Floriano Lobo & 'Stupid Missionaries'

Floriano Lobo & 'Stupid Missionaries'
©Lucio Mascarenhas. 23^rd Feb., 2003.
Orthopapism II/Michaelinum | Index of Articles
This exchange, as is evident, was a sad and embarrassing mistake. I had hoped that it was closed, and I had deleted my copies of the messages. However, I have been recently attacked by a Geraldo Fernandes, who describes himself as an Advisor, Goa Justice & Labour Foundation.

I have been given to understand that Florian Lobo is one of the founders of the Goa Su-Raj party; that Geraldo is his follower and had been given a Goa Su-Raj ticket to contest the last legislative elections in Goa; that he (Geraldo) stood from Aldona but lost.

It seems, possibly, though not absolutely certain, that he has a chip on his shoulder because of this exchange I had with his political guru, although we have clarified our relative positions and made our peace. At least so I believe, and I see no reason to believe that it is otherwise from Floriano's side.

I have recreated this exchange from the Goa-Goans archives and from my email inbox, although I have not been able to recover the second apology I sent Florian...
Message 9880 Goa-Goans: The TGF D-List
From:� "hobcraft" <[email protected]>
Date:� Thu�Jan�30,�2003� 9:14 pm
Sub.:� [The Goan Forum d-list] Conversions and Missionaries

In the best interests of the Nation, it is therefore imperative that the activities of the Christian missionaries be banned, before the situation turns grave and the Country turns into a graveyard! - Sandeep Heble [See Sandeep Heble: Conversions & Missionaries]

This is nothing but a trumped up crap from the bosom of the RSS. The George character is thrown in for good measures. I suggest Sandeep you tell your financers to stop this crap as there is no sensible stomach in this nation to digest it. The people who are destabilising the nation is your RSS/Bajrang Dal/VHP/SS et al and the kingpin of them all is your Advani.

This conspiracy thing about forming a Christian Party is the hallucinations and nightmares giving credence to the mania of the RSS wallas. Let them first reform their own religion which dispises and bars their own fellow hindus and take optimum advantage of their toil. Then the stupid missionaries will automatically disappear.

Floriano
Message 9891 Goa-Goans: The TGF D-List
From:� "Prakash John Mascarenhas" <[email protected]>
Date:� Fri�Jan�31,�2003� 10:43 pm
Subject:� Stoopid Missionaries...

Florian-bab has deigned to speak of these 'stupid missionaries'. I ask, why stupid? What makes missionaries stupid?

Is it because they stupidly heed the call of God to sacrifice their chance at creature comfort to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to those benighted by paganism and infidelism?

Is it because these missionaries came all the way from their comfortable homes in Europe to bring the Good News of Christ Jesus to our ancestors - to Florian-bab's and mine ancestors, and deliver them from the benightment of paganism?

Let us be precise. If missionaries are stupid, what were Jose Nayak-Vaz, Francis Xavier or the Apostles Thomas and Bartholomeo, if not stupid? And if these were stupid, what of their Master who commanded and sent them out? Let us not be shy and squeamish: If missionaries are stupid, then their Master too, verily, Jesus Christ, is stoopid.

So, if Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is stupid, who is wise? Perhaps, it is those who have arrogated to themselves the name of Christian, the while caring a hoot for the ideology that makes a Christian, as if Christianity were a club.

Perhaps it is Florian-bab: The Fount of Living Wisdom!

Acts 12: 'Herod sat in the judgement seat, and began to address the Phoenicians. And they shouted, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man." But immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.' (Based on the Confraternity of St. Joseph Version)

But the Fount of Living Wisdom confuses me. On the one hand he denounces the missionaries as 'stoopid' and on the other hand he derides the Caste System.

I ask: if Christ Jesus and his missionaries are stoopid, who are wise, but the Hindus, the Sole Receptable of All Wisdom?

Did not our ancestors belong to this great and sublime sect, which considers so many of humankind to be so polluting as to be forced to treat them as worse than even beasts, while falling down and worshipping kine and such like, and even receiving the piss and dung of the Holy Mother Cow even as manna from heaven, and as General and Universal Elixirs and Panaceas, and slurp and lick these up? ¹

What can be more profoundly Wise than this?

We stoopid Christians, on the contrary, believe it no sin to eat the cow, but a grave sin to kiss and worship its Holy Arse... the Gateway of the gods!

Incidentally, the missionaries did not come to India because of the Caste problem. They came to India as part of a world wide movement to bring Christ's Gospel to all men, confident in the knowledge that each and every of the man-made religions are false and absolutely useless for getting to heaven.

As St. Peter said, 'There is no other name given under the heavens by which men can be saved except that of Christ Jesus.' Therefore, the missionaries did not need to learn the particular errors of a particular society and work themselves into a flap, determining to war against them, but they knew with a quiet confidence that they alone had the truth that can save men.

