To 20th November 2008
Most Rev Abp Oswald Gracias
Archbishop of Bombay, Archbishop's House,
21-Nathalal Parekh Marg,
Mumbai - 400 001.
Maharastra
Tel (O): (022) 22 02 10 93, 22 02 11 93
22 02 12 93
Fax (O): 22 85 38 72
Your Eminence,
Sub: Seeking - ( i ) Intervention to eradicate Religious Oppression in Dharavi Parish and
( ii ) implementation of Liturgical Rights & Needs
THE BACKGROUND
Historical Perspective: Mumbai, the commercial city is the capital of Maharshtra state in India. Since Mumbai is commercial city, people from all over India have come over have as settlers. i.e. Goans , Mangaloreans, Tamilians (State of Tamilnadu), Malayalees (State of Kerala) and many others.
Tamil Language: Tamil is one of the Ancient Languages spoken among the Tamil People most commonly spoken in the Diocese of Tamilnadu State in India i.e. In the Dioceses of Palayamkottai, ChengalPat, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Dindugul, Nagercoil, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Salem, Sivagangai, Thuckalay, Tiruchirapalli, Tuticorin, Vellore, Archdiocese of Pondicherry, Madurai and Mylapore and a few Congregations in Tamilnadu State.
Tamil Population In Mumbai City: The Population of Tamil Catholics in Mumbai exceeds more than a lac in the Archdiocese of Mumbai. We never differentiate catholic believers by their Caste or Creed. We adopt brotherly relation with all the Catholics in the Parish.
St. Anthony Church in the Archdiocese of Mumbai: Dharavi though one of the oldest settlements of the Tamils the biggest slum in Asia, was takeover by the Archdiocese of Mumbai in the year 2000 and was originally established in the early 1900. Tamil Catholics in this Parish exceeds 1300 Tamil families and 95 Marathi families and 15 family others. However the Diocese has been continuously appointing Goan and Mangalorean as Parish Priest and Assistant Parish Priest, and the Masses are celebrated by these Priest are in English and Hindi, where 90 % of the Tamilians don’t speak or understand neither English nor Hindi. The Church contributes the Diocese approximately Rs.60,000 to Rs.75,000 per month through various contribution by the Parishioners . Also the recent Church Building budgeting Rs. One Crore was also contributed only by the Parish People. (Ref: Church Foundation Stone)
REASON & COMPARISION
With what happened in USA on the Presidential election, The whole world needs to rethink of Jesus’ Words: ‘Be one as my Father in Heaven and I are one’! Obama’s election to the President of USA has certainly implemented the same. We also heard Mr. Obama echoing the value of equality saying that we are all Americans, no black or no white. His election to be the new US President resounds Jesus’ value of equality as quoted by Indian Pro-nuncio in his letter to us: ‘no Jew, no Greeks, all are one in Jesus Christ'.
Certainly it is a surprise that the secular society or lay society in the world like American society has taken the value of equality so seriously. Now it is a dream into a reality.
What about response to the same value of equality among the Catholics! How much more Jesus’ appeal for equality should be resounded in daily lives of every catholic in the whole world! Even after 2000 plus years, there is only preaching but not reaching to the implementation of the value of equality!
With this above mentioned words about the appreciation of what had happened in US or what is not happening among the Catholics, we are not generalizing the same matter. However we want to draw the attention of Your Eminence to our problem which we have already raised and briefed in our previous contacts.
Your Eminence,
We all believe and stand by the trust and hope we have in Your Eminence on our matter. We approach Your Eminence again because we are denied again and again even to approach our local authority regarding our age old problem. For instance, we have been told by the Archdiocesan authority to take an appointment with your Eminence after 29th October.
We contacted the Mumbai Archbishop’s House for the same. But the new Secretary, Fr. Neil Santos, was interacting with us shouting that 'you all don't use the language card'! What a surprise and insult for us! We have already been affected by such inhuman and indifferent attitude of the authority in the Parish; but now again the same is repeated from the Secretary who is supposed to be the sincere link between the people and the local authority & this is the kind of situation with the youngest Priest, as we heard about him, unto the eldest Priests!
Where is the point of playing a language card?
Don't we have a right to request and be heard by the Archbishop? Is it the way a responsible person should interact with the Parishioners? Would he do the same with the non-Tamil Speaking Parishioners in the same way? A biased and prejudiced mind with such Priest as a Archdiocesan Secretary certainly proves how low we the Tamil Speaking Parishioners are being treated or taken for granted. Where is value of equality here for us?
With much argument, later we were told to do two things:
Wait for completion of Cardinal's rest as required for his better health.
1. Or you can meet Bishop Bosco Penha as he is presently In-charge, in the absence of Cardinal Oswald.
On these two options, we are left helpless because we didn’t want to disturb your Eminence, our Cardinal, until His Eminence recovers fully as we also have been praying for. We don't want anything, with the second option, to do with Bishop Bosco of whom we have already registered to your Eminence about his biased and insincere attitude towards the Tamil speaking Parishioners.
