BJP happy to welcome Pope

The party’s stand assumes significance as it is considered political wing of groups that works to make India a Hindu nation.

(Photo courtesy: independent.co.uk)

By Ritu Sharma
Panaji: 
The Hindu nationalist party that rules Goa state says it would welcome Pope Francis to this former Portuguese colony if he decides to come for the exposition of Saint Francis Xavier's body next year.

The Goa branch of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was responding to Church statements to the media saying that Church officials plan to invite Pope Francis for the once-in-a-decade exposition, in which the remains of the Jesuit saint's body will be displayed to pilgrims for veneration.

"The state government would extend its support to the Goa Church if the pope decided to visit the state,” Wilfred Mesquita, vice-president of the BJP's Goa unit, told ucanews.com yesterday.

The party’s stand assumes significance as it is considered the political wing of groups that works to make India a Hindu nation.

The next general election is important for BJP, Mesquita said but added the party' support for inviting pope to Goa should not be seen as a political issue.

"We are not trying any image makeover through this as people who think negative about us will not change their perception,” he added.

Basilica rector Father Savio Baretto told ucanews.com that chances of the pope’s visit are quite high as he himself is a Jesuit. “As a Jesuit, the pope is free to come."

Pope Francis is the first Jesuit to become pope.

The priest said that people of Goa want the pope to come. The Basilica has received many enquiries about inviting pope to the event, he said.

Father Dominic D’Abreo, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), said that they would be happy to invite the pope to India. The bishops' general body meeting at the end of this month might discuss inviting pope, he added.

The exposition generally happens every ten years, and the last was in 2004 December for about one month. During the event, the relics of the saint, kept in a silver casket elevated inside the Basilica, are brought to ground level for pilgrims to see and venerate.

Every year, more than a million pilgrims come to the Basilica to venerate the body, which many believe miraculously remained uncorrupted for nearly 500 years. Officially, the remains are called only relics now.

The saint priest from Navarra in the Basque region of Spain arrived in Goa, the then Portuguese capital in 1542. He evangelized several Asian nations based in Goa.

After his death in 1552 in Shangchuan, China, his body was first ferried to Malacca in Malaysia, and brought to the Basilica in 1553.