Union of Catholic Asian News
January 4, 2010
http://www.ucanews.com/2010/01/04/catholics-riot-over-priest-defamation/
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| Church of Our Lady of Merces parishioners protesting outside the house of Calvert Gonsalves |
PANAJI, India (UCAN) -- Catholics from a Goa parish have staged a violent protest, blocking roads and ransacking the home of a village leader who they say had circulated a CD defaming their priest.
The parishioners of the Church of Our Lady of Merces in Colva ended their protest on Dec. 29, after Goa's state officials, including the chief minister, pledged to arrest the alleged culprit.
Parishioners staged their protest after an audio CD was circulated, allegedly by Calvert Gonsalves, a member of the village council. The CD accused Father Diogo Fernandes of embezzling funds for a school building and living with a woman.
The CD recording also accused the Church hierarchy of selling off Church land and pocketing the funds.
Gonsalves, who went into hiding when the protest began, has not been arrested.
Jason Andrade, from the parish council, said in a police complaint filed on Dec. 26 that the CD had shocked villagers.
Hundreds took to the streets, attacking Gonsalves' home and torching a fast-food kiosk. They also set up barricades along major thoroughfares and burned tires.
Tension had actually started in May after someone circulated defamatory letters about the priest. Parishioners were angered then because the police took no action despite three complaints being filed.
Rene A.A. Mesquita, another parishioner, alleged the "vilification campaign" was carried out by some Catholics upset at the priest's close scrutiny of parish accounts.
These Catholics were handling the parish accounts and money, when the priest started examining the accounts, he said.
He also alleged this same group had defamed a number of priests who had worked in the parish over the past 16 years. "If a priest failed to agree with them, he would be accused of a number of things," he told UCA News.
Colva police inspector Edwin Colaco said a case had been filed against those believed to be behind the CD and an investigation has begun.
Official Church spokesperson Father Francis Caldeira refused to comment on the issue.
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