Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jun 12: In a development that has brought cheers among the devotees from the city who have been fighting for facility to offer prayers in churches here in Konkani, a court here has directed the Archdiocese here to enable devotees to offer Konkani masses in all the churches under it.

In the past, efforts of Konkani-speaking liturgy to get facilities in churches under the Archdiocese to offer services in Konkani language had faced stiff resistance from people who were hell-bent on forcing the concerned to conduct devotional services only in the official language of the state. The stand-off reached such a point in 2013 that prayer in progress was disrupted by some people who also assaulted the devotees including children involved in Konkani Mass badly. Konkani community members have been sending appeals to the Archbishop here to officially allow the faithful to celebrate the Holy Eucharist in Konkani to obviate such instances. However, because the Archdiocese was bound to follow a three-language policy in vogue in this diocese since long, nothing could be done to address grievances of these devotees. It was said that anti-Konkani forces also kept pressurizing the office of the Archbishop not to bring any changes in the current policy.

Against the injustice they were facing in spite of the fact that provisions of Canon Law confers on the faithful the right to practice their faith and liturgical services in their own language, and on the basis of the fact that Konkani happens to be an official language of the country, Federation of Karnataka Catholic Association had filed a suit on October 2014 seeking the intervention of the court to do justice to them. Through an order dated June 4 this year, the civil court here directed the Archbishop here and the priests of the churches under the Archdiocese to allow the faithful to perform Konkani Masses in Konkani.