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Two new showrooms/office spaces, double height (135 sq m each with bath) for lease in upscale Campal/Miramar beach area, Panaji, Goa. Contact: goaengineer...@aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *This article was published in the Herald of today but I cannot read it in the web version.. Any reasons..?? * *We are the Church* *By. Almir de Sousa* Because of his intelligence and expertise in historical matters I had certain regard for Teotonio R. De Souza. I lost it today after reading his Article “Church in Goa: Servants, slaves and rebels”. ( Herald, 29 August, 2009) The article is not worth of any person of certain standard much less a Historian and Professor of Teotonio’s calibre. It is full of insinuations, undocumented quotations and calling of names to those who oppose him. At the end of the article I asked myself , “ Why this personal attack in the garb of a ‘historical lecture’? Would Teotonio have a personal grudge against the Archbishop?”, Because the whole article comes to that. According to him all the members of the Church could be divided into three categories: servants, slaves and rebels. ‘Slaves’ would be those who defend the Church and attack him; ‘Rebels’ would be all those who attack the Church. All the others would be ‘servants’. He would place himself in the category of “rebels” and carve a glorified niche for himself together with others like Fr.Dupuis or Fr. Bermejo. The last two may have had their own difficulties with Vatican Authorities but they remained in the Church to serve her with all dedication, because they did not love themselves but the Church. We should avoid two types of Pharisaisms: one to be in the Church, observe all the laws and regulations to the last detail and consider ourselves as ‘ perfect ones’ and condemn all others as ‘publicans’; the other one is of those who for reasons of their own opted to be outside the Church but consider themselves and boast as the ‘perfect ones’ and call the ones who are still in the Church ‘slaves or chamchas’. Both equally wrong and to be condemned. The article of Teotonio is full of insinuations: regarding the ”loyal servants of the Church in Goa, both clergy and laity,” belonging to “dominant castes” of “the finance and other administrative committees” including the “relatives of priests” and “ of the archbishop”. He seems to be basing his article on hearsay and quotes the opinion of one person as if that opinion was sacramental and infallible: Just two examples: 1. *“Someone even mentioned the Bishop’s pastoral visits as useless exercise…”* It may be true, there are always a few who will not do anything themselves and whatever others do will find as “useless exercise”. So what to conclude from there? Should the Bishop stop his pastoral visits? And what about all others, hundreds of them, who have exactly the opposite view? I can quote for one: in my Parish a well reputed Teacher, housewife and Mother of three children, after the pastoral visit of the Archbishop ,told me that she had attended all the talks of the Archbishop and that she did not feel bored at all on the contrary they were of great help to her personal and family life. She is not a ‘chamcha’ neither she teaches in a Catholic School. This is just one example. 2. Again Teotonio quotes “some parishioners of the new Porvorim parish” who “approached” him during his “brief stay in Goa” and “revealed their discontent over the lack of transparency and accountability of the generous funds collected from the parishioners for extending the parish residence”. Instead of going to the press with such insinuations would it not be better if he had sought clarification directly from the Parish Priest of Porvorim, who happens to be his co-villager? For that matter how would Teotonio like if I had written to the Papers saying that “someone has approached me” and revealed that Teotonio had mismanaged the Funds of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research when he was at the helm of that Centre? It looks that Teotonio and a few like him want to divide the Church in Goa in two classes: Priests and Laity and incite the Laity against the Clergy. The picture of the Church given by Teotonio is all wrong. There are no “Servants, slaves and rebels” in the Church . There are sons and daughters in the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ and we, the Bishops, Priests and Laity are the members of this Body; the Church is the People of God and we all are this people, we belong to the Church, *we are the Church.* Though the Church is founded by Christ yet it is human and consists of human members. These human members, Pope, Bishops, Priests and Laity, are sinners. The Church is composed of sinners, yet it is holy because of Christ who died for our sins makes the Church holy. All this can be understood only in faith. As a body of sinners there are bound to be mistakes in the Church. It is because of this that there has always been a saying in the Church: *“Ecclesia semper reformanda”* (The Church has always to be reformed) This reform has to come from within. If we really love the Church we will continue to be in the Church and try to reform it from within It is not with Round Tables, TV Debates and much less Articles like those written by Teotonio which are going to reform the Church. It is not by leaving the Church and then throwing stones at her that we shall reform the Church it is by remaining in the Church, suffering with and within the Church, maybe even being a ‘rebel’ but always within the Church that we shall reform the Church. Also it is not by living in Portugal and by our “brief stay in Goa” that we shall reform Goa and the Church in Goa. It is by living here, in Goa, that we should suffer with our people, with our Church and reform Goa and the Church in Goa.
