Goa Church body urges Catholics to attend anti-CAA meet

Amid an ongoing showdown between the Archbishop of Goa Filipe Neri Ferrao and the ruling BJP lawmakers over the CAA-NPR-NRC issues, a Church-backed NGO on Wednesday wrote to all parish priests to urge Catholic flock to attend an anti-CAA meet on February 21.

“Warm greetings from the Council for Social Justice and Peace. Our fight is to oppose CAA/NPR/NRC and demand that it be revoked unconditionally both at the state as well as the national level,” the letter written by Fr. Savio Fernandes executive secretary of the Council said.

The Council is an NGO, which deals with the social sector and is backed by the Roman Catholic Church, which serves as the religious and spiritual guide to nearly one fourth of the state’s 1.5 million population.

“I request you to kindly announce this meeting at mass for the information of your parishioners and mobilise them to attend the same,” the letter also said, clearly urging Catholic flock to attend the February 21 meeting scheduled to be held in Panaji and organised by the Goa Alliance Against CAA-NRC-NPR.

BJP lawmakers are currently having a running feud with the Goa Archbishop, after the religious figure earlier this month, in a formal statement slammed the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register calling the laws anti-national and ones which promote divisiveness.

Reacting to the Archbishop’s comment, a string of BJP lawmakers and leaders slammed the religious figure advising him against interfering in matters related to governance.