PANAJI
Often in the forefront to censure and call out the ill-effects of tourism, Goa's influential Catholic church and its clergy men dedicated a part of its Sunday Eucharistic services across parishes in the State to pray for "tourism and sustainable transformation".
Although it was a Sunday dedicated to religious vocations in the Archdiocese, the church authorities took cognisance of the fact that World Tourism Day will be observed on September 27 (Saturday) and added 'tourism' to the theme of the day's Eucharistic services commemorating it as the 'Jubilee of Vocations and Jubilee of Tourism'.
Priests leading the Eucharistic celebrations in parish churches and affiliated shrines and chapels across the State dedicated parts of their homilies to highlight the symptoms of tourism's dark underbelly often witnessed here while urging the laity, especially those in professions and businesses in the sector to shun excessive self-greed and choose righteous actions.
The disorderly movement of tourists in its Latin Quarter -- Mala-Fontainhas and Sao Tome -- which have often in the past led to skirmishes, sometimes violent, found prominent mention by priests celebrating masses at the various shrines and chapels.
At one such service, Fr Cypriano D'Silva, the Parish Priest of the Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Church in the capital, censured the 'over-tourism' which often leads to intrusion of the privacy of the residents by tourists in the Latin Quarter of Sao Tome and Mala-Fontainhas.
"It sometimes leads us and them (residents) to wonder if Goa should even continue to be a tourist destination," Fr D'Silva commented in his homily. He also mentioned the adverse impact on Panaji city's aesthetics by the concentration of casinos there.
Elsewhere in the State, especially in the northern coastal belt, priests leading the Sunday mass celebrations advised leaders among the faithful to initiate affirmative action to tackle the proliferation of narcotic drugs, destructive development of tourism projects at the expense of the ecology and other immoral activities for the promotion of tourism.
Sunday church congregations were also asked to pray during the services for "real development" through tourism besides raising prayers for the State's political leaders so that they may shoulder their responsibilities, especially related to dealing with tourism issues, in a manner which will ensure overall betterment of the State.
