India in spotlight ahead of Mother Teresa's canonization and commemoration of Orissa martyrs

Paolo Affatato
Vatican Insider
August 29, 2016


All the conditions are there and the President of the Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, expressed the hope that the 101 Christians killed “in odium fidei” in the wave of Hindu extremist violence that engulfed the Indian state of Orissa in 2008 will be recognised as martyrs.

As the date of Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s canonization in the Vatican approaches, on 4 September and as Narendra Modi’s government announces that a high-profile delegation (not including him) is to be sent for the occasion, another matter holds court in the Indian Church. It involves the delicate relations with the nationalist government currently leading the world’s biggest democracy.

It is a painful event which speaks of suffering, violence, rape, abuse, destruction and displacement: the gratuitous violence unleashed against defenceless civilians, which led to the deaths of 101 victims, the scientifically orchestrated destruction of 8500 homes and 395 churches and the displacement of 56,000 Christians, permanently exiled from their villages, they lost homes, property and every means of sustenance.

Eight years on from this event which essentially amounted to ethnic cleansing, leaving a permanent scar in the heart of the nation’s Catholic community (it was the most ferocious incident of mass violence against Christians), the Church of central-eastern India has celebrated its “Day of martyrs” every year for the past 30 years. And it expects the entire nation, starting with the national Bishops’ Conference to acknowledge this cause, thus becoming sponsors of a real canonization process.

The Bishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, John Barwa, is very active on this front. He is President of Orissa’s regional Bishops’ Conference, which chose to celebrate the martyrs the day after that which commemorates the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. This decision was “taken in order to honour and respect the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the anti-Christian massacres of 2008 in the Kandhamal district,” Barwa explained to Vatican news agency Fides. He recalled having discussed this at the plenary assembly of Indian bishops which took place in Bangalore last spring.

Meanwhile, the local Church has put a special team of priests and researchers in charge of documenting the incidents that caused the death of 101 Christians in Orissa, in preparation for the diocesan phase of the process for the declaration of martyrdom.

But faith is not the only issue here, there are also human and legal repercussions to consider: the community continues to ask for full justice and adequate compensation for survivors.

In the legal battle launched, Christians recently obtained a favourable verdict: India’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal made by former archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who died just a few days ago, considering the compensation handed out so far to be “inadequate” and ordering Orissa’s government to provide additional compensation for Christian families. The court also decided that 315 cases of violence are to be re-examined. All of these cases had been reported to the police, but it failed to carry out adequate investigations into the claims.

As a result of this first step, even eight years on, the state government is still bound by the duty of guaranteeing that the authors of those crimes do not go unpunished. It also ensures that the violence of Kandhamal is not forgotten. This is why Delhi’s weekly newspaper, Indian currents, directed by Capuchin friar Suresh Mathew, backs the need for a memorial day by dedicating a special issue focusing exclusively on the Orissa martyrs, speaking of a “travesty of justice”.

On the one hand, the newspaper recalls that almost a third of the 827 complaints filed by Christians were shelved because the police were unable to track down those responsible. Of 362 lawsuits launched, only 78 were heard in court. Secondly, most cases brought before judges were lost because eye-witnesses were threatened and the government “failed in its duty to protect witnesses to the most terrible of crimes”. In eight years, the government of Orissa did nothing to ensure the displaced could return to their homes, allowing the illegal and forced occupation of property owned by other people, actions it is evidently unwilling to question.

Catholic church in India slammed by critics over silence on kidnapped Dalit bishop

Lorraine Cabbalero
Christian Daily
July 22, 2016

A group of Catholics from southern India has slammed the Church's "silence" on the kidnapping and assault of a Dalit bishop by three priests from an upper-caste group.

On July 16, the South Indian Dalit Catholic Association (SIDCA) released a statement condemning the Catholic church's silence on Bishop Prasad Gallela's abduction. The minister was kidnapped and assaulted by three priests from the Cudappa Diocese on Apr. 25, UCA News reports.

When the suspects took Bishop Gallela and his driver at a village called Nagasanepalle, they reportedly beat him before blindfolding and tying him up. The kidnappers then took them to an undisclosed place and demanded around US$75,000 in ransom.

In addition, the kidnappers stole Gallela's bag, which contained some cash, three ATM cards, a silver chain with a cross, and an iPhone.

SIDCA's statement comes a month after Dalit activist Jesuit Father A.X.J. Bosco sent an open letter to the Catholic bishops' conference's president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis of Trivandrum. In the letter, the Jesuit priest highlighted the Catholic church's "significant silence" on the crimes committed by the three priests.

