PANAJI
Insisting that the Catholic Church has no connection with evangelical groups or cults operating in the State, priests in the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman have claimed the Catholic Church follows a rigorous process in matters of evangelisation.
A number of priests who spoke to The Goan sought to distance themselves from Domnic D'Souza of the Five Pillars Church of Siolim, following his arrest on charges of illegal religious conversion and provoking religious sentiments.
“In context of the arrest of the pastor of the Five Pillars Church of Siolim, we have to clearly draw a line between the Catholic Church and evangelical groups or cults such as the one in news,” said Borim Parish Priest Fr Victor Ferrao.
“These groups are not Catholic and have no connection with the Catholic Church in Goa. The Catholic Church does not share any of their aims as well methods of evangelisation.”
Fr Ferrao, who has been widely respected for his extensive work in interreligious dialogue, said the Catholic Church follows a rigorous process in matters of evangelisation.
“Within the Catholic Church, any adult who wishes to convert has to undergo a long process of formation, which requires the person to manifest full freedom to embrace Catholicism as well growth in understanding of the doctrine of faith.”
“After the person manifests his or her preparedness to enter Catholicism which is discerned by the competent authority in Catholic Church, he/she is given baptism and the name of the person is recorded in the baptism register. This process of initiation into the Catholic faith is long, public and fully respectful of the freedom of the person who desires to embrace Catholic faith,” said Fr Ferrao.
“The work of the Domnic and his wife has nothing to do with the Catholic Church and on the contrary, there were conflicts with them due to their obstructionist attitude to Catholics in the past.”
Fr Ferrao, however, admitted the possibility that Domnic may have been a soft target of “divisive forces who seem to be working to disturb communal harmony in Goa in recent days.”
Another priest also feared that similar police complaints could soon be filed against the Catholic Church in Goa, especially since this complaint comes barely weeks after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had spoken strongly against "forced conversions" in Goa.
“It is surprising that the police were so quick to arrest the accused. Was there any investigation done before arrest? Is the same yardstick applied to all or only to minority communities,” asked a priest.
“Goans have always lived in peace and harmony nobody should try to divide Goans on religious lines. Everyone is free to proclaim their religion and if someone converts out of one’s own conviction, nobody can stop that person.”
“As a Catholic Goan, I strongly object to such disturbances being created on the basis of religion by filing FIR against religious leaders, whichever religion they may belong to. In fact, if this is proved wrong, an FIR should be filed against the person who filed the FIR in the first place for creating disharmony and enmity amongst religions,” the priest added.
