Bishop Dr Peter Holds ‘Bandutva’, Calls Leaders and Politicians to Make Mangaluru ‘Smart City with a Heart’

Bishop Dr Peter Holds ‘Bandutva’, Calls Leaders and Politicians to Make Mangaluru ‘Smart City with a Heart’ During

Mangaluru: The newly ordained Bishop Dr Peter Paul Saldanha organized “Bandutva”, inviting politicians, religious heads, administrators and community leaders from different faith at the Bishop’s house on September 24.

Addressing the gathering Bishop said, “I rejoice today with you as you have made it possible to be here in Bishop’s house this evening. You are men and women of high standing in the society and you have the mission of making decisions for the good of the citizens. I thank you for visiting me here in the Bishop’s House and also in the Seminary. I am indebted for your kind gesture and wholehearted support towards the smooth functioning of my ordination and installation ceremony and all people have a word of appreciation for the orderliness and discipline with which you have done it. The credit goes to all of you, beginning with the district minister in-charge U T Khader, the District Collector, the Commissioner of Police and everyone who participated in the smooth running of the whole programme. Our city Mangaluru is a city which brings Mangala, Shubamangala, that is, a land that wishes good to everyone. This land of goodness has to be cherished and should be transformed into a haven of love and humanity”.

Bishop Dr Peter briefing on the purpose of the programme said, “I have called this meeting to thank you especially for all that you have done in various capacities and also to listen to you. As I take up my office as the new bishop of this diocese, which has 124 churches and numerous institutions of learning and medical care and social upliftment, I want to know what I can contribute for enhancing the goodness of this Mangaluru. Our life flows into the life of another and our decisions give directions to the lives of many. So also the life of others flows into ours. They have an unseen impact and we do feel, no two meetings are the same, even with the same person. The experience adds newness every day”.

Bishop further said, “I have also a message to share and you are called to give your observations. We are in the process of making this city and this district a smart city. Surely, for us, “smart” would mean different things. “A smart city is a designation given to a city that incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance the quality and performance of urban services such as energy, transportation and utilities in order to reduce resource consumption, wastage and overall costs”. Look at the definition, it is all product oriented and it seems to be less process-oriented. I may be wrong, you can correct me. It does not tell how we are going to train people to work for harmony and create fellow feeling. It does not tell us how it becomes deeply respectful towards human beings and environment and not merely tolerant. It does not tell us, how it will teach the Art of loving and compassion. Whose duty is it to do these things?”

Bishop also said, “I wish our smart city be a Smart city with a heart. It could be a slogan: “Mangaluru, a smart city with a heart”. In my childhood, I heard one song in Kannada that always resounds in my heart: Devara makkalu naavella, tiruka dhanika beralla. This song in its stanzas appeals the humanity to help one another, especially the needy, based on the one common brotherhood. Even the expression, “vasudaiva kutumbakam”, that we are the family of God, that we are the children of the same God. So any discrimination based on any factor is unjust and against our creator. Any violence in the name of God discredits the name of God himself and proclaims to the world that our God is a blood-thirsty God. We cannot make God in our image and likeness because of our prejudices against one another; rather, we must accept that God has made us in his image and likeness, that is, if God is Love and Compassion and Truth, as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism proclaim respectively, then we also have to become Love, Compassion and Truth as his image. Over the years, when people of different religious traditions were knocking at my door, in different places, I did not find the reason to reject them because their pains are similar to mine. I give one or two events that happened in my life that left deep impressions on my heart and I am sure you in your experience will have similar ones”.

Recalling the old memories Bishop said, “In 1986 when I was passing by Hampankatta old bus stand, I heard a boy crying. I stopped my little TVS and went in the direction of that voice and I saw a boy fallen in the open gutter. The gutter was deep and he was not able to come up, because he was wounded deeply by a glass piece and blood was profusely oozing. He might have been 10 years old. He was selling lottery tickets. I pulled him out, tied the foot with my handkerchief and took him to Wenlock hospital, to the OPD and got him treated and brought him and left him near the same place where he was selling lottery tickets so that he could continue to earn something for the day. His name was Basir. I still remember him. He might remember me, too. But we never met again in life physically. But I have him in my heart.”

“Another person is a young Hindu lady, Nagamma, who was roaming in the streets, beaten by the people and wounded with deep cuts as the shopkeepers treated her badly, calling her “mad”. She was walking, drenched by rain, with minimum clothes. She was shouting loudly. With the help of a few young men, we took her to Fr Muller Hospital and treated her, paying her bills. She had a small son and he was accommodated in the house of a neighbour. When I went to learn the case history to give to the doctor, walking miles and miles, I found out that her sister also suffered from some mental disturbance and I could not get her. When Nagamma got well, we built a house for her and gave some job at the Church for which she was grateful. Whenever she saw me, her eyes swelled up with tears and she would say, “eer enan bachav malthar” (you saved me). When I was the assistant priest at Milagres, Mangalore, another lady came asking for blood. She said in tulu: “Gurkule, enk onji batli netter bodu. Mulpa netter thikkundughe”. (Father, I want a pint of blood. I am told that here blood is available). I said, “yes”, it is available. Then, I started to go, but the parish priest asked me where I was going and I told him the fact. He said, he wanted to donate and so he went with that lady to donate.

My question is: when the blood is transfused from a Christian to a Hindu, does it become Hindu or does it remain Christian? When a kidney transplanted from a Muslim to Hindu, does it change religion or retains its status quo? If our blood gets well and if our organs can be transplanted, and there is no fear that the body will reject them because they are of a person of another religion, how is it then we, when it comes to totality of the person, reject one another?” Bishop questioned.

