Reckless Catholic Politicians -Soter

by Soter D'Souza

The recent outbursts by some Catholic politicians in Goa against the Church and its priests for issuing the circular and advisory on elections has come as a shock to the Catholic community. By doing so, these politicians have actually played into the hands of the divisive forces for their personal greed for power and will repent shortly. While these politicians look for short-term gains, they remain terribly ignorant of the tactics and long-term plans employed by the divisive forces that are so glaringly evident for those who are willing to see the truth. The problem is that some Catholics ‘have eyes but refuse to see, they have ears but refuse to hear and they have a mouth but refuse to speak.’

Incidentally, the Church is in the period of Lent wherein the events leading to Jesus being nailed on a cross and the immense suffering inflicted on him due to the betrayal by Judas and the denial of truth and justice by those in Authority are recalled. At this moment, one hardly expected some Catholic politicians to misrepresent the stand of the Church in regards to its intervention in politics and its defense of Secularism. When the Church Circular and Advisory has steered clear of ascribing communalism to any particular individual or political organisation and has raised several other vital issues of oppression and discrimination, yet some Catholic politicians in their attempt to protect their vested political interests and justify their political preferences have actually connived with divisive forces in unleashing misinformation against the Church. 

For Catholics in politics, their personal life cannot be dissociated from their political life. As much as it is the duty of the priests to uphold certain values, the teachings of the Church urges Lay Catholics in politics to “combat injustice and oppression, arbitrary domination and intolerance by individuals and political parties, and they must do so with integrity and wisdom.” Catholic politicians are required to make efforts to be properly informed. Those of them who accuse the Church of interfering in politics and unjustly questioning the secular credentials of particular political parties, need to first be thoroughly informed about the facts. One’s ignorance about incidents of communalism cannot be construed as its absence.

We need to remember that the advisories issued by the Church are not based on fairy tales and is not about paid propaganda as resorted to by corporate-communal forces. It is not necessarily priests alone who are involved in preparing such advisories; there is a process of research and consultation that goes into preparing such an advisory. The loud propaganda and whisper campaign that ‘all is well’ and ‘all is shinning’ which gets unleashed to drown the cries of injustice or the manipulation of justice systems on issues of discrimination and violence does not amount to absence of communalism. A political marriage of  convenience, involving a bunch of politicians from the minority community or certain benefits enjoyed by some privileged sections from the minority community,  is not necessarily proof of the secular ideology of a political party.

These Catholic politicians who accuse the Church of instilling fear and suspicion in the minds of minorities against a particular political party perhaps suffer from induced amnesia wherein they seem ignorant of the  fact that even a sizeable section within the majority community are also concerned about the erosion of secular values undertaken by certain political forces. The hide and seek played with citizens by political parties when it comes to admitting their links with certain parental bodies known for propagating divisive ideologies and the politics of exclusion, is in itself sufficient cause for suspicion.  It is said that, “there cannot be smoke without a fire” and  minorities are not all that wrong in dubbing certain political organisations as communal. Communalism is not only about riots. Propagating false information about a particular community in an attempt to instigate and discriminate a particular community, like in the case of the controversial CD on the liberation of Goa or the MoI issue, is also communalism. The denial of justice to victims of injustice from a particular community and use of State power to harass or suppress minority institutions is also communalism. And no one can deny that such discrimination and intimidation against minorities does not exist in States governed by a particular political party which some Catholic politicians shamelessly try to defend in public.

The Goan community needs to be weary of such politicians who put self above the community. One Catholic MLA even disclosed on a TV channel about how he had a secret tie-up with a political party during the 2012 Assembly polls. If they can strike secret deals to get elected and ridicule the wisdom of the Church in its assessment of the communal threat in politics, such irresponsible and selfish politicians are a threat to the Goan community as they could go to any length by collaborating with those forces that are striving to abolish the civic liberties of citizens in this country.