-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Uday Bhembre's roadmap to Hell Part XV On 15/11 Jose Colaco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <<With regard to the Caste System of India, I will only state my position. You can take it or leave it. I am not writing to any 20th or 19th Century person, I am writing in the 21st century to you Professor Borges. This is my opinion. You are welcome to disagree with me. I personally believe that ANYBODY who practises the Hindu Caste System is a Hindu. Full Stop. That person, never mind his surname, church going habits, rank in church etc ..... can NEVER be regarded a Catholic. Hey, I have known of ward-attendants practising for many years as surgeons. They can NEVER be doctors! So also, NOBODY who practises the apartheid Caste System of India or even the Apartheid system of South Africa can be regarded...a Catholic. The same too wrt Pedophiles, Financial Swindlers, Philanderers etc You are free to prove me wrong.>>
Dear Mr. Colaco, Please bear in mind that you are not writing a PRIVATE letter to a 21st century individual but a PUBLIC letter on the internet for the information of thousands of readers who are, in turn, entitled to react to it. If at all such a letter is ADDRESSED to an individual, it is just a formality. Therefore, TO WHOM the letter is written is not important but ABOUT WHAT is. And the ABOUT WHAT here was the situation extant in the nineteenth century; let us not lose sight of that. First of all, nobody asked you to state your position on the Caste System in India; in fact, that was not even the topic under discussion. But I cannot stop you from proffering your viewpoint on the topic. That is your right in a free country. You state that you personally do not practice the caste system. Now, in order to practice caste discrimination, one must belong to an upper caste. Do you? Please provide PROOF. Again, one must get an opportunity to practice it. I understand that you reside away from Goa. Do you get such opportunities at the place of your domicile, wherever it is? Please provide PROOF. By your fatwa, you have excommunicated a whole lot of people from the Catholic Church (and these, unwittingly, include two prominent netizens, Godfrey Gonsalves and Frederick Noronha). Has the Catholic Church made any rules for excommunication of persons found guilty of committing the sins you have overtly listed, let alone those that are concealed in etc? Have any Goans been thus excommunicated during the last four-and-a-half centuries? PROOFS please. You claim to hail from Velim in Salcete. How many days of your life have you actually spent there? Any PROOF? Are you aware that there are two confrarias in the church of Velim? And that the membership of these confrarias is strictly based upon caste? Do you know that some years back the parish priest suggested the membership of both the confrarias be thrown open to any parishioner irrespective of caste and a joint meeting of both the confrarias was called to discuss this issue? That one Colaco opposed the move? That a majority of the confraria maior members supported that Colaco and the proposal was thus dropped? That, as a consequence of this, the members of the subaltern confraria are conspicuous by their absence at feast processions? All said and done, Mr. Colaco, the PERSONAL BELIEF of one non-resident individual, however sanctimonious, does not change the ground reality as it exists today or has been in existence in the nineteenth century as well. Please ruminate on this. I shall come back to you regarding the remaining issues. Until then, my best wishes. S. M. Borges __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com