Goa Archbishop's remarks on Constitution not against any party, says his office

Panaji: After Archbishop of Goa and Daman Father Filipe Neri Ferrao said that the Constitution was in danger, his office today suggested that he was expressing his “anxiety to his own people” but insisted that the remarks were not against any political party or government.

Ferrao’s secretary Fr Joaquim Loila Pereira said the people should read the entire 15-page letter and not “take this statement or that statement out of context and make it look as if the letter is against political parties.”

The Archbishop, in a letter issued on Sunday and addressed to Christians in the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman, said, “Today, our Constitution is in danger (and that is) the reason why most of the people are living in insecurity.”

In the letter, generally issued at the beginning of the pastoral year that lasts from June 1 to May 31, he said the Constitution should be understood better as general elections are drawing closer.

“First of all, there is no name of any political party, there is no name of any government. There is a commentary on what is happening in India and in Goa,” said the Archbishop’s secretary today. He said the Goa Archbishop’s letter was not a political commentary on what was happening in the country. He went on to add, “The word danger is there but if you read the letter, it is not all the great a danger that is mentioned in it.

The archbishop also had said that human rights are under attack and democracy appears to be in peril.

Notably, Ferrao’s letter came weeks after Delhi Archbishop Anil Couto’s similar letter which said that a “turbulent political atmosphere” posed a threat to India’s democratic principles and secular fabric.

Pereira insisted that there was no link between the letters of Ferrao and Couto.

“There is no connection of this to what the Archbishop of Delhi had said or what the Archbishop of Gandhinagar had said (last year),” he maintained.

“People are thinking that this is the trend. There is no trend,” he explained.

“It should not be seen that the church is India is up in arms against the government. This letter always comes in June. It happened that it came one month after the Delhi Bishop’s circular,” he added.