Goa’s archbishop and two senior priests have resigned from a multi-million dollar educational project they began with laity citing its “incompatibility” with Church views.

Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao of Goa and the priests quit the board of trustees for the Marian Institute of Health Care Management, a year after the US$3.7 million project was launched.

The institute aimed to offer diploma courses in health care management in collaboration with faculties from some of the country’s leading institutes.

The prelate left his position as president, while the priests resigned as secretary general and treasurer on March 20, 2009. The resignations were only announced in the April 16 issue of the archdiocesan pastoral bulletin.

Father Saturnino Dias, who resigned as secretary general, told UCA News the board refused to amend the rules to project “Church values and ethics in its syllabus.”

The board, including the Church had agreed to maintain a secular character for the institute but disagreements arose over pro-life issues like pregnancy, abortion, euthanasia, cloning and stem cell research, where the Church has a definite stand.”

Father Dias said the archbishop “cannot sponsor an institute that would go against the teachings of the Church, and suggest, for instance, that abortion is okay.”

He said that the differences hit breaking point after the board failed to generate necessary funds. The board also failed to carry out its pledge to train Catholic nuns working in Church health institutions.

Father Antimo Gomes, who quit as treasurer, also said the institute hardly got any of the funding it was promised by the end of its first academic year, which ended in March 2009. The only funding the institute received came from the archdiocese’s own coffers.

Father Gomes said Church authorities mulled closing the institute but wanted to “avoid serious consequences” for students already enrolled.

Some lay people on the board of trustees have agreed to carry on running the institute, which some say will take nearly a decade to become viable, Father Gomes said.

Source: Clergy-laity rift over educational project (UCAN)

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