Bishop Bosco D'Penha hails the elections results a miracle

Bishop Bosco  D'Penha, Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay and Co-ordinator of Lay Associations in the Archdiocese, was ecstatic with the results of the General Elections. In an interview with AsiaNews, he went on record to say that the results of these elections were a 'Miracle" wrought about by Prayer .Bishop Bosco Penha, encouraged the faithful to reflect on the "Involvement of the Catholic Community in Ensuring Good Governance"".  With  Bp Bosco's active involvement,  we have witnessed  the emergence of civic and political cells in many of the parishes in Bombay. Bishop Bosco stated that we are not an atheist country we must bring God into Politics, Jesus has to be made present in the Political arena.Now that God has worked this miracle, Christ and His values should become present in this area of human endeavour. Catholics need to see involvement in civic and political life as part of their commitment to Christ. 'Christ is the Lord of History and it is therefore incumbent that He and His values enter into civic and political life.  This will happen only when we, His disciples, get involved in these matters, adhering faithfully to His principles.According to the Bishop some elements were responsible for these results. First of all, God has heard the prayers of the suffering, the minorities are oppressed, including Christians, who were a minority community but they were willing to give their 5 loaves and two fishes to  be involved for Jesus. Moreover, the Church in Bombay  through the  organisations like  "The Church in the City", Small Christian Communities (SCC), and the Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS) collaborated with various NGO's like AGNI (association for Good Governance and Networking in India) and did much in the archdiocese to ensure that  the Catholic community  were  made aware of the issues involved in the elections.  The SCC's in particular organised many prayer meetings where people  especially the youth were urged to take a keen interest and active role in the election process, the vision document and manifestos of the parties were distributed and explained to the people at these SCC meetings. 

The Bishop stated that now that the elections are over, we must ensure  that this effort does not end with the elections.  It has to remain an on-going process because our ultimate aim is to conscientise Catholics about this aspect  of their commitment to Christ. Moreover there should be a follow-up on the candidates who are elected, their performance monitored in order to ensure that their manifestos are carried through and that the monies that are available to them are properly utilised for the welfare of the city and its people.  A constant alertness and watchfulness must be the order of the day.  "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty" says Bishop Bosco D'Penha. T

The Bishop mentioned the hard situation of Christians in Mumbai, who  have been targets of the communal elements and also legislation. "Few years ago in Thane, a suburb in Mumbai  a Catholic priest was beaten up by a group of fundamentalists. Principals in Christian schools are regularly harassed and pressurized into granting admissions.  A prayer meeting held by some Christian Pastor was recently disrupted in Vashi which in a statellite township in Mumbai on grounds of  forced conversions taking place.  Open air Midnight Masses have been anticipated to around 8 pm as 'legislation'  states that the loudspeakers used, disturb the peace of the neighbourhood. 

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