Meanwhile, police arrested 14 individuals in connection with Bishop Gallela's kidnapping and assault. The detained includes three of his own priests, with Fr. Raja Reddy as the main culprit because of his alleged beef with the bishop regarding a requested position that was not granted to him, Crux Now details.

According to Crux's sources, Reddy requested to be appointed as "procurator" in the diocese, a position which would have given him authority to do things in the bishop's name. However, his request was denied. Gallela also indicated to Crux that the kidnapping had something to do with an "administrative issue," but declined to elaborate.

The Hindu newspaper noted that the suspects had attempted to kidnap the Dalit bishop four times from Apr. 6 to 15, but failed to do so before the Apr. 25 incident.

Bishop demands action against anti-Mother Teresa MP

UCA News - India
June 25, 2016

A church official in India has demanded action against a parliamentarian who accused Mother Teresa of using her social work as a cover for proselytism.

"These kind of statements only show the mentality of one person. I would request the Indian government take action against him and prove its sincerity towards minorities," Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, told ucanews.com.

He was reacting to a statement by parliamentarian Yogi Adityanath, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy to "Christianize India."

"Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy for the Christianization of India. Christianization has led to separatist movement in parts of northeast India, including states of Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland," Adityanath said while speaking at a religious program in northern Indian Uttar Pradesh state on June 18.

Fellow BJP parliamentarian Subramanian Swamy supported Adityanath by saying such views were not "isolated."

This is not the first time that Mother Teresa has been accused of converting Hindus to Christianity.

In 2015, Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Hindu fundamentalist socio-religious group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (national volunteer corps), said Mother Teresa aimed to convert people to Christianity thorough her work. This is an umbrella group for Hindu hardliners and the political wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party that now rules the federal government and many Indian states.

Bishop Mascarenhas said he wants the government to take action on "out of place and immature comments" that are meant to spread hatred.

"We are happy that the vast majority of the Indian population does not think like this man. Rather than making such comments, it would be good if this person went and saw what Mother Teresa has done and what her sisters are now doing in India and across the world," he said.

"These comments are only made to discourage those serving the poor. If the intention is to serve the poor then it does not matter who is doing it," he said.

Blessed Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for her work with the poor in Calcutta, now named Kolkata, and will be canonized a saint by Pope Francis in September.

Bishop to donate kidney to poor, lower-caste Hindu in India

Normal Carvalho
Crux
May 30, 2016



Pope Francis has declared this a Holy Year of Mercy, but most likely even a pope known for his flair for dramatic gestures could not have foreseen the extent to which one of his bishops would take the message to heart – or, actually, to his kidney, as it turns out.

Catholic news from India often pivots these days on anti-Christian bias, even outright persecution from the majority Hindu population. The way one Catholic bishop has chosen to put mercy into practice, however, is a reminder that inter-religious tension and conflict is hardly the only narrative.

Bishop Mar Jacob Muricken is an auxiliary in the Palai diocese, part of India’s Syro-Malabar Eastern church, located in the southern state of Kerala where the country’s small but influential Catholic population is concentrated.

Recently, Muricken, who’ll turn 53 in mid-June, received the necessary clearances from a governmental medical college in Kottayam to take one of his healthy kidneys and have it transplanted into the sick body of E. Sooraj, a thirty-year-old poor and lower-caste Hindu man from Kottakal, on June 1, 2016.

Sooraj was diagnosed two years ago with kidney failure, and has been on dialysis ever since. He’s the sole breadwinner of his family and is struggling to take care of his mother and wife.

His father died from snake bite four years ago, and his younger brother died of a heart attack. He was forced to sell off his house and property to meet the expenses of the surgery.

Sooraj approached the Kidney Federation of India, a social service organization that helps people find donors for kidney transplants, and they had good news.

Father Davis Chiramel, chairman of the Kidney Federation of India was invited by the Palai Diocese last year to preach at a charismatic convention, where Muricken was present. Chiramel told the story of his own donation of a kidney to C. G. Gopinathan, a Hindu and a stranger, in 2009.

Muricken later phoned Chiramel expressing his desire to be a donor. He registered his name volunteering to be part of a transplant with the Kidney Federation of India.

The bishop said he was saddened to learn of Sooraj’s condition, but excited about his opportunity to make a life-saving donation.

“I was inspired by a talk of Father Chiramel. I had decided that, like Chiramel, I will also donate my kidney,” said Muricken.

“I came to know about this youth from Father Chiramel, and decided to extend a helping hand, especially in this ‘Year of Mercy,’” he added.