With all these in and around kind of situation, we have decided not to do either of these, though we have tremendous respect for our Cardinal who really showed his inner side. But there is something so powerful against the Tamil speaking in the rank and file that nothing is coming up on the issue of our request despite our Cardinal's good gesture. Fortunately we noticed in the Examiner about your Emincene's come back to the Office. We write to your Eminence expressing our needs.
Our need is very simple and serious and the delay has been for unjustly too long. Why is it not possible to do the Justice for us. That is why we approach Your Eminence for further consideration.
I. Follow Up
With the brief as afore-mentioned, Your Eminence, we the people of Dharavi Parish need to request for a sincere follow up of our matter. Otherwise, the matter is just thrown out without any serious consideration at all.
Our need is very urgent but very simple: It is very easy to appoint a Tamil speaking Priest as Parish Priest in our Parish. We do have at least four Archdiocesan Priests who are appointed in most of the Tamil populated Parishes and one more will be ordained in 2009 March. Where as, in our Parish where the majorities are Tamil speaking as Parishioners about 6500 members (1300 families1), the situation is not yet ripe to give us a Tamil Speaking Parish Priest or could not find any of Priests as per the choice of some influential Priests or other compulsion. That shows that our needs depend on the need or priority of the authority not on serious & pastoral need, depite Your Emincence's kind concern and prompt consideration.
In our previous letter to Your Eminence, we have already highlighted our needs besides the request for the Tamil Speaking Parish Priest. Hereunder we reproduce our needs:
1. We need a Tamil Parish Priest to Lead the Parish Council Meeting in Tamil, as we don't understand any other languages.
2. We the Parishioners of St. Anthony Church require Mass in Tamil on Special Obligation Days like Christmas, New Year, Holy Week Services, All Souls Day, Easter and Feast Celebration.
3. We require Children Mass to be held in Tamil also besides the English one.
4. Recognition of Tamil Catholic Sabha in the Archdiocese of Mumbai and appointment of a Auxiliary Bishop or an Episcopal Vicar for the Tamil Catholics in Mumbai since we are more than 1.5 Lac Tamil Catholics in Mumbai.
5. Respective Masses needs to be held in all the Chapels.
Hence the follow up is also very simple: It is very clearly simple and clear that our need can easily be followed up. Why then the delay is on? What exactly the reason for such indifferent attitude towards us, the Tamil Speaking Parishioners?
II. Expectation
There is nothing an unjust expectation from us. This is simply as it is followed in the Archdiocese in case of general appointments. The need of the majority of language speaking among the Parishioners, in the Parish, has been mostly the criteria for appointing the Parish Priest. If so, what is the problem for the local authority to appoint a Tamil Speaking Parish Priest in our Parish.
We also understand that the missionaries once upon a time had brought the Priests from Goa only to take care of the spiritual care of the local Christians as well as the Christians among the Portuguese who were in Bombay! Today, the non-Tamil speaking Parishioners or Priests, (other than the locals - the Marathi Speaking Catholics who are now less than the Tamil Speaking Parishioners in numbers), who came from outside like us (Tamil speaking Parishioners), have no gratitude to help the rest of the Catholics, like us. Those who came to help the local ministry have come up to the main stream. But they don't reciprocate to us, the Tamil speaking parishioners, what the missionaries had done to them.
III. Further Observation
Like what had happened in US regarding the equality, something has happened in Mumbai itself on the issue of rights of linguistic people. For your information, the situation in secular Mumbai is very clearly known regarding the migration problem among the secular people.
• There is a growing opinion among some of the politicians that the outsiders should be kept out in Bombay. We immediately hear opposition from all over India that Bombay is part of India and Indians from any states of India can reside anywhere in India including Bombay.
• Each one has the equal right and rank irrespective of language, caste, creed and colour.
• Imagine if the society in India is accepting the need for the care of all outsiders in Bombay in a secular sense, how much then it has to be reciprocated from each other as Catholics in Bombay.
• No one can be discriminated by anybody as a human being. How much could then anyone discriminate as Catholics?
‘The one who has the heart and act of discrimination can not be a human being; and hence such persons can never be also CHRISTIANS in whom we see CHRIST than anything else. Respect for the locality and local culture can never be compromised but at the same time the value of equality is also to be preserved’.
In our case, it is not a secular appeal. It is a religious appeal with request for the freedom of language in the Parish. If it is race problem or caste problem somewhere, it is language problem in our Parish.
• It is taken for granted that only those who are from Goa and Mangalore are to be in the mainstream of the Archdiocese. This thinking is in no way less than the Politicians who are playing on the cards of fanaticism, selfishness. We all need to get out of such thinking and live as true followers of Christ.
