Tourism ministry should seek Church's view on exposition: NCP

, June 24:

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ministry should take Church into confidence before designing its multi-crore publicity campaign for the decennial exposition of St Francis Xavier's relics scheduled later this year, the NCP said on Tuesday.

"It is only the authorities of Church who would be able to discern how best to propagate the great spiritual life of the great saint which would attract tourists from all over the world to gain the inspiration from his spirituality," NCP Goa spokesman Trojano D'Mello told reporters here.

The state tourism ministry has planned a Rs 4 crore publicity campaign in association with the Central government for the event, which is a once-in-ten-year exposition of relics of St Francis Xavier that are preserved at Basilica of Bom Jesus Church at Old Goa.

State tourism ministry has planned a Rs 4 crore publicity campaign

State Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar had earlier said that the publicity campaign would be held across Europe and especially Spain, the birthplace of the saint.

"Just because the saint belong to Spain doesn't mean that people from that country will come to Goa for the event," D'Mello said. The NCP has demanded that tourism ministry should disband the present proposal and take the Church authorities into confidence, in particularly the Jesuits, to prepare a roadmap to propagate the spiritual value of the great saint.

"The exposition is not the exhibition and the Holy Saint's relics are not piece of art, that tourism ministry wants to attract tourists to watch it," he said, adding that the spiritual aspect of the entire event needs to be propagated.

PTI