“The need to recognize our brotherhood and sisterhood; we need to build Bhandutva, fraternity: We have great possibilities of seeing where we can come together, dialogue with one another whether it is between religious traditions, between cultures or languages. We share the common denominator, humanity. In mathematics, to add or subtract the fractions (Bhinnarashi) we use the least common denominator. In life, to add the various fractions, various groups, various traditions, can we not use humanity as the least common denominator? Perhaps, I am harping on the same notion, but it is more than a mental idea. It is our very existence which is not a bare concept. Basavanna says: “Ivanaarava, ivanaarava, endenisadirayya; ivanammava, ivanammava endenisayya; nanna kuudala sangama sharanayya, ninna maneya maganendenisayya”. In the Bible, we are called to love one another as Jesus has loved us, or love your neighbour as yourself. We are not very sure whether we really love God, but if we have love for our neighbour, then, it is a sure sign that we love God. Therefore, love for another human being is the core of our love for God and any religion which tries to remove love for another from its practice makes God a liar”, said Bishop.

Bishop said, “I have called this meeting especially to listen, to learn from you, to begin a cordial dialogue with you in whom I see many brothers and sisters, my large extended family. What attitude is needed in this sort of dialogue? All religions insist on the so-called Golden Rule: ‘Do not do to another, what you would not want done to you.” I believe this Golden Rule is found in every culture and religion as a point of encounter which enables us to actualize “the Art of Loving”, an authentic method of dialogue. These days, there is a greater rediscovery of one’s common roots, of what unites us, a living experience of fraternity. These are just a few of the effects of dialogue lived in this spirit of communion which contributes to the unity of the human family. We must strengthen our common commitment to be builders of unity and of peace especially where there is violence, such as racial and religious intolerance, that would cause a rift between members of society.

What are the various ways we can interact with each other? In the ordinary life, we use the dialogue of life, where people strive to live in an open and neighbourly spirit, sharing their joys and sorrows, their human problems and preoccupations. Our daily interactions in life bring us closer to each other.

This is intimately connected with the dialogue of action, in which we collaborate for the integral development and liberation of people. We can do a lot of good through the dialogue of action, by planning to do good and we can meet each other there with a greater portion of people. The dialogue of theological exchange, where specialists seek to deepen their understanding of their respective religious heritages and to appreciate each other’s spiritual values. This may take place rarely and we need experts on religions and cultures so that we get enriched by their contribution”.

“Contacts in daily life and the common commitment to action will normally open the door for cooperation in promoting human and spiritual values; they may also eventually lead to the dialogue of religious experience in response to the great questions which the circumstances of life do not fail to arouse in the minds of people.

We can listen and learn from each other, from their God-experience and find ways and means to be rooted in our own, and still get enriched. Here persons, rooted in their own religious traditions, share their spiritual riches, for instance with regard to prayer and contemplation, faith and ways of searching for God or the Absolute. In conclusion, I would say that we must insist on the dialogue of action where we all can participate and plan common actions by which we can strive against any sort of segregation; we must endeavour to put our minds and hearts together for the good of all citizens. We can bring greater order in our land; greater discipline and hygiene. I give one example: in our city, people have to crossroads: there are zebra lines; people hardly respect those signs. The elderly people find it very difficult to step in on the road. Those who are driving do not stop at all and one has to simply thank God that he survived crossing the road. The other side, people also cross wherever they want and we have become immune to indiscipline. Another example is if someone lying on the roadside, no one finds whether he has fallen with a heart attack, or drunk or has collapsed because of some other problem. We need to create a squad of people who can really attend to these cases. As we have traffic control squads, we can have squads of compassion. In Italy, we have such and they are called “Misericordia”. They have people of good will, and many retired people render their service there. They are registered bodies. This is only one example. We can find many others, where we can together find ways to nurture the civilization of love and make our place a better place to live in. Another 50 years, many of us would not be here. Before it is too late, we can make a difference and India can boast of having Mangaluru, a smart city with a heart”.

Addressing the gathering Swami Jitakamandaji from Ramakrishna Mission said, “First of all I really appreciate the initiative by the newly ordained Bishop to bring people from different faiths together. We are all one and creation of the same God. We should not fight in the name of religion and today’s meeting is the best example for uniting people from all walks of life”.

District Minister In-charge U T Khader said, “I appreciate the initiative by the Bishop by inviting all of us here for the meeting. We need people who can encourage all to be disciplined citizens in the society and Bishop has all the qualities in him. Under his leadership, the district will transform and the people from every walk of life unite forgetting discrimination of caste, creed and religion.”

Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil, Prof Vivek Rai and Dr Mohan Alva also spoke on the occasion and appreciated the initiative of Bishop Dr Peter Paul. They also rendered their support to make Mangaluru a better place to live in”.

MLA of Mangaluru South Constituency Vedavyas Kamath, MLAs Dr Bharat Shetty, Umanath Kotian, Sanjeev Matandoor, Rajesh Naik, Mayor Bhasker, MLC Bhoje Gowda, Capt Ganesh Karnik, former ministers Ramanath Rai, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Abhaychandra, former MLAs Moideen Bava, J R Lobo, Shakuntala Shetty, Amarnath Shetty, Police commissioner T R Suresh, Capt Brijesh Chowta, Sadanand Shetty, Sushil Noronha, Roy Castelino, Basti Vaman Shenoy, Louis J Pinto, Vinay Hegde and Fr Victor Vijay Lobo among others were also present.

Vice Principal of St Aloysius College John D’Silva compered the programme.