Constitution in danger, people living in insecurity: Goa archbishop

After the controversy triggered by the letter issued by Delhi's archbishop Anil Couto, it is now the turn of archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Ferrao whose letter has raised eyebrows for its political undertones.

Addressing the Catholic community of Goa and Daman, the archbishop said that the Constitution is in danger and most people are living in insecurity.

"Today, our Constitution is in danger, reason why most of the people live in insecurity. Having this concern in mind, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has recently declared in its Plenary Assembly that the Church in India should diligently promote and stand by values like secularism, freedom of speech and freedom to practise one’s religion enshrined in the Indian Constitution," the letter stated.


Clarifying that the archbisop's letter has been quoted out of context, the secretary of the Goa archbisop said that "the letter is released every year and this time 1-2 statements have been taken out of context".



In May, before the Karnataka elections, the archbishop of Delhi, Anil Couto, in a letter, had stated that the a turbulent political atmosphere was posing a threat to the nation and asked fellow Christians to fast for the nation.

The letter had elicited a stern response from the government. Home minister Rajnath Singh had said that there was no discrimination based on religion while the BJP president Amit Shah said that it was not proper to polarise people based on religion.