CANONIZATION OF MOTHER TERESA – POSSIBLE FALLOUTS

(Note: Saints were always the best money earners for the Church. Making some one a saint was an expensive business until Pope Francis recently reversed the Vatican Laws. Otherwise, eligible saintly Christians like Servant of God Bro. Joseph Thampi of Vijayawada would have found their places in the roll of saints much before St. Alphonsa. People knowing the poor Sisters of Charity never expected M Teresa to become a saint. Look at the tomb in the picture, no money tanks are seen anywhere near it. Also M Teresa had notified in her Will that she does not like anybody collecting money on her name, whatever be the reason. In spite of her own Will (perhaps) M Teresa is going to be canonized this year. Is it going to change the body chemistry of Kolkata Archdiocese? Our correspondent Shri Isaac Gomes is opening the Diocese daybook here – Joseph Mattappally, asso.editor)

Isaac Gomes·Wednesday – March 16, 2016

There is a report that the Pope last week introduced new financial rules governing the process of sainthood. Critics allege that candidates who are supported by wealthy donors may have their cases expedited. Now, an administrator must be named for each prospective saint and should “scrupulously“ manage donations.What about naming Administrators for monitoring the fund raising which will take place in while forming various Celebration Committees after the Canonization of Mother Teresa – especially in Kolkata?
Parleys are on at Archbishop House Kolkata to form various committees for a gala celebration. The moot point is funds – who are raising, from whom and how? It should be very transparent.
When unscrupulous influential people started raising funds after the Mother became a Noble Laureate, Mother Teresa got the wind of things to come and made out a legal document BANNING any fund raising in her or in the name of Missionaries of Charity. This was disclosed by the late Sr Nirmala (who was a fully-qualified lawyer) when the ever opportunist Arun Biswas took her to court (demanding right to raise funds in Mother's name). The matter was brought to a logical end when the late Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, a close friend of Mother Teresa, intervened to bottle up Arun Biswas.
Even though the Mother had BANNED raising funds in her name, the Catholic Association of Bengal did exactly that. They misused Mother's name, created a committee called HOMAGE TO MOTHER TERESA, raised funds from the gullible public, and made a fixed deposit of Rs 17 Lac in March 2011 under the name HOMAGE TO MOTHER TERESA. The Archbishop Emeritus Lucas Sirkar got the FD done at Syndicate Bank St Xavier's College, Park Street Kolkata (where most priests keep their money) by using the letterhead of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta! The bank ignored the KYC norms and obliged. The Archbishop Emeritus also instructed the bank to credit quarterly interest on the FD to the savings bank account of Catholic Association of Bengal which enjoys exemption from income tax. This mandate of interest credit was given even though the Park Street Branch was maintaining a savings bank account named HOMAGE TO MOTHER TERESA! Is it not a case of money laundering allowed by the bank? The bank has not responded to this contention.
From 31 March 2011 to 31 March 2015 (when the accounts were last audited) the FD was being shown as part of the total FDs and CORPUS FUND (Rs 10 Lac under Educational Corpus Fund and Rs 7 Lac as Medical Corpus Fund) . The Archbishop authorised three signatories viz. Fr John Mohandas, Fr Vincent Lobo and Mr Eugene Gonsalves (who is the past president of Catholic Association of Bengal) to the FD. Strangely, neither the Archbishop Emeritus nor any of the signatories to the FD are authorised signatories to Catholic Association of Bengal's bank accounts! In fact, Catholic Association of Bengal is a registered society under West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 where only the laity and no priests or religious can be members. And here we have a classic case of a non-member (Archbishop Emeritus) of Catholic Association of Bengal issuing instruction the bank and the bank obediently obliging the Archbishop to ensure smooth & unabated flow of remittance! 
When whispers of the canonization of the Mother started becoming rife, Eugene Gonsalves suddenly said in June 2015 that the FD Rs 17 Lac which was being shown in the audited Corpus Fund of Catholic Association of Bengal, needs to be "STRUCK OFF" the books of accounts as it did not belong to the association but to HOMAGE TO MOTHER TERESA! On being questioned why in the first place as President he showed it in the books of Catholic Association of Bengal, he said it was done to protect the money from some people who had their eyes on the money! He pressed for a resolution to be passed by the Executive Committee to STRIKE OFF the amount by majority votes. But this was stalled by the then Hony. Treasurer who said funds under whatever name once shown in the audited accounts of Catholic Association of Bengal, belonged to the Association only and to nobody else. The Hony. Treasurer further argued that an amount once shown under Corpus Fund cannot be diluted or converted. Only interest thereon can be utilised for various welfare (educational, health, etc.) expenses. Thus the resolution was stalled. He further asked for the genesis of the Funds. However, no accounts or receipt books of HOMAGE TO MOTHER TERESA were produced by Eugene, the mastermind or his associates. At the AGM held in September 2015, Archbishop Thomas D'Souza who is Ex-officio Chairman of the association, assured the members that the original FD which was under the custody of Eugene Gonsalves (and strangely not in the custody Catholic Association of Bengal) would be converted in the name of Catholic Association of Bengal. In spite of several queries, including lawyer's letter, the Archbishop is totally tight-lipped on the matter. This is the respect for one of the important resolutions taken at the recently concluded (March 2-9) Plenary Session at Bangalore which is: DIALOGUE WAS ESSENTIAL in solving problems affecting society and the community in the country. “THE CRYING NEED OF THE HOUR IS TO CONTINUE DIALOGUING DESPITE VARIOUS CHALLENGES ”. Here we have an Archbishop who does not even believe in acknowledging correspondence. So for him dialogue is a far cry! 
Any Association of persons or society, operates its banking transactions on Joint Signatory basis. Interestingly in the case of Homage to Mother Teresa FD, the Archbishop Emeritus made the mandate on SINGLE OR SURVIVOR BASIS. This means whoever of the three signatories has the original certificate can if he wants, walk away with the money! The Archbishop Emeritus Lucas Sirkar could not have been so naive. There is definitely a method in his madness. 
Incidentally Eugene said that he had gone to the Missionaries of Charity to hand over the money to them but they refused for obvious reasons (Mother Teresa’s above-mentioned legal document). So he roped in the Archbishop Emeritus to agree to do something to park the windfall somewhere and at the same time ensure easy liquidity which explains the SINGLE OR SURVIVOR logic – facilitate loot in the name of Mother Teresa!
The FD matured on 24th February 2016. We do not know its fate. Even the bank or its regional office has not responded. It is the same bank which got caught very recently by the CBI in the scam of having allowed discounting of forged cheques to the tune of Rs 1,000 crores!
One of the signatories to the FD Fr John Mohandas, has been in-charge of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta finance for the last thirty years! With all the due respect to Fr John, who is also the Judicial Vicar for Marriage Tribunals and Parish Priest of St Mary’s Church Ripon Street Kolkata, what is so special about him that the Archdiocese cannot find any suitable replacement for him, at least in Finance? Admitted he is excellent in his work but isn’t it poor leadership planning by the powers-that-be of the Archdiocese? By now Fr John must have entered the Vatican Guinness Books of Record for the longest tenure in office both as CFO and Judicial Vicar!