A grand Retrea House worth Rs. 20 crores - Pros and Cons.
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I have been going thro the comments, agreements and opposition et al on this
count.
First off, Rs. 20 Big Cs is BIG MONEY.
This project is an ambitious project.
If the cost of building such a project is is Rs. 20 Cs, the maintenance cost
@ 1% minimum/year would be around 20 lakhs per year.
If these 20 big Cs are to be raised through voluntary donations, then the
maintenance cost of Rs, 20 lakhs will have to come from the same domain.
That means the Catholic Community which will be financing this Whitest of
the White Elephants would be in hoc for the rest of the lifetime.
Which means: 'Go on giving to the Lord' who, btw does not at all need
MONEY".
When the bag will become heavy to carry, the Government will be asked to
come to it's rescue.
If it is a truly Secular Government, it will refuse funding. But if it gives
in, then it will have to fund for similar retreat houses of all communities,
all religions.
In that case this will have to be done at the cost of roads, water
pipelines, electricity, public transport, public health, market hygiene, etc
etc which is the raison d' etre of such a government and not to send people
to HEAVEN.
The moot question is: SHOULD THIS BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN, when people, today,
find it difficult to make ends meet??
Example 1: In the 70's my community people came to me for a sizeable
donation to our Church of Moira, saying that the Church was building it's
own funds as the benevolent injection for the maintenance of Churches from
the Bishop's Palace was being withdrawn.
I said 'YES' provided, they showed me one 'VOUCHER' where the Church had
spent money for the needy, maybe for medicines etc. etc, and in that
case, I would sign a cheque for Rs. 10,000/-. I was never approached again
and/or perhaps black-listed.
Example 2: When it was being deliberated that the Moira Cemetery needed
expansion, bright community brains opted for the MP's funds rather than
private community funding. The raging debate of MP Funding V/s Private
Community funding even saw that the plans submitted to the Panchayat were
hijacked by the pro-MP funding camp where the Parish Priest himself was
involved. The argument that the pro-community funding camp had offered was
that, if MP funds are used for this private community project, then the
CEMETERY should be open for the burial of the dead from the rest of the
communities in case of natural calamities like Earthquakes, Tsunamis,
Epidemics etc where dead bodies will not be able to be identified and
required mass-scale burials, because the government funds where utilized
for this private Cemetary. The question asked was: "Will the Catholic
Community allow this?". In the wake of such intense arguments, the demand
for MP's funding petered out and the Community funding has seen the
expansion wing of the Moira Church Cemetary as one of the best in Goa. As
one of the Pro-Community Funding Camp members, I had even gone on record to
say that " If MP's funding wins, then I shall want to be burried outside the
entrance of the Cemetary and not in the Cemetary".
BTW: One of the major votaries of the MP's Funding was none other than
Prof. Tony De Sa, where the argument was that Hindu crematoriums are being
funded by the MP's funds. My counter to that was that "If MP's funds are
being misused by other communities, that does not mean that the same should
be done by the Catholic Community, that this misuse of MP's funds must be
challenged"
Cheers
floriano
goasuraj
9890470896
www.goasu-raj.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ana Maria de souza-Goswami" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 1:37 PM
Subject: [Goanet] Shi
I agree fully with Ana Maria Fernandes about a retreat house estimated to
cost 20 crores. It is sheer waste of money. In Betim we have a small chapel
very close to our local post office. The chapel is never full. Suddenly
certain local people decided to raise funds for a bigger chapel and they
raised 14 lakhs. When I moved to Betim in June 1998, in front of my place
was a dilapated cross. Went from pillar to post to get funds to restore it.
Nobody came forward, till I joined The Goa Heritage Action Group and spear
headed to raise funds. From Betim, besides my immediate neighbour and a
couple of people, no one else gave a sou.
This heritage cross was built in 1580 or thereabouts. Finally we raised
funds and the cross was restored. No one will give funds for education of
poor children, but will give funds to their local chapel/church, as they
think they will definitely reach heaven.
Ana Maria de Souza-Goswami