Prakash Joao Maskaren
Message 9894 Goa-Goans: The TGF D-List
From:� "Floriano Lobo" <[email protected]>
Date:� Sat�Feb�1,�2003� 7:59 am
Subject:� Re: [goancauses] Stoopid Missionaries...

From: "Floriano Lobo" <[email protected]>
To: "Prax Maskaren" <[email protected]>, [email protected], "GoaGoans" <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Re: [goancauses] Stoopid Missionaries...
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 07:59:31 +0530

Dear PJM,

I am all appreciation for your lenghty and qualified reaction to my term "stupid Missionaries"

I do not intend to go to the same lenghts to explain my use of the term. At best, I think you have explained it yourself when you said "But the Fount of Living Wisdom confuses me. On the one hand he denounces the missionaries as 'stoopid' and on the other hand he derides the Caste System."

Therefore, in the light of the above. the reference to missionaries as 'stupid' was as SANDEEP HEBLE would think of them to be as + trouble makers, specially when my response was to Sandeep's spars on missionaries. I am sorry it was taken the other way. I should have been more specific.

Floriano
BTW I am not a subscriber to goancauses. Kindly forward as necessary.
Message 9896 Goa-Goans: The TGF D-List
From:� Prax Maskaren <[email protected]>
Date:� Sat�Feb�1,�2003� 11:10 am
Subject:� Apology

Please find below the explanation by Senhor Floriano Lobo of his use of the term, 'Stupid Missionaries', in reaction to which I had posted...

I apologize for my part.

Prax Maskaren
Here, I had sent a second, more detailed apology to Floriano Lobo, which I have not preserved...
From: "hobcraft" <[email protected]>
To: "Prax Maskaren" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Apology
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 12:53:39 +0530

Dear PJM,

There was no need to be overly contrite. These things happen. And, one has to defend his/her faith and its machinery.

I appreciate your defence of the missionaries as well as the qualified and well informed reply to Sandy's malicious tirade. It is only through well informed inputs such as yours in these conversion and missionary debates that the RSS can be challenged. These guys have taken too much trouble to catalogue the sins of the missionaries and the church like they did with Mother Teresa's to flag them off as truths.

I am still awaiting the news of the removal of the statue of the Hindu deity from the grounds of the Che Cathedral at Old Goa, which has been purposely installed there under the mango tree with the active connivance of the ASI to malign future relations. That deity has no business to be there in the first place. This give and take, the co-existance would be acceptable in fairness if there was cordiality and trust between the two. Sad to say that the trust that has existed for centuries has been eroded by the fundamentalism and facism that the BJP government has adopted and which is hell bent in promoting to the detriment of peace and harmony of the state and the nation.

Do keep up the good work.

Thank you & God Bless.

Floriano
From: "Floriano Lobo" <[email protected]>
To: "Prax Maskaren" <[email protected]>
Subject: Fw: FYI
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2003 13:12:38 +0530

----- Original Message -----
From: hobcraft <[email protected]>
To: Archdiocese of Goa <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 7:01 AM
Sub.: Fw: Personal message for Floriano Lobo

Dear Floriano,

The stuff below was written before I had my phone conversation with you.

One year back, May 2001, we took our son to play on the lawns of the Se Cathedral in the evening. We were not allowed to tread on the lawns by the ASI security guards positioned there. I find this most strange. As long as proper precautions are taken regarding littering, security etc why should'nt the lawns (not very well maintained either) be accessible to the public? They are situated at quite a distance from the Church so there is no question of disturbing any religious service.

The above is a minor matter. Below is the disturbing part. At the base of one of the trees I noticed a flat rock with some religious (Hindu) looking rockcut objects placed on it.

(Location: Park your vehicle on the road going to Divar from the Gandhi Statue where the tourist buses park opposite the Se Cathedral. Enter and walk past the canteen on your left and you will see a huge tree which has been 'trimmed'.)

The next morning I made a few phone calls and this is what I gather from my very limited investigation.

A priest in the know told me that he was aware of these objects but his hands were tied. If he removed them someone might object and the situation could be blown out of proportion. If he allows them to be there too it might be taken as an acceptance of the significance of the objects.

He asked me to inform the Bishop!

He mentioned to me many other things.

1) Apparently a small temple has been built behind the Se Cathedral almost overnight after some people just too permission to draw water for some construction somewhere else.

2) Tourist guides have been telling people that the Church of St. Catherine with the well inside was originally a Mahadev temple. Some Bhats actually tried to perfom some religious ceremony there but were stopped.

3) The ASI seems to have appropriated a section of the grounds and besides their own offices have even put up a sort of canteen selling softdrinks etc. Without permission from the Church authorities!

If the ASI security is so good as to stop children from playing on the lawns, where were they when these objects were placed?

I know such matters must be dealt with caution but mischief makers should not be allowed to get their way. It will lead to only further escalation of such efforts. They should be nipped in the bud.
Prax Maskaren (Lucio Mascarenhas)
©Lucio Mascarenhas.
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