The Sri Lanka-Goa news networks and websites have been a-buzz with controversy
over our shared history under the Portuguese for the last few weeks. If you
thought that religion and history are dull, think again!
Right now we are awash with plots and counter-plots presented by Sri Lankans of
the Portuguese stealing a dead Buddhist monk's body in Sri Lanka and switching
it for Xavier's. First, we Goans are supposed to believe now that Xavier died
in Sri Lanka, not on the island of Shangchuan, off the coast of China. And
that, a very clever Portuguese sea Captain somehow stole the incorrupt body of
a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka and switched it for Xavier's thereby causing
generations of Goans to waste time and money over the Exposition of his body,
when it was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk's all the time ...
Second, some of us innocently thought that Goa's beloved religious figure,
Blessed Joseph Vaz, was an amazing non-colonial and non-political missionary.
But no, not by a Sri Lankan journalist's account ("Joseph Vaz - Did he take
part in the Goa Inquisition?") who confidently writes that he was part of the
Goa Inquisition even though he was working practically alone and in hiding in
Sri Lanka with not a Portuguese in sight ...
Anyway, here's Filomena Saraswati Giese's response, sub-titled "What does the
Historical Record Prove?" on Joseph Vaz. It appeared in the e-paper Heraldo and
on some other websites:
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=13721&boxid=5058755&uid=&dat=2/2/2014
Joseph Naik Vaz Institute
Berkeley, California
http://josephnaikvaz.org/
