Dear Agnelo, I have known you for quite a while now and we have met on more than one occassions. And I have always had the inner feeling that you have always placed the blame of what is happening to Goa (politically) at the feet of Ex -Archbishop Rev. Raul Gonsalves and to some extent the present Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao. And I had never wanted to talk or argue with you about how you felt. But when I saw your post to Albert re Archbishop's visit to SF, I was pleasantly surprised to read the tone of your response. That is why I had made it a point to tell you so in my reply to you.
And now, you have even more pleasantly surprised me with this post to Fr. Loyola. I do hope that you will remain consistent with the present mind-set that you have displayed. I do not like to talk and/or engage in discourse with religious matters because I am involved in politics of Goa and my party has made it a rule that Religion must not mix Politics. [by that we do not mean that politicians should not be religous or something like that :-)))] That is why we sent a letter to the Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao in 2005 making known our concern w.r.t. the CHURCH entertaining the political who is who at the Bishop's Palace for 'Christmas Tea Party-2005'. Our concern was that the Church was sending out wrong signals of condonation of what our politician do by entertaining them at the highest office of the Church in Goa and because of whose un-Christian behaviours Goa is floored today. That the 'Christmas Tea Party-2006 was entirely different is another matter altogether. This party believes that the Church plays a silent role in shaping the mind-set of its faithful. Because politic affects their well being, and the well being of the faithful is always the primary concern of the Church or for that matter any Religious body. Afterall it is believed that the earth is planned and shaped by God for His people and it must be seen that it is managed as according to HIS WISHES to benefit all HIS creations. With kind regards floriano goasuraj ----- Original Message ----- From: Agnelo Gomes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! <[email protected]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 3:10 PM Subject: Re: [Goanet] Goa bishop in San Francisco - A reply to JoaquimPereira Thank you Fr. Pereira for clearing the gossipy air from the bolcao of Albert. I think someone from the US needs to sponsor Albert and send him a ticket. That's the real issue. The mentality is 'If I don't get a chance to go to San Fran. why should another person go? Good old goan crab mentality. Secondly, regarding Roland's reply to Fr. Pereira's apt email and then an emotional out cry on Caste System in the Church. Roland makes it appear that Caste System is like a aeroplane owned by the church, piloted by the priest and the brahmins ride in the first class, and the rest of us are stuck in the coach class with one toilet. Well, as per my knowlegde that comes from studying History, Sociology, Religions and Anthropology I know that Caste System is a much bigger beast and reality, dates back to Before Christ and primarily has it's roots in Hinduism. It started out well as a way of division of labour or roles in society but later the Brahmins - priestly and teaching class used it as a way to exert authority over the rest. They claimed that they came from the head of Brahma(God), while the Shatriyas(warrior class) came from the shoulders of Brahma, the Vaishays(trading class) came from the belly of Brahma and the Sudras(manual labour) came from the feet of Brahma. This description was given by the Brahmins for obvious reasons. I donot know what caste i belong to because I never spoke about it with my family or friends but I know for sure I don't belong to brahmin Caste. Now my parents were never deprived of any educational or working opportunities. In fact it was the Church that was there for them when they needed help. I don't think Fr. Pereira needs to address this issue because the ball can never be in Altinho or for that matter Rome. It's all over the place including in mine and your heart. Whenever we refer to people as Sokoile(southerners) and Voile(Northerners) there is the prejudice of caste system. Whenever we are anxious that our daughter may fall in love with a non-goan or a goan of a poor background or locality or schedule caste there is caste system. The church used to recruite candidates for the priesthood from mainly the brahmins but that practice died 3 or 4 generations ago. I think we need to move on and stop playing the blame game and work to fight the bigger elephants and tigers in our Global world and ask questions like – Why do our Goans have to leave Goa and struggle in a foreign land? Are we providing them opportunities to earn their bread and butter, fish and curry in Goa? What are we doing about corruption? What we doing about the sale of our land in Goa in the name of development? Sale of our land by our greedy politicians as if it's their father property. What are we doing about pollution? What are we doing about our educational system? What are we doing about our inadequate and depleting infrastructure? What are we doing about further degradation of our environment especially our beaches and rain forests? For Roland in Canada these may not be issues that affect his life? And Albert in Goa, now you will realize why he wants to go on a vacation to San Francisco. Let's talk about issues that are touching our daily lives, why goans want to leave goa? Why Roland does not want to go back to goa? Why Albert want's to take the first flight out? Fr. Pereira does not have to waste his time on issues that need to be laid to rest with history and should be busy tackling the burning issues of today. I'm of the opinion that the Archbishop needs to travel. He needs to know what’s happening around the world not just from newspapers and televisions. It is good for his leadership. He will be a better leader. He has a very important role in Goa, not just in the spiritual domain but in every aspect of people’s life. I know he works very hard and holds very, very important responsibilities and I thank him for his dedication. He has spoken on issues that no one dare speak in Goa and he has my respect. So, let bygones be bygones, Roland I would suggest you to come to goa and get in touch with some of our burning issues and ground realities that affect us today rather then seek to heal old wounds which are irrelevant today because that will not bring food to our table. Thanks, Agnelo
