Mumbai, Oct 16, 2018: A Catholic priest in Mumbai stole the show at a traditional program when he donned his cassock to dance the tunes of garba songs.
Salesian Father Crispino D’Souza’s dance on October 14 has been hailed as a unique show of religious harmony.
‘Dandiya Dhamaka’, a nine-day all faith garba dance festival was organized by the Shrine of Don Bosco Matunga, a suburb of Mumbai. Father D’Souza is the rector of Don Bosco School in Matunga.
The video of Father D’Souza dancing on the floor has gone viral on social sites. Many people, including Christians, have lauded his gesture as an attempt to gel well with people of other communities.
A similar event is also being held at St Peter’s Church Bandra on all the nine days of the Navaratri.
Godfrey Pimenta, member, Bombay Catholic Sabha, who watched the priest’s act, said, “It is a good gesture on the part of the priest in fostering new relationships with our brethren from other communities.”
Dolphy D’Souza, former president of the Bombay Catholic Sabha, said, “Father D’Souza has shown wonderful, inter-religious harmony in his act, that too with the cassock. His dance was very good. He is far ahead of the times. I thank him for leading people from the front.”
Father D’Souza was not available for his comments, reports daijiworld.com.
Jesuit Father Frazer Mascarenhas, parish priest, St Peter’s Church, said, “Our church has been making attempts to build bridges of understanding and collaboration with people of other faiths living within our parish area – with the guidance of a committee comprising members of other faiths.”
Fr Mascarenhas, who is also one of the organizers of the Bandra event, said the multi-faith committee had decided to hold a cultural festival to bring together people from all faiths on the occasion of Navaratri.
“We decided to hold a Dandiya dance and an inter-cultural food festival. The social outreach cell of the parish, which trains differently-abled children every Sunday, also proposed a Dandiya dance. The two proposals merged into the holding of the Dandiya Dhamaka – a purely cultural festival, learning the movements of the Dandiya and the garba.”
“There was no religious color to the event, except that this is an effort to overcome evil with goodness, disharmony with harmony and collaboration – which is the theme of the Navaratri festival – a theme that is also very close to the heart of every Christian,” he added.
The dance involve d 450 people from different religious faiths, including differently -abled children and their families. Fr Mascarenhas said, “Cultural celebrations of this nature are indeed useful in doing away with the stereotype prejudices as the harmony and fellowship experienced by all the participants of this event was evident. Events of this nature also help in building unity and collaboration among the varied peoples of our country.”
Dolphy D’Souza explained that St Peter’s parish’s efforts to build up the kingdom of God cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human cultures – as stated by Pope Paul VI’s 1975 document, ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi’.
Bandra resident Anil Joseph too welcomed Catholics celebrating festivals associated with other religions.
“Scores of our non-Catholic brethren visit Bandra’s famous Mount Mary’s Church feast and fair to celebrate the nativity of Birth of Virgin Mary in September. Similarly, Christmas and its ensuing celebrations are organized by many commercial outlets in Bandra, and people of all faiths enjoy them. So drawing a parallel, this initiative was taken by the churches’ multi-faith committee and social outreach cell to have a Dandiya dance event for people of all faiths to mingle and enjoy each other’s traditions should be viewed in the same vein.”
Source: daijiworld.com