Panaji: All India Catholic Union (AICU) has said that the hasty response of political parties like AAP seeking to question the moral, magisterial authority as to religious teaching of the Church is uncalled for.
“The hasty response of political parties like the AAP seeking to question the moral, magisterial authority as to religious teaching of the Church is uncalled for and deserves to be treated with the disdain it merits,” Capt Gerald John Fernandes (R), Life Member of All India Catholic Union has said in a statement issued here.
He said that the meeting by some members of the Catholic clergy with some of the representatives of the Government of Goa concerning the use and management of the temporal goods of the Church in the State of Goa, stirred up a hornet’s nest. This knee jerk reaction and ‘jumping the gun’, when examined calmly & rationally in the light of reason appears to be uncalled for at this Stage.
“The Roman Catholic Church has the inherent right to own and administer temporal goods for the needs of her apostolic works, the demands of funding social services and the grant of fitting support not only to her ordained ministers but also to lay workers in different ecclesiastical endeavors,” he added.
The Church is catholic because it is universal and has been sent on a mission to the whole human race. The Church has no army, no weaponry, no prisons, no brute power, no secular authority but a Divine Founder, a spiritual strength and an eternal mission which is why so many political forces seek to subjugate, neutralize and render ineffective the Church.
“The Dialogue between the Church and the Government is essential to the birth of a consensual decision which at this stage, based on the materials in the public domain, has not been arrived at. A mere prima-facie expression of a view does not conclude any consultation,” he said.
The parishioner seeking elucidation is quite different from a political party demanding Explanation with the objective to undermine the authority of the Church. The State and the Church are not congruent systems operating in the same fields! Anarchy is a non-recognition of authority and controlling systems.
The demand of Shri. Elvis Gomes to the Church Authorities to explain to the people the understanding of ‘adopt the heritage scheme’, challenging the effective intelligence of the Church authorities when the scheme is not even conceived, is scandalous. Has Elvis Gomes fallen out of the Roman Catholic Church?, he questioned.