• How many Priests are in Bombay Archdiocese from the Tamil Speaking Community? There are almost 1, 50, 000 Tamil Speaking Catholics in the whole of the Archdiocese.
• Whereas, there are number of Priests and Bishops only from community of Konkanni speaking either from Goa or Mangalore? All were settled here in Bombay from respective states like Goa, Karnataka, Kerala except people from Tamilnadu.
• But why has there to be such discrimination that Tamil Speaking people are not in the main stream in the Parish or in the Archdiocese?
There are also some Parishes in Bombay Archdiocese, like Our Lady Of Lourdes, Orlem; Our Lady Of Rosary Church, Goregaon West; St. Antony Church, Tembipada; Our Lady Of Good Health Chapel, Cheetacamp (belongs to Mankurd Parish), etc., where the services on Christmas, New Year, Holy Week, Easter, Parish Feast Celebrations are all conducted in Tamil by Tamil Speaking Priests. Dharavi, our Parish, is totally different from these Parishes which don’t have tight population of Tamil speaking as much Dharavi has. But the services are not conducted in Tamil on festive occasions in our Parish.
With all these comparisons in our mind, we only make our request very clear. The suggestion stands very clear and fine with all the background in this letter as mentioned above.
THE SOLUTION REQUIRED
1. That who ever is free or the senior most among the diocesan Tamil Speaking Priests be appointed as our Parish Priest without any delay and
2. Along with Ensure that all our needs as mentioned above are implemented
IV. Conclusively speaking,
It is the Christ our Lord Jesus who reached the people as He preached. We only request Your Eminence and the church authorities to reach to us as it has been preached to us about the brotherhood and equality by considering our long pending request for the Tamil Parish Priest from our Archdiocese of Bombay, the need to conduct the services in Tamil.
Sincerely,
B .Gerald
Mumbai Tamil Catholic Sabha
(Dharavi)Unit
PMJ Printers, Shop No. A/1,
421 Prabhakar Kunda Nagar
90 Feet Road
Dharavi
Mumbai – 400 017
1. 1300 families1 – document personally submitted to Your Eminence, Cardinal Oswald Gracias Office.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Farewell Celebration of Fr.Allwyn and Fr. Swaminathan
Date: 10th June 2007
To
The Lordship
Apostolic Nuncia Pedro Lopez Quintana
New Delhi
Re: Farewell Celebration of Fr.Allwyn and Fr. Swaminathan
Kind Atten : Apostolic Nuncia Pedro Lopez Quintana
Lordship,
This is with reference to the Subject we would like to have your Kind notice and request you to do the needful.
We are very much depressed and demoralized since last 7 years, in the period of Fr. Allwyn D’Silva and Fr. John Almeida. There was no Farewell arranged by the Parish Priest for Fr.Swaminathan ( Tamil Chaplin ). Though he was a guest to the Mumbai Archdiocese and came away from 1800 Miles to serve the Tamil Catholics in Mumbai. He had a very good conduct amongst the Tamil Catholics all over Mumbai, though the Diocesan Priest, and Bishop has dishonored, and was sent back with tears. (Refer November 5 Incident with the Mumbai Police at St. Anthony Church)
But on the other hand Fr. Allwyn D’Silva himself arranged his Farewell Celebration and Birthday Celebration, after getting Sponsors managed to Put on Huge Cutouts and Banners, alongwith 60 Kg of Cakes. (Refer Sponsors)
Regards
Members / Leaders of BCC Groups
Tamil Catholic Sabha
(Dharavi)Unit
PMJ Printers, Shop No. A/1,
421 Prabhakar Kunda Nagar
90 Feet Road
Dharavi
Mumbai – 400 017
Note : The documentary show exhibited during the Farewell of Fr. Allwyn highlighted many incorrect history. Needed to rectify the same or it shall leave a wrong history in the Catholic Church.
To
The Lordship
Apostolic Nuncia Pedro Lopez Quintana
New Delhi
Re: Farewell Celebration of Fr.Allwyn and Fr. Swaminathan
Kind Atten : Apostolic Nuncia Pedro Lopez Quintana
Lordship,
This is with reference to the Subject we would like to have your Kind notice and request you to do the needful.
