The Catholic Church in Goa has distanced itself from a layman’s call to fellow Goans to unite or be doomed.
The call appeared in an article published in the August 1-15 edition of the “Renewal,” the bimonthly pastoral bulletin of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman.
The writer, F E Noronha, in his one-page article, titled “Goans need to Unite …or they will perish,” referred to politicians such as the state chief minister talking about destroying traces of Portuguese culture. Such announcements are part of a holocaust under preparation, he warned.
The Goa edition of The Times of India on August 5 carried a report with the headline, “Church bulletin article warns Manipur-like situation in Goa.”
Reacting to such reports, Father Barry Cardozo, director of the Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media, asked the newspaper to publish a corrigendum, stating the Church’s stand on the matter.
“A section of the print media has recently carried a misleading report titled ‘Church predicts Manipur-like situation in Goa.’ We would like to state that the Church in Goa has never made such a statement. Statements made by an individual contributor to the pastoral bulletin of this Archdiocese have been made to appear as (official) statements of the Church. The pertinent newspaper has been asked to issue a corrigendum.”