PANAJI: The church authorities, while contesting the charges levelled by the parishioners of the Guardian Angel Church, Sanvordem-Curchorem, have agreed to thoroughly probe the alleged lottery scam, involving the local parish priest and the manager of a printing press, and come clean on the issue.

On Friday, parishioners from Sanvordem-Curchorem marched to the Bishop’s House and presented a memorandum to the Archbishop, Fr Filipe Neri Ferrao, alleging ‘unethical’ appointment of Fabrica Committee, Rs 30 lakh lottery scam, disappearance of chandeliers from the church and conversion of prayer room into a cement godown.
Fr Santana Faleiro, secretary of Fabrica secretariat, told ‘The Navhind Times’ that the Archbishop had appointed the Fabrica committee by following all the laws relating to appointment of such committees.
In regard to the alleged lottery scam, he said that it was decided to print 50,000 lotteries and accordingly they were printed and sold, and added that due to misunderstanding 30,000 extra lotteries were printed, but that these were neither brought out of the printing press nor sold. He further stated that a thorough investigation would be carried out to the satisfaction of all.
Regarding the chandeliers and the cement storing in the prayer room, Fr Faleiro said that since the church and the residence of the parish priest were under renovation, the chandeliers were kept in the room of the parish priest to prevent any damage to them. He further said that the chandeliers would be restored by the end of May. Similarly, he informed that due to the construction and since there was no other place to keep cement, the prayer room, which was already under darkness because of ongoing work, was temporarily used to store the cement bags, and that the people were informed of it.