In an interview with Crux, Chiramel said, “it’s the first time that a bishop is donating his kidney to a Hindu man.”

“[It’s significant that he is doing it] in the Holy Year of Mercy, following the call by Pope Francis to love each other without the barrier of caste or creed,” Chiramel said.

“This is perhaps the first time in history that a serving bishop is donating one of his kidneys to save a life,” he said.

Chiramel was clearly elated with the bishop’s decision and unprecedented gift, saying, “30-year-old Sooraj is getting life from this Catholic bishop, who’s forming the bridge of love and God’s grace.”

Muricken told Crux that while he did not actually need permission to make an organ donation from his ecclesiastical superiors, he’s informed the other bishops and “received a lot of encouragement from them.”

“Pope Francis has repeatedly appealed to make Our Lord Jesus more visible through works of mercy,” he said.

Muricken said the fact the recipient is from another religion was never a concern, and only pressed by Crux would he confirm that the man also belongs to the “backward community,” a phrase referring to members of disadvantaged lower classes under India’s ancient caste system.

“Pope Francis backs such acts of organ donation,” Muricken said. “It’s in the spirit of the Church. I believe this should be a strong message for people around me, to be open to donate organs,” and concluded by asking for prayers.

The authorization committee for unrelated donors, made up of medical experts and government officials, approved Muricken as a donor at a meeting held at Kottayam medical college in late May.

The bishop had earlier undergone medical examinations for the donation at the hospital.

India has plenty to hide about its religious freedom record

Father Cedric Prakash, SJ
Crux
May 28, 2016



At a recent Congressional hearing on India convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. several top U.S. Senators voiced their concern over religious freedom in India, just ahead of a trip by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s to the United States.

The hearing also came barely three months after thirty-four leading U.S. lawmakers, senators and congressmen, wrote an open letter to Modi on growing intolerance and violence against religious minorities in India, and asked him to take immediate steps to protect these fundamental rights and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Very naturally, supporters of Modi and the BJP party, which is the political wing of India’s Hindu nationalist movements, have not taken too kindly to what they describe as ‘interference in the internal affairs’ of the country.

This is sheer hypocrisy.

There is not a whimper of protest though from these very people when the Indian government agrees to allow the U.S. to use its military bases, or for that matter, if U.S. investments in India flagrantly violate environmental laws or the human rights of its citizens — for instance, Union Carbide and a Coca-Cola plant in Kerala.

So, what’s wrong if U.S. senators and congressmen are concerned about religious and civil liberties in India? Why tolerate, even welcome, one form of “interference” but complain about the other?

What does India have to hide about its record on religious freedom? Plenty.

Let’s begin with the fact that members of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) were once again denied visas for a fact-finding visit to India. (Some senators raised this point at the congressional hearing.)

In its Annual Report released on May 3, USCIRF once again castigated the Indian government over attacks on religious minorities, and simultaneously praised U.S. President Barack Obama for speaking out against growing intolerance during his visit to India in January 2015.

A few days later, at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Obama once again referred to the religious intolerance in India saying that “it would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi — who helped liberate the nation.”

It’s exactly two years since the Modi Government came to power; since then, the minorities of the country are on the back foot. Fali Nariman, one of India’s most eminent jurists delivering the Annual Lecture of the National Commission for Minorities, lambasted the Government for doing nothing to stop the attacks by fundamentalist Hindu groups against minority communities.

“Hinduism is losing its traditional tolerance, because some Hindus have started believing it is their faith that has brought them political power – and because this belief is not being challenged by those at the top,” Nariman said in his lecture.

“We have been hearing on television and reading in newspapers, almost on a daily basis, a tirade by one or more individuals or groups against one or another section of citizens who belong to a religious minority, and the criticism has been that the majority government has done nothing to stop it,” he said.

The ‘Sangh Parivar’, the term for the constellation of India’s various Hindu nationalist groups, has been calling the shots from day one. Their posturing, utterances and actions lay bare their agenda.

There has been a spate of attacks, directly or subtly, on the minorities in several parts of the country.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the main nationalist body RSS, calls for the establishment of a Hindu ‘Rashtra’ (nation).
Bhagwat also makes derogatory remarks about Mother Teresa.
A government minister, Niranjan Jyoti, turns abusive, saying that in India one is either ‘ramzadon’ (those born of Ram) or ‘haramzadon’ (illegitimately born).
Another minister, through a circular, states that Christmas Day, December 25, should be a working day for schools (and then denies it); the Government however continues to insist that it is not a holiday for Government employees.
School text-books with an anti-minority stance are propagated by several BJP state governments.
Christians in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere continue to be attacked.
Muslims too face threats. On September 14, 2014, a BJP parliamentarian, Sakshi Maharaj, made a strong allegation that, “the Madrasas of the Muslims are teaching terror.”
On January 5, 2015, Maharaj boldly proclaimed, “the concept of four wives and 40 children will not work in India, and the time has come when a Hindu woman must produce at least four children in order to protect Hindu religion.”

