A beautiful tribute George to both the man and the woman. I send my
Congratulations to Filomena and wish her well. Hope to meet you and her again
some time soon.
Cheers,
Santosh
George Pinto georgejpinto at yahoo.com
wrote:
Some thoughts on the Joseph Vaz canonization
By George Pinto
Three hundred years separate them but the Vatican’s approval of the Goan-born
Joseph Vaz canonization, inextricably binds possibly the greatest saint in
Catholic history with his biggest promoter for sainthood, Filomena Sarawati
Giese.
All credit for his canonization belongs to Joseph Vaz, whose saintly life
(1651-1711) resulted last week in the one of the highest honors of the Catholic
church bestowed on him (the formalities will be done in the near future). For
24 years he lived in Sri Lanka under harsh conditions: as a beggar, under Dutch
persecution (could mean imprisonment and death if a Catholic priest was caught
preaching), without food for days, sometimes in chains, his life often in
danger, he even walked barefoot across Sri Lanka. Without ANY forced
conversions, he grew the church substantially in Sri Lanka while he was there.
Fr. Roger Lesser (who unfortunately is very sick at the time of writing)
referred to him as one of the greatest saints while discussing his book “Sages
and Saints of India”. In the spirit of inter-religious harmony (much needed
today) Joseph Vaz had the blessings of a Buddhist king to preach. His life as a
priest is a model for today’s priesthood:
humble, serve the poor, comfort the afflicted, live simply. An agnostic, even
an atheist, can objectively appreciate the greatness of the man.
Fast forward to the late 1970’s and two Goan sisters in Berkeley, California,
discover Joseph Vaz’s work and decide his story must be told. Filomena
Saraswati Giese and Ligia Britto found the Joseph Naik Vaz Institute and
Filomena primarily carries the torch for 35 years. For any number of historical
reasons, not the least of which is colonialism, she realizes that Joseph Vaz
has been denied the “glories of the altar” as Archbishop Henry D’Souza alluded
to in his heroic speech in Rome to the General Oratorian Congress in 2000. For
Filomena, it has been a long, sometimes lonely struggle, trying to convince the
Vatican to do the right thing and canonize Joseph Vaz - a matter of justice. It
has meant trips to Rome, writing to and meeting with Cardinals, Bishops,
petitioning three Popes, and organizing events to publicize the work of Joseph
Vaz. She watched European candidates fast-tracked to sainthood and European
saints imposed on colonized
peoples throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while Joseph Vaz was
unjustly made to wait for three hundred years. But the struggle ended last
week, when Filomena triumphantly arrived in Rome on September 17, 2014, the
same day the Vatican announced approval of the canonization.
Why, one can ask, have some Goans been so docile, even uninterested in one of
their own? Many Goan clergy were indifferent, asleep, and in a few cases
hostile to a Joseph Vaz sainthood while promoting non-Goan saints. Perhaps
Goans really do not deserve their own saint. But colonialism is formally over
(although it has morphed into other forms of discrimination) and a new Pope
understands historical wrongs can be made right. Pope Francis did the right
thing.
As the Vatican shutters its doors this evening and the sun sets on a fairly
deserted St. Peter’s Square, Filomena goes by the Vatican one last time on this
important trip before she returns to California tomorrow. Rome is the epicenter
of Catholicism and the city has gone to bed tonight little realizing that one
woman in their midst with tremendous tenacity and dogged determination took on
a 2000 year (male) bureaucracy and won. From St. Peter to St. Joseph Vaz, a
door was finally opened for a Goan - Joseph Vaz now belongs in the universal
calendar of saints.
Joseph Vaz and Filomena's paths will no doubt cross some day in eternity. A
humble, saintly soul and a woman activist who refused to give up on justice for
his well-deserved sainthood. One can only hope to be a fly on that proverbial
wall when that meeting occurs.
Filomena scaled Mount Vatican, far bigger and more challenging than Everest.
It took 35 years and every young Goan woman, every young woman, must take her
example - long odds and a tough road are not obstacles but opportunities to
succeed even in a man's world. No, especially in a man's world.
Welcome back Filomena. You won one for Goans (and Sri Lankans). Thank you.
=
The writer lives in the San Francisco Bay area and his views above do not
necessarily reflect the views of any organization he belongs to, including the
Joseph Naik Vaz Institute which he has strongly supported since 2000.