We are very much depressed and demoralized since last 7 years, in the period of Fr. Allwyn D’Silva and Fr. John Almeida. There was no Farewell arranged by the Parish Priest for Fr.Swaminathan ( Tamil Chaplin ). Though he was a guest to the Mumbai Archdiocese and came away from 1800 Miles to serve the Tamil Catholics in Mumbai. He had a very good conduct amongst the Tamil Catholics all over Mumbai, though the Diocesan Priest, and Bishop has dishonored, and was sent back with tears. (Refer November 5 Incident with the Mumbai Police at St. Anthony Church)
But on the other hand Fr. Allwyn D’Silva himself arranged his Farewell Celebration and Birthday Celebration, after getting Sponsors managed to Put on Huge Cutouts and Banners, alongwith 60 Kg of Cakes. (Refer Sponsors)
Regards
Members / Leaders of BCC Groups
Tamil Catholic Sabha
(Dharavi)Unit
PMJ Printers, Shop No. A/1,
421 Prabhakar Kunda Nagar
90 Feet Road
Dharavi
Mumbai – 400 017
Note : The documentary show exhibited during the Farewell of Fr. Allwyn highlighted many incorrect history. Needed to rectify the same or it shall leave a wrong history in the Catholic Church.
Critisization of Holy Bible and Virgin Mary
21st September 2009
Your Eminence,
We thank you for your kind reply for our letter dated 18th December 2009 in fact 18th December 2008.
But after that we neither received any response nor any action implemented to the tamil catholics.
As mentioned in the Letter Line 10 : “The Council represents the people and we should generally go by what they advise” In that case what should we do if the Dictator Priest just announced the decision for Multilingual Mass and not discussed in the council meeting after ignoring the concern raised in the Council Meeting by the Council Members, through Verbal Communication, through Letters to Priest, and Superiors.
In that case do you still go by what they advice if they decide to celebrate Ganesh Festival at St.Anthony church with the patron of St.Anthony ? (The Priest Nominated Members in the council are the recent Hindu convert to Catholicism and they wanted to celebrate Ganesh Festival and Devi Festival in the church)
In one of the Council Meeting there were 7 Religious Members and 8 Priest Nominated Members with voting rights crowd the Meeting. We are not sure if you are already aware of these kinds or simply perform that you are not aware. In that case We have tried all methodology except taking the arms in hand.
As mentioned in the Letter Line 12 : “I want to assure you that the Tamil Speaking Catholics are dear to My Heart and I am keen that you get proper Pastoral Ministry”
How can the Tamil Speaking Catholics be dear to your Heart, when they are treated as class 2 in the Archdiocese of Mumbai.
Where there are more English speaking catholics the archdiocese gives English Parish Priest in other parishes in Mumbai, similarly why the archdiocese could not give Tamil Parish Priest when there are more tamil speaking catholics at St.Anthony Church, Dharavi, hence it is likely that you give class 2 kind of treatment to tamil catholics.
Several times we have tried to contact you for hearing and appointments but it seems the Mumbai Archdiocese has trained the junior most priest to ill-treat the tamil catholics.
We were glad to hear from you when you said all our requested would be considered slowly and gradually during the Meeting with you held on 12th February 2007, but even after two years you futile to fulfill any of our request.
Is our request so hard to fulfill?
what more important task a Priest/Bishop could have other than the Needs of the 1.5 Tamil Catholic?
what could be reason for not giving us an appointment to meet your highness?
We wanted to highlight, we have around 1500 Baptized young Catholics in our Parish though the young Catholics do not wanted to attend any of the services of the diocese due to various reason. We would like to share one of the incident in the Youth Meeting held by Rev Fr. John Almeida where he criticized “ Bible is just a collection Of Stories written by a few Male Dominants. There is no Evidence for the birth of Christ, How could Mary be Virgin if she has given birth to Jesus”. After saying the above how the youth could accept his invitation to attend the Youth Meeting, could be our destiny to attend his Mass.
Earlier we were taught by the Archdiocese in the Small Christian community to develop
Faith Building, Fellowship, and Services, rather since 2000 we are losing the faith building, and Fr.Almeida interest are in fake Services alone, he is least bothered about the faith formation. He always gives very less importance to any of the spiritual activities in the church.
Further we request you again to provide us the Mass in Tamil Language on 2th November 2009, Which would be held at St.Peter Cemetery.
The Tamil families who attend the Mass at St.Peter Cemetery on 2nd November is more than any other catholic. We are unable to understand the language of the Mass conducted during the event, hence we could not participate whole hearted on the Occasion. We request the Excellency to provide us the Tamil Mass on All Souls Day.
We do not have any objection for the Mass held in Non Tamil Language, but we request you to provide additional Tamil Mass
Kindly let us know if you face any problem to celebrate the Mass in Tamil Language St.Peter Cemetery
Possible Solution
Communicate with OCD Fathers to have additional Mass on 2nd November 2009 in Tamil Language
OCD Fathers, St.Anthony Church, Mumbai Archdiocese any one of them needs to drive the Initiative.
Please once again do not mention it is too late to make changes in the Program
With Christ
Regards
Tamil Catholic Association – Mumbai Dharavi
Your Eminence,
We thank you for your kind reply for our letter dated 18th December 2009 in fact 18th December 2008.
But after that we neither received any response nor any action implemented to the tamil catholics.