Those involved in conversion must be punished with death, Maharaj said, though simultaneously arguing that “ghar wapsi,” reconversion, is not the same thing. Wait for some time, he said, and “a law will be passed in parliament in which anyone indulging in cow slaughter and conversion will be punished with the death sentence.”

“Ghar wapsi” programs in different parts of the country are aimed at reconverting those Hindus who have accepted Christianity or Islam as their faith. These programs have to be seen as a clever ploy, so when key BJP functionaries cite law-and-order issues created by resistance to reconversion, they very conveniently throw in the need to introduce an anti-conversion law for the country.

A September 2015 lynching of a Muslim man named Akhlaq because of a rumors that ‘he ate beef’ should not be seen as a spontaneous act of violence by a mob, but a well thought-out and barbaric act by people who know that they can do things with impunity.

In Gujarat, several Muslim youths have been killed by the police in what are infamously known as “encounters’. The youth were certainly innocent, and those responsible for their deaths have got away with murder.

To add fuel to the fire, those trigger-happy policemen and other terrorists belonging to the Hindutva brigade have been very conveniently released from prison, and some of the policemen have even received promotions because of their unflinching loyalty to their political bosses.

Modi himself piloted a controversial “Freedom of Religion Act” in 2003 in Gujarat, when he was at the helm of the state. It’s an anti-conversion law which can easily be rated as the most draconian piece of legislation in post-independence India.

If Modi is serious about promoting religious tolerance in India, the first thing that he would do would be to abolish this law.

The senators at the Congressional hearing cited several examples of violations of religious and civil liberties in India. An India which adheres to the principles of democracy and pluralism must demonstrate the maturity to pay heed to them, and to act on facts immediately and objectively.

Father Cedric Prakash, S.J., is a human rights activist from India. He is currently engaged with the Jesuit Refugee Service in the Middle East, working on advocacy and communications. In June 2002, he testified before USCIRF in Washington on the Gujarat carnage.

Bishops in India take dramatic steps for Christian 'untouchables'

By Nirmala Carvalho
Crux
May 16, 2016

Although Pope Francis repeatedly has expressed his preference that Catholic clergy stay out of politics, at least in the sense of explicit partisan alliances, the bishops of Tamil Nadu state in southern India have apparently decided that extreme times call for extreme measures.

Throwing any pretense of neutrality to the wind, the Tamil Nadu bishops’ conference issued a statement May 3 explicitly endorsing the rival party, known as the DMK-Congress alliance, in Monday’s legislative elections.

Just to make sure no one missed the message, the bishops had their statement read aloud at all parishes in the state ahead of the May 16 vote. They say they’re acting primarily on behalf of India’s most vulnerable people, including Christian “untouchables” under the old caste system, and in favor of ethnic and religious tolerance.

Tamil Nadu is current governed by a party known as AIADMK, which, under its charismatic female leader known as Jayalalithaa, has been in and out of power since 1991.

Father Augustin Prabhu, secretary of the Tamil Nadu bishops’ conference, explained that the conference president, Madurai Archbishop Anthony Pappusamy, signed the statement, which was written in Tamil and then translated into English.

Prabhu said the unusual decision to make an explicitly partisan endorsement was based on “the need of the hour to safeguard secular and democratic values.”

Specifically, the bishops said they were endorsing the opposition party in the state as a way of expressing several demands:

Including Dalit Christians (“untouchables”) among India’s “scheduled castes,” meaning groups that benefit from various government-sponsored affirmative action programs. At present, Christian members of the Dalits are excluded from those benefits.
Including converts to Christianity in government social programs for their respective castes. Better government pay for teachers working in institutions that serve minority communities.
Better security for minorities from harassment by “communalistic forces,” generally a euphemism for radical Hindu nationalists.
A ban on liquor and the opening of rehabilitation centers.

Xavier Arulraj, a legal expert who earned his doctorate on the Indian Constitution, said that the bishops are reacting to a real problem, which is that Dalit Christians suffer “gross discrimination” in the country.

