By Matters India Reporter
Pilar, March 30, 2022: Young people from different religions studying in ten colleges of Goa recently came together to dialogue and build solidarity.
The March 26-27 interfaith program titled “Yuva Sadbav” (youth goodwill) aimed at fostering interfaith relations and communal harmony, Father Lawrence Fernandes, the organizer, told Matters India March 31.
The program was held at the Pilar Pilgrim Centre, Pilar, where Father Fernandes is the director. The place is 13 km southeast of Panaji, the state capital.
Yuva Sadbhav is an activity of “Sadbhav” (good will), an initiative of Father Fernandes, a member of the Society of Pilar, a Goa-based congregation for men.
The program had 63 participants who were urged to share a positive past experience with persons of another religion. They were then asked to list at least five of their close friends from childhood and their religions.
Father Fernandes said this activity led the students to think about the conscious and unconscious choices they make while choosing friends. He then asked the students to prepare a poster depicting interfaith harmony.
The participants later shared that the program created interreligious awareness in them and helped them overcome prejudices about other religions.
One of them, Elaine Coelho said “Yuva Sadbhav enabled us to build bridges towards friendship and understanding.” Such efforts “will certainly create a society where trust, respect and cooperation among people from different faiths and beliefs” asserted the student of Nirmala Institute of Education, Altinho, in Panaji.
Sanket Yadav from Padre Conceicao College, Verna-Goa, said the program provided him “an out of life experience.” He admitted that he was reluctant to come for the program, “since I did not know what it had to offer. However, in a span of two days, I have become a totally different person.”
A documentary film, titled “The Imam and the Pastor” was screened for the students. The film which depicts the reconciliation between Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, and the peace-making initiatives that followed had a great impact on the participants. Swarnjeet Singh from Dhempe College, Miramar, Panaji, said he left the program convinced that those who perpetrate interreligious violence can also become agents of peace.
Joan Rebello, retired vice principal of Damodar College of Commerce, Margao-Goa, one of the resource persons, highlighted how dialogue helps resolve misunderstandings and disputes.
Group discussion that followed asked the participants to choose issues at the global, national, state, family and community level. Each group chose pertinent topics and the latest issues of hijab, war and strife and interfaith marriage. Their sharing gave an insight into how the youth think; and how aware they are of the problems and solutions.
Representatives from six different religions led the concluding interfaith prayer on the theme “Mercy and Forgiveness.”
They were Subhash Sajane, a Jain civil engineer, Sitakant N. Kamat Ghanekar, a Hindu oncologist, Devapriyo Chakma ,a Buddhist from Arunachal Pradesh, Maulana Abdul Quddus Khan, a member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Inderjeet Kaur, a Sikh schoolteacher, and Pilar Father Menino Gonsalves.
They shared how after experiencing of God’s mercy and forgiveness they became channels of those virtues.
Jesuit human rights activists Father Cedric Prakash, the program’s special guest, critically analyzed the present day issues related to interfaith.
Pilar superior general Father Sebastiao Mascarenhas applauded the students for attending the program that helped them celebrate their diversity. He said it was not just a one-time event but a movement to build communal harmony and peace.