As mentioned in the Letter Line 10 : “The Council represents the people and we should generally go by what they advise” In that case what should we do if the Dictator Priest just announced the decision for Multilingual Mass and not discussed in the council meeting after ignoring the concern raised in the Council Meeting by the Council Members, through Verbal Communication, through Letters to Priest, and Superiors.
In that case do you still go by what they advice if they decide to celebrate Ganesh Festival at St.Anthony church with the patron of St.Anthony ? (The Priest Nominated Members in the council are the recent Hindu convert to Catholicism and they wanted to celebrate Ganesh Festival and Devi Festival in the church)
In one of the Council Meeting there were 7 Religious Members and 8 Priest Nominated Members with voting rights crowd the Meeting. We are not sure if you are already aware of these kinds or simply perform that you are not aware. In that case We have tried all methodology except taking the arms in hand.
As mentioned in the Letter Line 12 : “I want to assure you that the Tamil Speaking Catholics are dear to My Heart and I am keen that you get proper Pastoral Ministry”
How can the Tamil Speaking Catholics be dear to your Heart, when they are treated as class 2 in the Archdiocese of Mumbai.
Where there are more English speaking catholics the archdiocese gives English Parish Priest in other parishes in Mumbai, similarly why the archdiocese could not give Tamil Parish Priest when there are more tamil speaking catholics at St.Anthony Church, Dharavi, hence it is likely that you give class 2 kind of treatment to tamil catholics.
Several times we have tried to contact you for hearing and appointments but it seems the Mumbai Archdiocese has trained the junior most priest to ill-treat the tamil catholics.
We were glad to hear from you when you said all our requested would be considered slowly and gradually during the Meeting with you held on 12th February 2007, but even after two years you futile to fulfill any of our request.
Is our request so hard to fulfill?
what more important task a Priest/Bishop could have other than the Needs of the 1.5 Tamil Catholic?
what could be reason for not giving us an appointment to meet your highness?
We wanted to highlight, we have around 1500 Baptized young Catholics in our Parish though the young Catholics do not wanted to attend any of the services of the diocese due to various reason. We would like to share one of the incident in the Youth Meeting held by Rev Fr. John Almeida where he criticized “ Bible is just a collection Of Stories written by a few Male Dominants. There is no Evidence for the birth of Christ, How could Mary be Virgin if she has given birth to Jesus”. After saying the above how the youth could accept his invitation to attend the Youth Meeting, could be our destiny to attend his Mass.
Earlier we were taught by the Archdiocese in the Small Christian community to develop
Faith Building, Fellowship, and Services, rather since 2000 we are losing the faith building, and Fr.Almeida interest are in fake Services alone, he is least bothered about the faith formation. He always gives very less importance to any of the spiritual activities in the church.
Further we request you again to provide us the Mass in Tamil Language on 2th November 2009, Which would be held at St.Peter Cemetery.
The Tamil families who attend the Mass at St.Peter Cemetery on 2nd November is more than any other catholic. We are unable to understand the language of the Mass conducted during the event, hence we could not participate whole hearted on the Occasion. We request the Excellency to provide us the Tamil Mass on All Souls Day.
We do not have any objection for the Mass held in Non Tamil Language, but we request you to provide additional Tamil Mass
Kindly let us know if you face any problem to celebrate the Mass in Tamil Language St.Peter Cemetery
Possible Solution
Communicate with OCD Fathers to have additional Mass on 2nd November 2009 in Tamil Language
OCD Fathers, St.Anthony Church, Mumbai Archdiocese any one of them needs to drive the Initiative.
Please once again do not mention it is too late to make changes in the Program
With Christ
Regards
Tamil Catholic Association – Mumbai Dharavi
Mumbai Tamil Catholic Association
Mumbai Tamil Catholic Association is the realization of the long Cherished desire of the Mumbai Tamil Catholics residing in Mumbai. Mumbai Tamil Catholic Association is to Protect and Promote the Religious Moral, Cultural Civic, Educational, and Artistic Heritage.
Resist thy from the Demoralization of the Evil Ethics in the Family of Christ.
Our Principles
1. Identify the Spiritual needs of the Tamil Catholics and help them to fulfill.
2. Convey our Unique Tamil heritage and Tamil Culture to Current Generation
3. Participation of Tamil Catholics in the mainstream within the Archdiocese
4. Resist the Generation Changes which creates direct or indirect impact to the catholic family in the longer period.
5. No Caste discrimination
6. Respect and obey the Catholic Religious Heads and Priest
7. Be a active SCC Members / Leader
8. Be ready to get yourself nominated in the Parish Council
Activities
1. To Provide Encouragement, Support, and Incentive for the Continued Practices of the Tamil Catholic Family life Characterized by Tamil traditional liturgical services and family prayer life
2. To establish a forum for Tamil Youths to maintain and Invigorate the Tamil Cultural Heritage
3. Necessary arrangement to conduct and participate in various retreats, Catechism, Rosary Festival or charismatic under the leadership of spiritual leaders
4. Frequent Gatherings for Tamil Catholics
5. Release / Subscription of Quarterly Magazine “Thagam”
6. Membership Local
7. Membership Various Units
Currently Working on the Problems of Dharavi Tamil Catholic : -
1. We need a Tamil Parish Priest to Lead the Parish Council Meeting / SCC Meetings, Masses in Tamil, since we don't understand other languages.