“It’s urgent and pressing that this demand of the Tamil Nadu Christian community be made public during these assembly elections,” he told Crux.

Although Christians are generally a tiny minority in India, overall representing just 2.3 percent of the population, Arulraj said there are pockets within Tamil Nadu in which movement of Christian votes from one party to the other “could definitely make a difference.”

He emphasized that in his view, the bishops are endorsing the opposition not because they’re convinced it’s “clean,” but because it represents a “lesser evil.”

Jayalalithaa, the incumbent chief minister and AIADMK chief, has reacted to this sort of criticism aggressively, sending a letter to party workers recently insisting that she has successfully implemented a host of schemes, both short-term and long-term, to benefit families in Tamil Nadu, including “freebies” such as 44 pounds of rice for ration card holders, mixers, grinders, milk cows, and goats.

She’s also promised that women will get a 50 percent government subsidy for buying scooters or mopeds. She’s also offered a waiver on farm loans, a considerable number of units of power free of cost, and also increasing the amount of gold sold at a discount to help impoverished families cover the expenses of weddings and other family milestones.

Catholic bishop kidnapped, beaten in southern India

Nirmalo Cravalho
Crux
April 29, 2016


One of India’s leading Catholic prelates has denounced a brutal assault on a fellow Catholic bishop in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, calling it “unbelievable that such a violent atrocity is perpetrated on a high-ranking religious leader of a minority community.”

According to a news release issued April 28 and signed by Archbishop Thumma Bala of Hyderabad, 54-year-old Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah was assaulted by unidentified persons on Monday, April 25, while returning from a religious function at Karunagari in Kadapa district.

Bala’s statement says that Gallela and his driver were “blindfolded, forcibly confined and brutally attacked for several hours stretching through the night.”

The Hyderabad archbishop condemned “the ruthless manner” of the attack, saying that Gallela has “fully devoted his whole life to God and is totally dedicated to the service of the needy and marginalized.”

Gallela serves in a diocese with a Catholic population of 81,000, where 95 percent of Catholics are landless agricultural laborers made up of “Dalits,” meaning the “untouchables” under India’s ancient caste system. One priority for the diocese under Gallela’s leadership has been providing educational opportunities for children, especially child agricultural workers.

Bala also appealed to police and law enforcement authorities to probe the case and arrest those responsible for “the heinous crime, so that safety and security of minorities can be ensured and lives of leaders of religious communities be protected.”

Police officials have told Church leaders in the area that they have “good leads” and hope to make arrests in the case soon.

In an interview with the Union of Asian Catholic News on Friday, Gallela said that unidentified kidnappers came in two vehicles and took “me to an undisclosed location.”

“They hit me and punched me resulting in injuries all over my body. I did not resist,” Gallela told ucanews.com.

“Police are trying to find those behind the incident,” Gallela said. He said the kidnappers repeatedly asked him about financial transactions of the diocese.

The kidnappers demanded 5 million rupees (US$75,325) and said that since “I help so many people, I should help them too,” the bishop recounted.

“When I asked who they were, they said they are from the police, but the police does not behave like this,” he said.

The prelate said that early the next day the kidnappers let him go and left him roughly 55 miles away from his diocese is based.

“They appeared to be paid goons and non-Christians from the way they talked and behaved,” Gallela told UCAN.

It was not immediately clear whether the assault was linked to India’s recent increase in anti-Christian violence, fueled largely by Hindu extremism, but activists in the country say on average there’s one physical attack on a Christian somewhere in India every other day.

Father Anthoniraj Thumma, the executive secretary and spokesman for a group called the “Federation of Telugu Churches,” told Crux it is unclear whether the attack was “communal” in nature, which is generally how Indians refer to animosities based on ethnicity, religion, or both.

“The motive is not clear yet, we are not sure if this was a communal attack,” he said. “It could even be for money.”

Thumma said Gallela has wounds on his head and his face, which are swollen, and is receiving treatment for his injuries in his residence.

Recently, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, led two other officials in meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to power in 2014 backed by Hindu nationalists.

That meeting was taken as a sign of a possibly warming relationship between the country’s Christian minority and the political wing of the Hindu nationalists, the BJP party. The government’s response to the assault on Gallela may be viewed as a test for how serious any such improvement turns out to be.

Gallela was born into a family of teachers in 1962, and pursued his theological studies in India. He was ordained in 1989, serving as both a youth minister and a parish priest in the Diocese of Kurnool.

In the late 1990s, Gallela went to Rome for further studies at the Dominican-run Angelicum University, writing his doctoral thesis on “Christian Charity as Witnessed by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.”

