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St. Mary's Convent High school, Mapusa is staging a play titled "Lion King"
December 1, 2007 - Hanuman Hall, Mapusa
to fundraise for a false ceiling for the school hall
& upgrading the school playground
Headmistress Sr. Namika A.C. / Teacher Mrs. Sonia Noronha
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Hi Gilbert
Many thanks for a detailed post. However, I will confine myself to just one
of your definitions as below about religion and pose a question to you without
endeavouring to be personal at all.
Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: The following is the definition of
religion as per Wikipedia.
"A religion is a social institution that includes a set of common beliefs and
practices generally held by a group of people, often codified as prayer,
ritual, and religious law." To me the operative term is a "a group of people"
living by a "codified" norm.
CORNEL: So, my friend, I have no difficulty with the definition you used but
do have enormous difficulty in understanding how you can possibly reconcile
totally alien belief systems re caste within Catholicism. The two belief
systems are irreconcilable as I have stated many many times. One, (Catholicism)
believes in the universal brotherhood of humankind and that all men/women are
born equal and worthy of equal dignity. Casteism, in contrast emphasises
non-equality from birth, only promotes brotherhood along strictly segmented
lines and indeed, abhors universal human dignity. In this respect, I wish the
casteists would just go away and leave Catholicism alone which they have
polluted in Goa for centuries by their vile ideology. In turn, I am very
critical of Catholicm in Goa that has been complicit in the evil of caste.
You have always been an apologist for caste and yet presented yourself as a
devout Catholic. Herein lies the dilemma to which I would value your rationale
in terms of the very definition you used above. And incidentally, having just
returned from Goa from a 'mission' to explore caste more fully among so called
Catholics in Goa, I have more hard evidence that the Church in Goa has been and
continues to be complicit in caste but I will save this for later. Naturally,
this disgusts me as it does many others in Goa and the Goan Diaspora. Yet, I am
willing to be enlightened by you and anyone else who is inclined to respond to
my simple question about how on earth it is possible to be deeply casteist and
supposedly deeply Catholic. For me, only comedians would make a case for
something as absurd as this but I do hope desperately that, you may have an
answer that is persuasive.
Kind regards
Cornel
