The World Daman Day 2008 website is now under construction but can be accessed here: http://web.mac.com/noelgama/wdd08

Feedback and suggestions are welcome!

It’s been reported that an anonymously written letter objecting to the transfer of a priest back to Daman, was being circulated last week.

Phones of people with connections (other than phone connections:) buzzed late at night, with matters finally getting to a head when two people suspected of having written the letter were summoned by the police.

And to think that these are the very people who have been teaching us to be like Christ and to ‘turn the other cheek’ – what cheek!!

While I was told that one elderly man did appear before the police, the other one who has a history of diabetes and hypertension, took so bad that the last rites had to be administered before rushing him to a hospital! Last I heard, he was still in hospital.

I pray that he recovers completely – he has a wife and young children.

Sorry to disappoint you, my readers – I cannot divulge names (at least not yet) and am forced to use terms like ‘alleged,’ ‘reported,’ etc., because it is rumoured that some of our pastors are contemplating filing defamation cases against a few of their parishioners.

How foolish we’ve been to sit pretty, feeling safe that persecution of christians only happened in other parts of India and could never happen in Daman. Who’d ever think that it would be an inside job. I’d reword the saying that charity begins at home to – “persecution begins at home!”

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima was celebrated as usual on the evening of 13th of May, 2008 at the foot of the grotto adjoining the church of O L of Remedios… high Mass followed by the procession around the park with the congregation holding home-made paper lanterns with candles in them, singing Portuguese hymns in praise of O L of Fatima. My wife, Louella pushed the pram carrying Noé, our seven-year old son as I walked alongside them bringing up the rear… so much like Fatima, Portugal. 



But I had my own agenda for the evening… 



About 18 years ago, I had written a song that was inspired by a sermon by Fr. Joseph Dias, my favourite preacher. His words, “you have eyes but cannot see. This man is blind but he can see…” had such a great impact on me that I reflected for days, when all of a sudden, the whole song fell into place and I wrote it down in one go in just 10 minutes flat. I titled it, “The Greatest Gift Of All,” and dedicated it to the blind. 



But what has this got to do with Our Lady of Fatima, whom I can see in her grotto every single day, from every window of our flat across the street? Well, the Writers Bureau (UK) announced their prestigious annual poetry writing competition recently and I thought about sending in my song (critiques all agree that it’s a poem too) with a new title, “For Your Eyes Only” and so I thought it appropriate to print it out and put it up to Her and let Her decide – if I won, the world would get to read it; if I did not, it would remain for Her eyes only but with a petition to help restore sight in the blind of the world.

We waited for the crowd to disperse after the service, so that I could make my special offering in private, by burning the sheet of paper instead of a candle, at the grotto. 



In the meantime, Carroll Remedios, my schoolmate, opened the glass door housing the statue in the grotto, so that he could recover the plants put inside for the Mass. As an afterthought, he brought down the statue for Noé to kiss. Of all the people that came to the service, only Noé got to actually touch the statue! And this was even before I had made my offering… I had to come back around 9.30pm to make mine, as I needed candles for setting the paper on fire. I thought this was very meaningful and again, so much like Fatima, Portugal… yet so different… so special, because it was She who came down to Noé! 



But it is only today, the 15th, that I realized another thing… She had also opened the door to accept my offering! It is I who have been blind for these last two days! And look at me, writing a poem for the blind!

Frank Gonsalves, a founder member of the Daman Association in Portugal, passed away on the 6th of March.
He was 82 and is survived by his wife, Celina and two sons, their wives and four grandchildren.