Indian Catholic Priest gets anticipatory bail for saying the king was not a God in a sermon

An Indian Catholic priest, Father Bolmax Pereira, was granted "anticipatory bail" on August 8 for a criminal case filed against him on July 30 for allegedly "hurting Hindu sentiments" with comments he made about a Hindu monarch during a July 30 Sunday Mass.

Father Pereira is a parish priest at St. Francis Xavier Church in Chicalim in the Archdiocese of Goa.

Against the priest, the police in Vasco filed a complaint for comments about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630-1680), founder of the Maratha kingdom, considered the bravest ruler of the 17th century.

According to the Indian Penal Code, Father Pereira was charged with defiling a place of worship and insulting a place of worship with the intent to provoke a breach of peace under Section 295 of the code.

There was a Sunday homily published on July 30 on the YouTube channel managed by the young people of the parish entitled "Sermon-God is Our Protector—Fr. Bolmax Pereira".

The homily said that: "There are a few people for whom Shivaji has become a god … Yes, he is a national hero. We have to honor and respect him. What he has done, the battles he fought to protect his people … for all that he deserves respect. He is a hero, but not a god. …Talk with your friends and ask them whether Shivaji is a hero of the nation or God.' If he is a national hero, let it be that. Don’t make him a god. We need to understand their perspective. If we live in fear, we will not be able to rise again."

Police filed a criminal case against him on August 5 after Father Pereira's delivered the homily.

Hindu Nationalist parties had circulated the Catholic priest's comments on social media and staged protests calling for his arrest for distressing their "religious sentiments."

On August 8, the police stated in court documents that "Father Bolmax Pereira is not required in custody in connection with the [case] registered against him in the Shivaji Maharaj [great king] row."

As a result of this police response, the court accepted the priest's request for "anticipatory bail" in the case against him, and four police stations in Goa were charged with the same incident against him.

The Bom Jesus Cathedral preserves the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier, who evangelized Goa, the tiny former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India.

Christian numbers have steadily declined and now make up only a quarter of the state's 1.6 million residents, ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

"In Indian law, "anticipatory bail" allows the accused to be freed from police custody even if they have been arrested for an alleged crime. A court ruled in Pereira's case that, if he is charged with a crime, he will be released on a 20,000 rupees ($240) bond and a surety. 

In an August 4 statement, the priest expressed regret over the controversy and misunderstanding surrounding his remark about Shivaji, as the matter was "subjudice" (under consideration by the court and therefore prohibited from public discussion elsewhere).

According to India Today TV, "During the sermon, he mentioned Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as a great national hero and valiant warrior to show devotees and viewers that people from all over the country and abroad revere him regardless of religion, caste, creed, or language."

"Shivaji Maharaj's greatness would therefore be diminished if he were attributed to only one religion," he said.

A priest was quoted as saying that he was "shocked" to discover that his sermon had been "selectively taken out of context" to show only a part of it, while another part of it, praising Shivaji Maharaj's bravery and heroism in protecting the people and his kingdom and resisting invaders, had been "maliciously omitted".

The omission of the part of his remarks that was "aimed at inciting anger and creating enmity between communities."

Father Cedric Prakash, an outspoken human rights activist Jesuit from Gujarat state, told CNA, "We are relieved and happy that the police and the judiciary have taken note of the flimsiness of the allegation made against Father Bolmax."

Prakash stated, "This incident is a clear example of how Hindu fundamentalists latch on to any opportunity to polarize society along communal [religious] lines. Missionaries of Charity nuns in my home state [Gujarat] are still undergoing trial after being charged with ‘forced conversion’ for keeping Bibles in homes for destitute girls."

Ram Puniyani, a Hindu scholar from Mumbai and a critic of rampant Hindu fundamentalism, told CNA, "This [controversy] is nothing surprising and reflects the intolerance against religious minorities in the country."

Puniyani said, "Hindu nationalists think differently. Many of them call Nathuram Godse [the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation] a 'god' and have built his temple."