2. We the Parishioners of St. Anthony Church require Mass in Tamil on Special Obligation like Christmas, New Year, Holy Week Services, All Souls Day, Easter and Feast Celebration.
3. We require Children Mass to be held in Tamil also
4. Recognition of Tamil Catholic Association in the Archdiocese of Mumbai and appointment of a Auxiliary Bishop or an Episcopal Vicar for the Tamil Catholics in Mumbai since we are more than a lac Tamil Catholics in Mumbai.
5. Respective Masses needs to be held in all the Chapels.
6. Needed Daily Tamil Mass in the Church
(We ensure minimum 50 Participants in each Mass)
7. Coverage of 90 Feet Road for the procession of St.Anthony during Feast.
8. Pavalam TV (Catholic Tamil Channel) to introduce in Mumbai
Note: Principles and Activities can be implemented only if this is listed above.New List needs to be discussed by the Committee Members and then can be added as principles and Activities
Resist thy from the Demoralization of the Evil Ethics in the Family of Christ.
Our Principles
1. Identify the Spiritual needs of the Tamil Catholics and help them to fulfill.
2. Convey our Unique Tamil heritage and Tamil Culture to Current Generation
3. Participation of Tamil Catholics in the mainstream within the Archdiocese
4. Resist the Generation Changes which creates direct or indirect impact to the catholic family in the longer period.
5. No Caste discrimination
6. Respect and obey the Catholic Religious Heads and Priest
7. Be a active SCC Members / Leader
8. Be ready to get yourself nominated in the Parish Council
Activities
1. To Provide Encouragement, Support, and Incentive for the Continued Practices of the Tamil Catholic Family life Characterized by Tamil traditional liturgical services and family prayer life
2. To establish a forum for Tamil Youths to maintain and Invigorate the Tamil Cultural Heritage
3. Necessary arrangement to conduct and participate in various retreats, Catechism, Rosary Festival or charismatic under the leadership of spiritual leaders
4. Frequent Gatherings for Tamil Catholics
5. Release / Subscription of Quarterly Magazine “Thagam”
6. Membership Local
7. Membership Various Units
Currently Working on the Problems of Dharavi Tamil Catholic : -
1. We need a Tamil Parish Priest to Lead the Parish Council Meeting / SCC Meetings, Masses in Tamil, since we don't understand other languages.
2. We the Parishioners of St. Anthony Church require Mass in Tamil on Special Obligation like Christmas, New Year, Holy Week Services, All Souls Day, Easter and Feast Celebration.
3. We require Children Mass to be held in Tamil also
4. Recognition of Tamil Catholic Association in the Archdiocese of Mumbai and appointment of a Auxiliary Bishop or an Episcopal Vicar for the Tamil Catholics in Mumbai since we are more than a lac Tamil Catholics in Mumbai.
5. Respective Masses needs to be held in all the Chapels.
6. Needed Daily Tamil Mass in the Church
(We ensure minimum 50 Participants in each Mass)
7. Coverage of 90 Feet Road for the procession of St.Anthony during Feast.
8. Pavalam TV (Catholic Tamil Channel) to introduce in Mumbai
Note: Principles and Activities can be implemented only if this is listed above.New List needs to be discussed by the Committee Members and then can be added as principles and Activities
Fr.John Almeida Mumbai - Political Move
Most Rev Abp Oswald Gracias
Archbishop of Bombay, Archbishop's House,
21-Nathalal Parekh Marg,
Mumbai - 400 001.
Your highness, 22nd March 2010
This is to inform / Complaint about the ugly political move in the Catholic Church by Fr. John Almeida.
It was in the Year 2009 when Mumbai Archdiocese announced and Published (Examiner) about the transfer of Fr. John Almeida to a different Parish.
Fr. John Almeida made a very sad face with beard and started visiting several families of St. Anthony Church and explained to each Family / SCC about the nature of changes which was going to happen at St.Anthony Church Dharavi. Fr.John Almeida has started propagating among the Marathi Speaking Catholics that the church will be handed over to one of the Tamil Diocese. Admission will not be provided in Diocesan Schools, Colleges, Hospitals etc; to the Catholics of St. Anthony church. Diocese will stop all the supports / Privilege to St. Anthony church
After a couple of days he called a confidential meeting with those members whom he is closely associated with along with a few Shivsainist (Political Party). This meeting schedule neither was announced in the Church neither in the Church notice board nor in the Parish Council Meeting. (Evidence available for the conduct of such Meeting Incase if Fr.John Almeida denies). The Meeting was conducted in one of closed class room for confidentiality.
