Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai (MS)

Mumbai, Oct 16: In a unique show of religious harmony, a Catholic priest stole the show at the traditional garba dance that was held at the Don Bosco grounds in Matunga in the city on Sunday, October 14. The priest who swayed his cassock to the tunes of garba song is none other than the rector of the school, Fr Crispino D'Souza.

'Dandiya Dhamaka', a nine-day all faith garba dance festival was organized by the shrine of Don Bosco Matunga. The video of rector Fr D'Souza dancing on the floor has gone viral on social sites and many people including Christians have lauded his gesture, an attempt to gel well with people of other communities.

A similar event is also held at St Peter's Church Bandra on all the nine days of the Navaratri.

Godfrey Pimenta, member, Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS), who was ecstatic after watching the act of Fr D'Souza, said, “It is a good gesture on the part of the priest in fostering new relationships with our brethren from other communities.”

Fr D'Souza was not available for his comments on the act.

Fr Frazer Mascarenhas SJ, parish priest, St Peter’s Church, said, “Our church has been making attempts to build bridges of understanding and collaboration with people of other faiths living within our parish area – with the guidance of a committee comprising members of other faiths.”

Fr Mascarenhas, who is also one of the organizers of the Bandra event, said the multi-faith committee had decided to hold a cultural festival to bring together people from all faiths on the occasion of Navaratri. “We decided to hold a Dandiya dance and an inter-cultural food festival. The social outreach cell of the parish, which trains differently-abled children every Sunday, also proposed a Dandiya dance. The two proposals merged into the holding of the Dandiya Dhamaka – a purely cultural festival, learning the movements of the Dandiya and the garba."

"There was no religious colour to the event, except that this is an effort to overcome evil with goodness, disharmony with harmony and collaboration – which is the theme of the Navaratri festival – a theme that is also very close to the heart of every Christian," he added.

In his praise of the rector, Dolphy D’Souza, former president, Bombay Catholic Sabha, said, "Fr D’Souza has shown wonderful, inter-religious harmony in his act, that too with the cassock. His dance was very good. He is far ahead of the times. I thank him for leading people from the front."

He added that St Peter’s parish believes “the building up of the kingdom of God cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human cultures” – as stated clearly by Pope Paul VI’s 1975 document, ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi’.

“This dance included 450 people from different religious faiths, including differently -abled children and their families, who got together to celebrate this shared heritage. Cultural celebrations of this nature are indeed useful in doing away with the stereotype prejudices as the harmony and fellowship experienced by all the participants of this event was evident. Events of this nature also help in building unity and collaboration among the varied peoples of our country,” Fr Mascarenhas said.

Bandra resident Anil Joseph, said “Scores of our non-Catholic brethren visit Bandra’s famous Mount Mary’s Church feast and fair to celebrate the nativity of Birth of Virgin Mary in September. Similarly, Christmas and its ensuing celebrations are organised by many commercial outlets in Bandra, and people of all faiths enjoy them. So drawing a parallel, this initiative was taken by the churches’ multi-faith committee and social outreach cell to have a Dandiya dance event for people of all faiths to mingle and enjoy each other’s traditions should be viewed in the same vein,”