was having none of that. Selma --------------------------- --- JoeGoaUk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In view of above, I dont think the confraria has > been stripped of much of its powers, as > said. > > I guess lot more has to be done by the authorities > to sort out this age old mess. > > The whole thing also reminds me of so called dirty > politics > > Note: > Would appreciate if any one could tell me where the > victim can go for justice now ? > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