The changes implemented by the Archdiocese were discussed in the Meeting. It was discussed along with the few Shivsainist for a protest to take back the decision of the Archdiocese. Also to hoist several Banners to display the protest along with a Banner in the Church Compound with instigating lines. This banner remained at their location for more than 3 weeks. Also this was decided in the meeting to visit the Archdiocese to take back the decisions.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully
Mumbai Tamil Catholic Association (Dharavi Unit); PMJ Printers, Shop No. A/1,421 Prabhakar Kunda Nagar
90 Feet Road
Dharavi
Mumbai – 400 017
CC: Bishop Bosco Penha; Fr.John Almeida; Nunciature – India; CBCI – The Secretary.
Archbishop of Bombay, Archbishop's House,
21-Nathalal Parekh Marg,
Mumbai - 400 001.
Your highness, 22nd March 2010
This is to inform / Complaint about the ugly political move in the Catholic Church by Fr. John Almeida.
It was in the Year 2009 when Mumbai Archdiocese announced and Published (Examiner) about the transfer of Fr. John Almeida to a different Parish.
Fr. John Almeida made a very sad face with beard and started visiting several families of St. Anthony Church and explained to each Family / SCC about the nature of changes which was going to happen at St.Anthony Church Dharavi. Fr.John Almeida has started propagating among the Marathi Speaking Catholics that the church will be handed over to one of the Tamil Diocese. Admission will not be provided in Diocesan Schools, Colleges, Hospitals etc; to the Catholics of St. Anthony church. Diocese will stop all the supports / Privilege to St. Anthony church
After a couple of days he called a confidential meeting with those members whom he is closely associated with along with a few Shivsainist (Political Party). This meeting schedule neither was announced in the Church neither in the Church notice board nor in the Parish Council Meeting. (Evidence available for the conduct of such Meeting Incase if Fr.John Almeida denies). The Meeting was conducted in one of closed class room for confidentiality.
The changes implemented by the Archdiocese were discussed in the Meeting. It was discussed along with the few Shivsainist for a protest to take back the decision of the Archdiocese. Also to hoist several Banners to display the protest along with a Banner in the Church Compound with instigating lines. This banner remained at their location for more than 3 weeks. Also this was decided in the meeting to visit the Archdiocese to take back the decisions.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully
Mumbai Tamil Catholic Association (Dharavi Unit); PMJ Printers, Shop No. A/1,421 Prabhakar Kunda Nagar
90 Feet Road
Dharavi
Mumbai – 400 017
CC: Bishop Bosco Penha; Fr.John Almeida; Nunciature – India; CBCI – The Secretary.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Leadership of Bosco Penha
refH22nd October 2008
Give Us Today “The Mass”
His Excellency
Archbishop Oswald Gracious
Archbishop’s House
21 Nathalal Parekh Marg
Mumbai 400 001
Sub : Under the Leadership of Bishop Bosco Penha
Your Grace,
With reference to the afore mentioned captioned subject, we would like to bring to your notice that since last 20 years, with his callousness, Bishop Bosco Penha has not only taken the Mumbai Tamil Catholics for granted but also disintegrated the Mumbai Tamil Catholics. The spiritual requirement was never fulfilled by him and instead he also imposed several “Antichrist” activities in the Church. Please refer our earlier correspondence for the same. The Tamil Catholics are unsatisfied by the activities of Bishop Bosco Penha. Many a times his activities have provoked to lose faith in Christianity. The Tamil Catholics would not remain under his Leadership even for a Day.
That despite your assurance, in respect of our repeated correspondence, all our legitimate demands still stand un-heard, especially in respect of our spiritual requirements but instead, several restrictions have been imposed upon us, with a view to curtail our religious freedom.
In the unlikely event, if the Archdiocese of Mumbai is still stress on continuing with the present leadership and keep on neglecting our aforesaid legitimate demands, then we are extremely regret to state that, no more we are willing to fallen prey at the hands of Bishop Bosco Penha and / or the Archdiocese of Mumbai and the consequences, if any, of whatsoever nature shall be entirely credited to the Bishop Bosco Penha / Archdiocese Mumbai. The Tamil Catholics would not remain under his Leadership even for a Day.
Kindly peruse the same.
Regards
Members / Leaders of BCC Groups
Women Catholic Group
Tamil Catholic Association -Mumbai
1
Your Holiness,
With the words quoted by His Grace, Pro-nuncio of India, we are indeed humbled to write this letter.
