Address of Most Rev. Filipe NeriFerrão
at the Annual Civic Reception on the occasion of Christmas
(Archbishop’s House, 28.12.2016)
Smt. Mridula Sinha, Governor of Goa,
Shri LaxmikantParsekar, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa,
Shri ManoharParrikar, Hon’ble Union Minister for Defence,
Shri Francis D’Souza, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister of Goa,
Honourable Ministers of the State Government,
Honourable Leader of the Opposition
Honourable Members of the Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly,
Honourable Members of the Judiciary,
Respected Members of the Central and State Administration,
HonourableDefence Personnel,
Respected Consular Authorities,
Esteemed Mayor of Panjim and his Corporators,
Esteemed Members of the print and electronic media,
Reverend Colleagues in Church leadership and esteemed Lay collaborators,
Major Superiors of Religious Congregations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Together with His Grace, Archbishop Raul Gonsalves, my respected Predecessor and other members of the community of this Archbishop’s House, I am delighted to welcome you all to this evening of friendship, in the festive season of Christmas, a season that calls for the sharing of goodwill, of mutual concern, of peace. Your presence greatly honours us as you took time off your busy schedule to respond positively to our invitation. Thank you for coming!
As we have said in the past -- almost every year, I think -- this event is being organized mainly to say thank you to you, people in the government and thosein public office, who make decisions and develop policies for the rest of us, citizens, in the service of the integral development of human persons and communities in this beautiful land of Goa. We have always assured you that, irrespective of the party affiliations of the governments in power at the Centre or in the State, the Church in Goa is committed to extend her unstinted support and backing to those initiatives taken by the government to sincerely promote such development in our country and state.
Why does the Church do that? We need to refer to the Feast that brings us together today: Christmas.
The meaning of Christmas, or rather, of Christ’s birth for humanity today is well expressed in the following words that I quote from an important document, ‘Church in the Modern World,’ endorsed by the Pope and by more than two thousand bishops who had converged from all over the world for the Second Vatican Council in the nineteen sixties. It says: “By his birth, Jesus Christ has in a certain way united himself with every human person.” This identification between God and the human person means, on the one hand, that whatever service we render to human beings we render to God. On the other hand, it means that wherever human persons are degraded, there God is insulted. The mission of Jesus Christ in the world is, therefore, the protection and the development of the whole human person and of every human person in society, irrespective of sex, caste, class or religion. The mission of Jesus also includes the protection and the development of this world, inhabited by us and made sacred by his birth and life amidst us. The Church exists in the world precisely to continue this mission.
While carrying out this mission of Christ, the Church has to face many challenges, coming from different quarters, including civil societies and governments, which, incidentally, have had a chequered history in their relationship with the Church throughout the centuries.
For example, in the nineteen seventies, the relationship of the Government of this country with the Church could be summed up in the following statement made by the then President of India, Shri V. V. Giri. Speaking at the All-India Christian Consultation on Development in 1970, he remarked (I quote): “The Christian Community in India is a minority.” (We are, as you know, less than three per cent of the Indian population). “And yet,” continues the President, “its contribution towards the uplift of our people stands out as a telling example of how a community, even if small in number, can do great and noble things. The people of India owe a great deal to their Christian brethren for their magnificent efforts in the field of education, health and general social development. I take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation of the valuable contribution that the Christian Community has made to the rich mosaic of India’s culture, and to encourage them in their noble and selfless efforts” (Unquote).
This scenario is changing today, in the context of our nation. The Proposed Draft of the New Education Policy has been brought out recently, but such a recognized stakeholder as the Church has not been taken into confidence at all. There are elementstoday who accuse the Church in India of engaging in proselytization and conversions. Our charitable works are looked upon with suspicion and as an allurement for conversion. The Church has often been accused of being of foreign origin, although it has gifted the nation with some of the finest high-ranking defenceand administrative personnel, who have defended our country and served it with exemplary patriotism and dedication. Our institutions have been attacked, robbed, burnt down and the perpetrators of these crimes often go scot free. It is almost as if the tiny three per cent is posing a serious threat for the disintegration of the whole nation. After doing all the good that he could, Jesus Christ was rewarded with death on the Cross. And yet, from the top of that Cross, he did not condemn his torturers. He cried out to God: “Father,” he said, “forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
God has placed the Church in the world not to condemn the world, but to be of genuine service to humanity and to the earth. I suppose every civil government has the same main task: to be of genuine service to the citizenry and to the land in its circumscription.
Our beloved Pope Francis says: “The earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone.” He further says: “Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for the coming generations.” The Pope is referring to the principle of inter-generational equity, which the Supreme Court of India has made into a law to be followed in the Goa mining case that it heard in 2012-14.
We are trustees of our land holdings. It is our solemn duty to ensure that the value of the land is passed on to our children and future generations. Only then may we enjoy the fruits, shared equally. All generations and all within a generation would benefit equally. This would truly embody the central message of most religions, “treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.”
But what we see is an extensive environmental and social damage to Goa, which has generated rampant corruption and even weakened governance. It has been an assault on our community and on our natural wealth. More distressingly, it has been a loss to our children and to our future generations. Are we not answerable to them? Or are they going to remember us as an irresponsible generation that has squandered natural wealth for the benefit of a few?
It is for this and other reasons that the Church takes upon herself, all in the name of genuine service to human beings and to the land, the task of guiding her members in the process of electing the right kind of individuals to the local and national government. Elections to the Legislative Assembly of the State are approaching and the Church Leadership in Goa will take up once again this duty-bound task.
We do issue guidelines to our faithful on how to exercise their franchise and thus fulfil one of their sacred civic duties; these guidelines are read out in our churches, but they never mention the name of any candidate or political party. The people are sovereign. They decide. And our faithful are requested to pray and to vote according to their conscience. In fact, Catholics in Goa have already begun praying every Sunday, that the right kind of candidates may be elected to power in the forthcoming elections. If, as a result of the Church’s Advisory, some party comes to power, it does not follow that the party was canvassed for by the Church.
Secondly, our institutions work under the law of the Church, but also under the law of the land. For their optimal functioning, there is need of maintaining a regular contact with the government authorities. It is regrettable that sometimes such contacts are not understood in their proper context and are even criticized in the public square.
I thought this would be a good occasion to share with you a few of these things that arerunning in my mind. Please accept them in the spiritwith which they have been shared: the spirit of friendship, openness and frank collaboration that has brought us together this evening and that has been at the root of this annual event. I take this opportunity also to thank the present government for the support that we have received during this last year in the furtherance of a few of our plans and projects. We all know that without the required official clearances, nothing can get ahead.
Before I end, I reiterate what I said in the beginning. The Church in Goa wants to assure you that sheis committed to extend her support and backing to the initiatives taken by the government of the day to sincerely promote the genuine development of this state and of its population.Once again, I would like to thank all of you for accepting our invitation and making time to be with us this evening. We wish and pray that God Almighty may give you and your families a New Year filled with His choicest blessings and inspire us all to serve our people with greater dedication and earnestness, so that we can promote an environment that will be conducive to true development and abiding peace and justice.
Thank you.
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