Christians seek transfer of priest of Permude church
Courtesy: The Hindu

Mangalore June 14: "Activists of Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sene are our friends but our priest is our enemy," alleged Austin Fernandes, a resident of Permude during a demonstration at St. John Baptist Church near here on Sunday. He was among the members of Christian community, who staged a demonstration on the premises of the church, urging the Bishop of Mangalore Diocese Aloysius Paul D'Souza to transfer the priest of St. John Baptist Church Oswald Lasrado.

Rajesh Periera, another participant, alleged that the priest had filed a complaint at Bajpe police station that a few Christians turned the peaceful protest by Christians on the premises of Permude church on September 15, 2008 violent. The Christians were staging a peaceful protest against attacks on prayer halls in Dakshina Kannada on September 14 last year, he said. Alphonse Fernandes said that the priest was dividing the Christian community. He claimed that the church was earlier distributing free books to poor students of the community. After he took charge, poor students were not getting the books.

Evlin Periera and Agnes Nazareth said that Lasrado had refused to distribute free books to poor students. They said that they had requested the Bishop of Mangalore to transfer Fr. Lasrado. "Because the Bishop took no action, we had to protest on Sunday to make ourselves heard," said Vinod Pinto, a protestor. They demanded that the complaint filed at Bajpe police station be withdrawn by Fr. Lasrado.

Fr. Lasrado refused to reply to questions asked by presspersons. The Bishop could not be contacted as he was out of the city. According to sources, he is expected to return on Thursday. However, William D'Souza, a resident of Permude, told The Hindu the basic problem was clash of egos. The differences of opinion began with the issues associated with the setting up of Mangalore Special Economic Zone. "The priest was against the SEZ project, and those who were involved in the protest were for it. When the priest used to paste a notice about the harms of SEZ on the church notice board, they used to tear it in the evening while they came there to play cricket in the campus. To avoid this, the priest restricted playing cricket in the Church campus and this triggered a misunderstanding," Mr. D'Souza said.

One year ago, these people staged a protest against the staging of the Tulu play "Kode Inni Elle" in the Church. "That showed that the priest was being opposed because he was anti-SEZ," he said. The problem in the church was mainly because of some people, who had turned the peaceful protest into a violent act and that was followed by the attacks on church a year ago. he said.

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Reader Comments:

Francis D'Souza, Mysore Jun 26 2009 10:40:21
Since SRS and Bajrang Dal are involved in this case, this priest who shows the dictatorship over his parishioners by lodging the complaint against them in Bajpe police station, things will be very bad for him. I'm not against the priests but doing the act of groupism and rowdism in Christian community by this priest. Shame to the priesthood in Mangalore.