We are all one in Christ as different parts of one body of Jesus Christ. Still Your Holiness makes appeal to all countries, especially to India over the issue of discrimination or on the issue of freedom of religion. That shows how much Your Holiness has been concerned about the value of religious freedom as well as the value of equality. We are very happy to hear Our Shepherd 's voice to the whole world about the need for Peace, Happiness and Harmony among the people irrespective of caste, creed, language, culture, etc. That is very much compliant with the biblical quote as mentioned in the letter of the Our Pro-nuncio.
However, in the case of our Problem which we have already brought to your notice for years together, the value of freedom of religion in our local language and in the equality of coming to the main stream of our Archdiocese is totally refused or denied otherwise. The way the delay is still on even after many years shows that the justice is denied for us.
What kind of equality or freedom of our local language is permitted in our own Pastoral and Spiritual living? This is just to brief nature of our problem which we address to Your Holiness.
Follow Up
With the brief as afore-mentioned, Your Holiness, we the people need to request for a sincere follow up of our matter. Otherwise, the matter is just thrown out without any serious consideration at all. We understand the health problem of our Cardinal Oswald Gracias. Even in case of his health problem, every other matter is taken care of; but our problem is kept pending as we trust our Cardinal and a kind of delay in our case is totally unwaranted.
Our need is very urgent but very simple: It is very easy to appoint a Tamil speaking Priest as Parish Priest in our Parish. We do have atleast four Archdiocesan Priests who are appointed in most of the Tamil populated Parishes. Where as, in our Parish where the majority are Tamil speaking as Parishioners, the authority either does not want to give us or could not find any of their choice of Priests. That shows that our needs depend on the need or priority of the authority.
Hence the follow up is also very simple: It is very clearly simple and clear that our need can easily be followed up. Why is then the delay is on? What exactly the reason for such indifferent attitude towards us, the Tamil Speaking Parishioners?
Present Scenerio
While the follow up is denied, we remember that our Cardinal Oswald Gracias had told us to be in touch with him later after six months which we could not make it up due to unavoidable situations. However we were told by the Archbishop's House to take appointment after Cardinal's return, namely after 29th October.
With this, when we contacted the Archbishop's House for having appointment with the Cardinal, we were told to do two things: 1. Wait for completion of Cardinal's rest as required for his better health. 2. Or you can meet Bp. Bosco Penha as he is presently In-charge in the absence of Cardinal Oswald. We find the answer as best to as left to us to decide either to approach the present In-charge of the Archdiocese or wait for Cardinal's health.
Irrespective of these options, the way the new Secretary, Fr. Neil Santos was interacting with us shouting that you all dont use the language card! What a surprise and insult for us! We have already been affected by such inhuman and indifferent attitude of the authority; but now again the same is repeated from the Secretary who is supposed to be the sincere link between the people and the local authority & this is the kind of situation with the youngest, as we heard about him, from the eldest, you can imagine how much serious and urgent our prooblem is!
The present scenerio is total rejection of our demand and need for a tamil speaking Parish Priest to be appointed for our Parish. We dont want anything to do with Bp. Bosco of whom we have already registed about his bias and insincere
We have decided not to do either of these, though we have tremendous respect for our Cardinal. When the need is very simple and serious and the delay has been for unjustly too long, why is not possible to do the Justice
Expectations
Suggestion
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Hello Tamil Catholic FriendsMumbai Tamil Catholic Group is the Symolic realization of the long Cherished desire of the Mumbai Tamil Catholics residing in Mumbai. Mumbai Tamil Catholic is to Protect and Promote the Religious Moral, Cultural Civic, Educational, and Artistic Heritage. Resist thy from the Demoralization of the Evil Ethics in the Family of Christ.
Objectives and Goals:
1.To Convey our Unique Tamil heritage and Tamil Customs to Current Generation.
2.To Provide Encouragement, Support, and Incentive for the Continued Practices of the Tamil Catholic Family life Characterized by Tamil traditional liturgical services and family prayer life.
3.To establish a forum for Tamil Youths to maintain and Invigorate the Tamil Cultural Heritage handed down by the forefathers.
4.There is no Caste Determination in Mumbai Tamil Catholic Sabha.
5.Respect and obey the Catholic Religious Heads and Teachers.Mumbai Tamil Cathoic SabhaModerator
Objectives and Goals:
1.To Convey our Unique Tamil heritage and Tamil Customs to Current Generation.
2.To Provide Encouragement, Support, and Incentive for the Continued Practices of the Tamil Catholic Family life Characterized by Tamil traditional liturgical services and family prayer life.
3.To establish a forum for Tamil Youths to maintain and Invigorate the Tamil Cultural Heritage handed down by the forefathers.
4.There is no Caste Determination in Mumbai Tamil Catholic Sabha.
5.Respect and obey the Catholic Religious Heads and Teachers.Mumbai Tamil Cathoic SabhaModerator
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