From 2000 to 2004, Gallela served abroad in the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, in the United States. In 2004 he returned to India to teach in a seminary, and was named Bishop of Cuddapah by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

Latest attack on Christians in India confirms climate of fear

Nirmala Carvalho
Crux
April 19, 2016


A second attack in two months on Pentecostal Christians in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, a fast-developing region known for electricity and steel, brings into sharp focus the insecurity facing the miniscule Christian minority in India, as well as the climate of impunity for radical Hindu groups menacing them.

Over the weekend of April 16-17, a pastor, his pregnant wife and his family fled from their house in a Chhattisgarh village called Tokapal Tehsil in the Bastar district, after the house was torched by alleged members of a militant Hindu group.

Reports state that the assailants ransacked the pastor’s church, and then tried to set the family on fire when they refused to chant a cry of praise to a Hindu god.

Saturday night, the unidentified assailants barged into the house church armed with rods and knives. They also entered the church and assaulted Pastor Dinbandhu Sameli, his 7-month pregnant wife, and his daughter Roushni Vidya.

According to the reports, the attackers wielded a sword at his wife and vandalized the church. During the course of the assault, they poured gasoline on the pastor and his wife for refusing to say “Jai Sri Ram”, or “Victory to Lord Rama!”

Sameli and his family eventually managed to escape, and informed local police of the attack. The police rushed to the spot and lodged a complaint against a number of unidentified assailants.

Speaking exclusively to Crux, Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, complained of what he called the “organized attacks” in Chatiisgarh’s Tribal districts, referring to areas largely populated by “Tribals,” meaning members of India’s indigenous ethnic groups.

Long considered to stand outside the traditional caste system, Tribals tend to be the most impoverished and marginalized group in the country. Christianity has grown rapidly among the Tribals, in part because it’s seen as a form of both spiritual and social emancipation.

“These are not isolated incidents, they are well-organized attacks with a pattern to harass and intimidate the vulnerable Christian community,” Pannalal said. “This is part of a well-planned conspiracy, we condemn it and demand an impartial probe and speedy investigation in the case.”

Pannalal said that from March 2013 to 2014, there were 42 such assaults against Christians in Chhattisgarh, and in the same period from 2014 to 2015 that total rose to 51.

One chronic source of difficulty for local Christians is a group known as “Dharam Sena,” meaning “Protectors of Hinduism,” which is linked to the Vishva Hindu Parishad, one of several Hindu nationalist movements in India.

India’s current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, came into power backed by those Hindu nationalist groups, and Christians in the country generally say the harassment of minority groups has become more widespread and brazen under Modi.

Although a police investigation of the latest incident in Chhattisgarh is underway, Pannalal expressed scepticism that they’re serious about it, scoffing at claims that the attackers remain “unidentified.”

“Everyone knows everyone else in Tokapal,” he said.

The same village was in the news in March 2015, when the local arm of the VHP imposed a ban on the entry of non-Hindu missionaries, especially Christians and their “religious propaganda,” and also prohibited Christians from praying or speaking in public.

Earlier this year, 34 American lawmakers expressed concern over the treatment of Christians in the Bastar District of Chhattisgarh State, and urged the Indian government to take immediate steps to ensure that “the fundamental rights of religious minorities are protected and that the perpetrators of violence are held to account.”

Among others, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), James Lankford (R-OK), Al Franken (D-MN), Tim Scott (R-SC), Ben Sasse (R-NE), John Boozman (R-AK) and Steve Daines (R-MT). The letter was also signed by 24 members from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Addressed to Modi on February 25, the letter urged him to control the activities of militant Hindu nationalist groups such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and to instruct Indian security forces “to enforce the rule of law and to protect minority communities from religiously-motivated harassment and violence.”

Referring to the ban on non-Hindu activity imposed by the VHP, the letter said the Christian minority has been “dramatically affected.”

“Effectively, it has criminalized the practice of Christianity for an estimated 300 Christian families in the region,” it said. “Since the ban was implemented, Christians reportedly have been subjected to physical assaults, denial of government services, extortion, threats of forced expulsion, denial of access to food and water, and pressure to convert to Hinduism.”

Activists in India say that physical assaults and harassment against Christians, generally carried out by radical Hindu groups, have become depressingly routine.

John Dayal, a lay Catholic who heads a group called the “United Christian Forum for Human Rights,” says that since 1997, Christians in India have experienced between 150 and 350 cases of violence a year, meaning an average of one almost every other day.

