------------------------------------------------------- CONVENTION OF THE GOAN DIASPORA FROM GOA INTO THE WORLD Lisbon, Portugal June 15-17, 2007 Details at: http://www.casadegoa.org -------------------------------------------------------
I do not know whether my ancestors were hindus or muslims because in the good old days the people were forced to change their religion when ever there was a change in the government.If it was a muslim king many were forced to b ecome muslims and vice versa.I would place the line in 1510.That is the time when the portuguese made their entry into Goa.Along with them came the catholicism and most of the people who are now boasting to be Roman catholics were baptised during that time whether force was used or any other means I really do not know.Though we changed our surface we have till now not changed our roots.There is lot of hinduism in us.There are so many catholics still visit the hindu temples not as mere tourist but as active members .That is the r eason there is tolerance between all religions in Goa.We have no difficulties to live with muslims or hindus.We means catholics and so too the others.What about the origin of Roman Catholicism? Before Jesus made his entry the romans believed in sun god. They celebrated the feast of this sun god on 25th December every year with great pomp and gaiety.Some of them also had greek influence and believed in zeus that was the greek god.There were other gods also like Bhel etc.You will remember when Moses was coming down the mountain with the tablets of the ten commandments he was angry with the people for dancing round the calf god.During the time of Abraham one section of his tribe moved away from him and that became the muslims.I am not aware of this detail completely.We have certain things in common.Abraham's sacrifice of his only son Isac is also celebrated by the muslims as Id.I wish some one could write more about this common things that we catholics have with the muslims. I love to hear that.so talking about the romans and greeks and their gods it was necessary to draw the people towards the real God.Prophets were sent one after the other.People really were not moved a bit.Since Rome was a powerful nation they could influence most of the parts of the g lobe.Isarel and other parts around it were also influenced by this roman and greek mythology.This mythology had taken roots into people and it was very difficult to change this.The jews and may be the gentiles were anxiously waiting for the messiah.This was told to them by the prophets.They expected him to be born in rich environmentbut it was Jesus who was the messiah and he came as a poor person who had no place to be born.The jews found it very difficult to believe this and so the outcome was the crucifixition. We are still under the roman control. The mythology to some extent is still deep down the roots of e ach an everyone of us.It is really very difficult to change this structure. And because of this hardened structure there was a split in the church. This gave birth to protestants and roman catholics.The latter kept its ego burning and did not even bother to pay much attention to what wa been said by the former.The Roman church again was divided into two. The rich holy religious and the poor uneducated lay people. The former always felt that they were superior to the latter in all respect and more over the latter namely the lay people felt they know nothing and relied completely on the former who called themselves clergy the chosen ones.The lay people were n ow torn into two factions,two idiologies whether to follow the clergy or move over to the protestant camp.In today's world many people are struggling to find out who is the true shepherd. albert _________________________________________________________________ Spice up your IM conversations. New, colorful and animated emoticons. Get chatting! http://server1.msn.co.in/SP05/emoticons/ ------------------------------------------------------- Goanet recommends, and is proud to be associated with, 'Domnic's Goa' - A nostalgic romp through a bygone era. This book is the perfect gift for any Goan, or anyone wanting to understand Goa. Distributed locally by Broadway, near Caculo Island, Panjim & internationally by OtherIndiaBookStore.Com. For trade enquiries contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------
