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International Cuisine Conference on Traditional Asian Diet Panaji, Goa, September 2-5, 2007 - http://www.indologygoa.in Online Media Partner: http://www.goanet.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2007 01:50:49 +0100 (BST) From: JoeGoaUk > I too feel that the retired priests should be well looked after. > At this time, it remind me of a priest whom I knew personally and who was > very kind, straight forward etc. We as yougsters, gave him a pet name 'Bulgem' (Dolphine) as he sounded like crying dolphine while saying mass etc. His name was Fr. Alban Fernandes. > As soon as I heard that the priest is in the clergy home, Porvorim, I > visited him the next day. I must have met him after about 18 years. > Sadly, he did not recognised me partly because of his illness (partial > loss of memory etc ). His room (with attached bath etc) was very untidy and with strong smell of urine. Again, after 6 months I visited him and the situation was the same. There was a lady who also came to visit him (not his relative but could be his neighour) RESPONSE: I am in complete agreement with Joe. I have a house in Margao and locate diaginaly opposite is the Hospicio do Clero (Clergy Home). It used to be a decrepit, old dimly lit run-down with dark corridors and toilets not worth mentioning. It has recently been rebuilt into a modern 3 storied building with varandas running the full lenght of the building and with nice airy, brightly-lit rooms and corridors which let the sun in. The floors are tiled aand the walls have bright colours. They also have nice toilets (and enough in number) with permanent running hot water as they installed a separate hot water tank with a solar-cell heater located on the roof. Even in the monsoon season, the little sunlight it gets is enough to heat the water in the tank. When I am in Goa, it makes me feel nice to see the priests strolling up-and-down in the varanda for their daily constitunional. I greet them from across the distance from my own varanda. My little daughter spent her first few months in Goa and when she awoke every morning with a big smile on her face gurgling away to glory, my wife would take her to our varanda (on the 1st floor) and point out the sparrows perched on the swaying branches of the trees with a "bom dia passarinhos" (good morning little birds)followed by a "bom dia padres" (good morning priests) and wave out to them. They always waved back (and still do) and they were very happy to see the baby and tickle her when the wife visited them after the sunday mass in their chapel. When the new Hospicio do Clero was built they also built around 10 shops facing the main road. I am sure that the money (or rent) from these must pay for the upkeep of the priest, who have proper laundry, clean rooms and decent meals. This is the minimum expected for those who dedicated their lives to the service of others. We spend our lives enriching ourselves so that we can have a comfortable retirement. They spend their lives enriching our neighbourhoods and our children with meagre salaries that do not even suffice for the 3 square meals. Taking care of priests, imams, bhatts, etc. is not the responsibility of the state. In a secular & democratic state where there is a clear separation between religion and state, we cannot expect the state to take special care of the priests. There are government run old-age homes like the asilo & the albergue. Why should priets, imams, bahtta, etc, get special treatment from the state. They can go the the Asilo or Albergue like all other impoverished citizens. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH TO LOOK AFTER THE PRIESTS. If such a nice Hospicio do Clero can be built in Margao, I do not see why it is not possible to have more of these around Goa. The church in Goa has a lot of land and it has to make provisions for old destitute priest who have nobody to care for them. When a priest in my family suffred a stroke and a few years later, a hear attack, it was the family that had to spend nights in the hospital by his side. Take him outside Goa for angioplasty, etc. and pay for it all. Of course it was done with pleasure and will it will always be done with pleasure, care and without questions. However, since I married, my wife is always by my side administering to me when I am sick and vice-versa. The priest marries the church but nobody cares for him when he is sick. I have many priests in the family and they all have to depend on the family when sick. How can the church expect to reverse the decline of new recruits joining the seminaries if it does not have a proper health & retirement plan ? (the same goes for nuns) Speak about it! write about it! Make enough bru ha ha that the church takes notice. 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