India: meet the martyrs of Hindu fanaticism

Paolo Affatato
Vatican Insider
March 7, 2016

The words pronounced by John Barwa, Bishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in the Indian state of Orissa, at the plenary session of Indian bishops that runs until 9 March in Bangalore, were decisive. This and the slaying of the Mother Teresa nuns in Yemen, which bishops heard about during their meetings, roused them to action.

The 180 bishops of the world’s largest democracy are united in their wish to proclaim the victims of the anti-Christian massacres in Orissa in 2008 martyrs, Vatican Insider has learnt.

The ordeal which faithful in the district of Kandhamal - a district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha – went through, was a dark moment in India’s history. It was the most severe case of anti-Christian violence ever recorded. The pretext for the violence was the accusation that local Christians were responsible for the killing of a Hindu leader. The news later proved to be false. It started in August 2008 and went on for almost four months, claiming the lives of around a hundred people, while over 56,000 became refugees after being permanently sent away from their villages.

Thousands of militants went on a rampage that razed over 350 churches and Christian places of worship to the ground, destroyed around 6,500 homes, and led to the ransacking of dozens of schools and institutes. More than 40 women, some of them nuns, were raped and there was abuse and humiliation, while many were forced to convert to Hinduism.

This was a case of full-fledged “ethnic cleansing”, carefully planned by Hindu radical groups who staged pogroms purely motivated by religion. This blind violence in odium fidei could earn victims official martyr status.

The bishop of Barwa, confided to Vatican Insider that he was positively impressed by the fact that Indian bishops have shown such a strong interest in the Christians who were persecuted in Orissa,” stating that the assembly could reiterate in writing, in the final declaration issued at the end of the meetings, “its intention to take the necessary steps to proclaim these new Indian martyrs”.

The Church in Orissa has already instituted a special Day named after them, which, it has suggested, should be celebrated on an annual basis. Preparations are also being made to begin the diocesan phase of the canonization process. A group of priests and lay people are busy putting together a detailed list of the victims, with the dates and circumstances of their deaths, gathering all necessary documentation as well as eye witness statements.

“Commemorating that massacre will ensure something like that never happens again. For us it is a way to express our wish for full reconciliation,” said Ajay Kumar Singh, a priest from Kandhamal working in the commission that is gathering testimonies.

Numerous Indian bishops and cardinals have visited the district in question, expressing solidarity with the survivors. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay and President of the Indian Bishops’ Conference and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, publicly said he was in favour of “opening the cause for the martyrs of Kandhamal”.

Gracias explained that he spoke to the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints and expressed his intention to “speak to Pope Francis in person”. “The Church is sensitive to modern martyrs,” he stated, remarking that “the role of the new testimonies is very important”.

The other Indian cardinal, Baselios Cleemis, wrote a letter to Bishop Barwa stressing the following: “Assure the brothers and sisters who have suffered and continue to suffer in Orissa of the commitment and firm support of the Bishops’ Conference”. His words say a lot about how the martyr’s cause has been welcomed by the subcontinent’s hierarchy.

The official support expressed by the assembly of Indian bishops is a major help to the Catholic Church in Orissa, on many levels. If the entire Catholic Church in India supports it then the martyrdom recognition process will be smoother.

The events in Orissa were the tip of the iceberg in the context of a phenomenon that still causes concern. In 2015 over 200 incidents of violence against Christians were recorded in India. Seven Protestant pastors and one layman were killed, while a total of around 8,000 people, including women and children, were victims of violence. This is according to a report titled “India Christian Persecution”, edited by the Christian Secular Forum (CSF), an organisation that brings together faithful of different denominations.

According to the report, the perpetrators of this violence are extremist groups who promote the Hindutva (“Hinduness”) ideology , which aims to eradicate non Hindus from India. These groups are hostile towards religious minorities and endorse a campaign of hatred and defamation which leads to concrete acts of violence.

Sr. Julia Thundathil serves people with leprosy who are discard by their families and ostracized

Sami Thomas
Global Sisters Report
January 22, 2016

"This is my new life and I am indebted to my Ma [mother]," says Gundeli Bai, who has lost fingers on both hands due to leprosy. "I would have died, and my body could have been eaten by dogs long ago," says Bai, who has been living for more than two decades in an enclave for leprosy patients started by her "Ma," Sr. Julia Thundathil.


Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a skin disease considered to be a curse in India. Those infected with it are ostracized from family and society.

