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Dear Basilio, It took me longer to get back to you than I had intended. Part of the reason was to do with work commitments, but also, quite unexpectedly, I began to receive private emails, from several Goan sources, who have clearly been following our email correspondence. However, I want to try to confine discussion to the points you raised. Incidentally, one email indicated that you were a priest and I am now not sure if I should be addressing you as the Reverend etc. Please advise me on this as I should like to conform to protocol on this matter. In sum, most of the other emails I received, strongly supported my position and were highly critical of the Catholic Church on the matter of caste. I suspect that they were reticent about going public for fear of some kind of 'attack', especially, if they were resident in Goa. However, I am grateful to them for making me even more informed about caste among Catholic Goans. In particular I was more fully informed about the use of capes and other paraphernalia and even use of instruments (drums) on feast days with regard to something called 'OffMus' to highlight caste differentiation. To my astonishment, I even learned about the process involved and costs of getting some of the caste designating gear hand made! Their key criticism, which is also absolutely mine, but rejected by you, is that the Catholic Church has continued to condone caste differentiation in terms of the insignia used in Church and I find this absolutely disgraceful. It is like providing the Ku Klux Klan access to church premises with their hooded gear and burning crosses to profess their loathsome beliefs. If this were to occur, through Klan tourism to Goa, dear Basilio, would you and your Church know where to draw the line? Moreover, would you do anything about it? And is not caste in the Catholic Church as loathsome and even more insidious than the 'Chrisitian' racist belief of the Klan? To say, as you do that there are 'laws' about caste practice in Church is just tosh to me because it is high time the Church provided some educated and missionary leadership in eradicating the utter evil of caste among Catholic Goans. Following the brief summative introduction above, I will number some of the other issues you raised for reasons of brevity: 1. When you say that discussions on "caste are usually emotionally laden" and that "they are largely anecdotal", I can assure you that the victims of caste driven affliction are not so confused. The evidence of Catholic caste practice in Goa and in the Goan Diaspora is plentiful. It has been dwelt with in books, and PhD dissertations. Are you really saying that the Catholic Church has been blind to such reality? Was it, or was it not true that joining the priesthood, as Church business, was entirely caste based until relatively recently? Is my comprehensive list of priests and their castes in Goa, from earliest times, anecdotal or a figment of the imagination? Are you saying that, in just one celebrated case, as an example, Cardinal Valerian Gracias, of humble origins, was not boycotted in Goa by the caste-based upper classes when he visited Goa from Bombay? Was the Church so impotent in this matter? Really, Basilio, with a strong desire not to be personal, I am impelled to ask if this is the kind of Church you really wish to be associated with? I am afraid, I for one, find the evidence pretty nauseating. 2. When you try to justify caste in the context of Catholic Goa, you state that "A niche carved by status, either by caste or class, it provides an individual a place to feel secure and successful". I am sorry to say this, but this is arrant nonsense. In industrialised societies, class formation has taken over from other forms of stratification. However, even if problematic, social class is not so inflexible as caste. Movement, particularly, through education, professional advancement or money permits movement to a significant degree. Caste, in theory and practice does not allow this because there is a certain finality about it. One is placed in a caste by the caste hierarchy and there is no escape from it. Your logic suggests that the lowest of the low feel secure in their niche. I am not sure, many, except the upper castes, would agree with something so ridiculous. 3. Your view that "caste from a socio-anthropological point of view, is ascribed status, therefore it is hereditary by force" In this, you attempt to bypass my position that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of caste nor for race. However, my question is, why do you wish to root yourself in the historical reality of ascribed status? Does modern reality become too problematic for an older/traditional mindset? 3. Your suggestion that within the Indian Diaspora, caste, ...provides ego-gratification, which most of us seek, unless we have a self-effacing attitude." I find such a statement a true apology on your part for justifying caste. In the Goan diaspora in the West, many Goans have been outstandingly successful in every field conceivable. Fortunately, most young Goans neither care nor have any interest in caste. It remains within the breasts of older Goan bigots who carried it with them in their luggage when travelling to the West and who try to infuse it within their children by telling them that the other Goans are inferior to them. On this count, I am gobsmacked that seemingly bourgeoise Catholics can do this in this day and age and that you somehow seem to want to justify such form of ego-gratification. 4. Re your point, about "that there is no data or demonstrable evidence to perpetuate the accusation that the Church remains complicit in the caste business." I have got this out of the way at the start of my reply to you with some examples. However, reading between the lines, there is a tiny implication that the Church WAS complicit, in the past re the caste business. In turn, I ask, when did any transformation take place and what form it took? What was the old complicity which has been jettisoned if we are to believe you? 6. I think you overstate your case that asking the Archbishop of Goa to decree the elimination of caste (as suggested by me, at baptism) is tantamount to asking the Queen of England to eliminate the aristocracy of England. The time, dear Basilio, is not quite right in the UK case but it is most certainly so for Goa. The aristocracy is pretty harmless at present but decrees have been used to eliminate evils like slavery, public executions and the death sentence. The Archbishop of Goa could put his hand at eliminating the evil of caste in Catholic Goa without too much effort if only he was disposed to do so. Further, if Miguel, on Goanet is right, caste practice is illegal in India. So what on earth is the Archbishop of Goa waiting for on this matter? 7. To imply, as you do, that those priests in Goa who have strongly argued and been active against caste practice in the Catholic Church are in a quest for power and the exercise of authority raises many issues which cannot be addressed at the tail-end of a long email. However, to my knowledge (and the additional info I received between our correspondence), those priests who have questioned the status quo, in all conscience, were not in quest of power nor the challenge of authority as per the written evidence I have before me. They were merely seeking an exit for the faithful from the evil of caste practice in their parishes. In this miniscule scenario, the Catholic Church clearly felt threatened, decided to toady to the Brahmin hierarchy and squashed the penniless priests with a massive hammer as on a tiny nut. The poor priests were also faced with physical violence by the Brahmins as per my evidence and non of this tallies with your version of the situation. Only history will hopefully vindicate those priests who dared to question their Church. Hopefully too, we will obtain the true versions of the fight against caste hegemony with close Brahmin links to the Catholic Church hierarchy. There are so many other issues I wished to raise but the above should suffice for now. The road to Damascus was long for St Paul but he did get converted. It is therefore my earnest hope that you might also see the light soon to help extinguish the evil of caste in our beloved Goa. Kind regards, Cornel