Fr Cyprian Relocates to Mangalore:

End of a Memorable Eight-year-long Tenure in Dubai

Exclusive Interview : November 6, 2005

Dubai, November 6: Dubai is known as one of the largest and richest parishes within the Arabian Vicariate. The Konkani-speaking communities hailing from Mangalore, Goa and other Konkan regions have been blessed with an able and charismatic priest like Fr Cyprian D`Souza, who not only won the hearts of Konkans, but also has been equally popular among the Keralites, Tamils and all other Indian as well as International community.

As a rule, a priest cannot be a permanent at one place. Fr Cyprian too has to follow this rule as his eight memorable years of service in the service of God in Dubai has come to an end,  as he has received orders from his superiors in Bangalore to take over the charge of the Assisi Press in Mangalore within the next few weeks.

Fr Federick D`Souza, a 38-year-old Vorkady parishioner, currently serving in Raichur, is expected to arrive in Dubai any moment as his legal formalities are already completed.

Walter Nandalike, Editor-in-chief of daijiworld.com, took some of Fr Cyrprian's time to share his experience in the past few years in Dubai as a popular missionary, who rarely hurt anyone, but tried to bring the community together.

Soft natured and of a calm personality, Forty-year-old Fr Cyprian Peter D`Souza spoke candidly without hiding anything inside his heart:

About Fr Cyprian D'Souza:

Born of Salvador D`Souza (Salu Mestri, a teacher) and Lucy D`Souza on September 16, 1965 in Permude parish of Mangalore diocese, he was ordained a priest on May 9, 1994. He spent the first three years at Deena Sevashram, Bangalore as Public Relation In charge.  On June 11, 1997, he arrived in Dubai as a spiritual representative of the Konkani community to the entire UAE.

Fr Cyprian has played a great role in bringing the community under one umbrella. St Mary's Konkani Community, started under his guidance, is currently doing tremendous service to the community, mainly through its charity work and uniting community members.

Do regional organizations in Dubai unite the community or break it?

As many of us are aware, a revolution in the regional organizations (Zomats) was started in 2000. Though there were a few organizations from native places existed in the Gulf, a majority of Zomats started in the millennium year.

Quite few times, people questioned the need for such Zomats - Whether these Zomats bring the community members together or divided the community?

But Fr Cyprian is positive in his approach, as he is the inspiration behind many such Zomats.

'Chruch is like a second home. Organizations have shared the major responsibilities, say, for example, a person needs help very badly. Then the respective parish will on first priority help such the needy person. Though the Church is always willing to help the needy people, parish organizations can be more helpful towards such causes. This is not only the case. There is a good opportunity for quality leadership within the group, talents can be groomed; a stage can be provided to the regional talents. When I first came here, there were 2-3 major organizations and they were doing a very good job. Due to a huge number of talents present in Dubai, these organizations were not enough to provide the stage. So Zomats always encouraged such new talents'

In short, his message was that only 2-3 organisations cannot serve entire community, because they too have limitations.

Is the family value declining in the Gulf?

Yes, he says, somewhat, but not like in Europe. When compared to India, here fami