By Sr. Molly Fernandes SFN –
“When the roots are deep, there’s no fear of being uprooted by any fierce wind”, my own quote springs up as I reminiscence thanking God for the marvels He worked in the journey towards Platinum Jubilee of our Congregation’ Canonical Erection.
Yes wonders, through the first esteemed indigenous Congregation, called ‘The Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Family of Nazareth(SFN), Sancoale’ of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman under the noble leadership of Rev. Fr. Faustino de Souza, who stood the test and proved his mantle as the Founder of the said congregation. He is the son of the soil a diocesan priest from Chinvar Anjuna, Goa.
His daughters rejoice as the Congregation remembers the 70th anniversary, of its Canonical Erection on 25th March (25th March 1952 – 25th March 2022). A journey walked together with faith, girt, determination and passion with compassion!
The glorious history was celebrated today through the Eucharistic celebration, the highest form of prayer raising our hearts to God with gratitude and thanksgiving.
Milestones are to be celebrated, keeping before us the journey ahead. Milestones remind us how far we have come, accomplishing the goals and yet the thirst and passion to venture into new horizons. We remember with gratitude the pangs of birth our Founder and the pioneering sisters went through. It wasn’t just starting the Congregation but I would like to compare it to ploughing a parched land after a drought.
Goa was under the Portuguese rule. Fr. Faustino was the man behind the religious comeback into Goa after its ban from the year 1834 – 1835 by the then Prime Minister of Portugal, Joaquim Antonio de Aguiar as the Religious Orders and Congregations had been banned or suppressed first in Portugal in 1834 and a year later in its colonies. It was the Dark Age in the life of the Church in Goa!
Fr. Faustino strongly felt the need for Religious Institutes to care for orphans and the destitute, the aged and the socially marginalized. The church in Portugal (a century later) and its colonies could breathe more freely with the rise of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar as Prime Minister and with Estado Novo. Fr. Faustino perceived the winds of change and took advantage of the situation and mobilized the ecclesiastical circles for the re-establishment of Religious Institutes. And, the first Religious Congregation of men ‘The Franciscan Missionary Brothers’ at Duler was established in Goa after a century because of a far-sightedness of this great yet meek soul.
The Church needed more hands to collaborate in the upheaval task of catering to the spiritual welfare of families. He felt the need to have a congregation of the diocese and offered it to God in prayer and supplication. Men of prayer are inspired by God and His spirit rests upon them. The spiritual warfare they go through gets them rooted and their goals embedded in the battle. Of such calibre was the humble soul Fr. Faustino. No doubt it was the will of God for him to be a Founder of the congregation God had called him to be.
The ground work began in the as early as 1928 while at Duler the then chaplain of St. Francis Xavier Chapel and further strengthened in 1930 after the girls came back from Mangalore. On 15th December 1932, in a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Goa, he petitioned to sanction the establishment of a Religious Congregation in Goa for women who felt called to consecrate their lives to God when he saw that the daughters of Goa had to go out.
Seeing the zeal of Fr. Faustino, the ecclesiastical authorities appreciated this move and approved this courageous and noble enterprise ‘ad experimentum’. The girls that came to render help at the chapel were enabled to discern their vocation while he vouched on them. According to the will of God the seed sown on 15th December 1932 sprouted on 9th March 1933 and the nascent congregation was born under the able leadership of Fr. Faustino de Souza as its Founder.
Having gone through the whole process the long wait of having a Congregation of its own Diocese was realised by sending the desiring girls for their formation at Mangalore – Bethany Sisters, on 9th March 1933 (a historical day) and who on completion of their formation arrived in Goa and pronounced their first vows on 16th June 1935 at the Oratory Room of St. Joseph Vaz, Sancoale.
As the Pious Union flourished in many villages of Goa catering to the people with empathy and a listening ear, in the field of education, pastoral work, care of orphans, adult education, etc. After seven years Fr. Faustino with the help of spiritual director and collaborators applied for the Canonical Approval and erection of the new Congregation. Through the then Local Ordinary and Patriarch of the East Indies, Dom Jose de Costa Nunes, requested the necessary authorization according to the Canon 492 of the Code of Canon Law, from the Sacred Congregation of the Religious to canonically erect the Pious Union into a Congregation. The Roman Dicastery in reply to a letter dated 30th October 1942, to the Archbishop asked for more details and information. One such question was whether there were any extraordinary events or visions.
Fr. Faustino was forced to relate what he had so far kept as a secret, which was confided to the pioneers. One day, as a seminarian he had been kneeling in prayer before the Oratory of his ancestral home at Anjuna, when he saw the Crucifix coming alive, emerged and walked around him three times only to return back to His original place.
After a gap of five years of study, on 3 September, 1947, the Sacred Roman Congregation informed the Archbishop Patriarch that having considered what he and his predecessor had submitted on the matter, had no objection to his proceeding with the Canonical Erection of the Congregation of the Sisters of Holy Family of Nazareth, according to the Law of the Church.
The sisters were anxious and waiting to hear the good news as the consent from Roman congregation had come. However, the Archbishop Patriarch Dom Jose de Costa Nunes waited until 25 March 1952, the Feast of Annunciation of the Lord, to issue the Decree.
The SFN’s also remember, their Founder on his 46th death anniversary, on 26th March and pray for God’s blessings to continue his legacy and spread the kingdom of God walking together in communion with participation for a greater mission.