Thundathil, an Augustinian nun, set up the enclave for leprosy patients at Sendhwa, a village in Barwani district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Bai is among six leprosy patients who had a chance meeting with the Catholic nun in 1994. The septuagenarian woman says her parents had died early, and after she was detected with leprosy, her only sister left her on the road. At the enclave, she earned the nickname "Sundari Bai" (beautiful woman) because of her cheerful disposition.

Thundathil met Bai and others during a visit to Sendhwa. "I found them on the roadside with worms coming out of their wounds," Thundathil told Global Sisters Report. The encounter motivated her to dedicate her life to restoring dignity to lepers.

"All of them" she said, "were in their 60s and they were begging for food, as they had not eaten for days." Their wounds were attracting flies, and people often chased them away, she added.

"I approached them and inquired how they reached there, and their stories were really heartbreaking," Thundathil recalls.

"I immediately returned to the convent, collected cotton and medicines to dress their wounds and a bucket to give them baths." She bathed all of them, including Bai, the lone woman among them, and dressed their wounds and fed them there.

"As I had no place to accommodate them, I had to leave them there and return to the convent with a heavy heart," she says.


Sundari Bai is among 258 lepers from 85 families living in Harsha Nagar (joyful city), the leprosy patients' enclave.

Sub Divisional Magistrate Mahesh Badole, a top official of the district, says, "Whatever you see here is the outcome of the perseverance and hard work of Sister Julia."

The official is the president of the Harsha Nagar Trust, which Thundathil formed in 1995 for managing the enclave. The trust's constitution stipulates that its president should be the magistrate. Thundathil said she insisted on that provision because she hoped to get government help and public participation. Otherwise, the enclave would have become "purely a church-run institution," she explains.

The government allotted 7 acres of land to set up the enclave, which gets nothing else substantial for its maintenance.

Badole says Thundathil provided "proper accommodation for every family in the [enclave] with the resources she had mobilized from donors and other funding partners."

What impresses him is that the nun cleans the lepers' wounds and dresses them "one after another, every day, without any hesitation, as if caring for a small kid."

He says the residents in the enclave have survived so long "precisely on account of her dedication and hard work."

The officer, however, is skeptical that it could continue without her. "There is nobody to look after them in her absence, even when she goes out for a day or two," he explains. "There is nobody to take up her task."

Contrary to Badole's view, the nun is confident the service will continue. "It's not my project. It's God mission, and it will continue even after me," she says.

Other sisters in her congregation will take up the task after her because the mission is unique, Thundathil says.

Everyone in the enclave has stories of rejection by loved ones.

One resident, Sumaria Ganga Ram, says his family not only ostracized him, but performed last rites over him, considering him as good as dead. According to Hindu tradition, the last rites liberate the soul of the deceased from this earth.

Ganga Ram, 60, told GSR: "I lived happily with my wife and three children, but when I was detected with leprosy, they chased me away from my home."

He owned 5 acres of land in a remote village. The illiterate farmer recalls that his family members stopped serving him food and water, eventually forcing him to leave the home.

"I lived on begging for five years until I met Ma," he says. Even begging was not easy for him. "I had to hide my wounds, otherwise no one would come near me to offer alms." Even hospitals chased him when he went to them for treatment.

"I am happy here and never want to go back to my family, which abandoned me when I need them the most."

Thundathil says many people dump their leprosy-infected relatives outside the enclave at night.

One such person is Shanti Bai, a mother of five children. The 65-year-old woman (not related to Sundari Bai) said her family members dropped her off outside the enclave 21 years ago. However, she found Shiva Lova, a man who had a similar background, and married him and settled on the campus. The couple has a 19-year-old son, Chandar Singh, who is doing his course in ophthalmology in Andhra Pradesh, a state in southeastern India.

Thundathil says the trust encourages the residents to marry and lead a normal family life. The nun helps their children grow up like other children, providing education and skill development courses so they can eke out a living as adults.

"Every child born to them," she says, "is separated from the parents at the age of 5 and put into schools."

Since they cannot be admitted to nearby regular schools because of the social stigma, she sends the children to faraway places. Currently, 87 sons of leprosy victims are studying in a school managed by the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church in Itarsi, 215 miles northeast of Sendhwa. At least 33 girls are studying in Pune, the cultural capital of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, 264 miles south of Sendhwa.

The children are aged 6 to 18, and some, such as Dilip Arya, progress to work part time as teachers while attending the 12th grade.

"I have not told anyone in the school that I am the son of a leprosy couple," the 21-year-old youth told GSR. Asked why, he said, "The school management will not allow me to teach, and students also will not sit in my class."

He said he was studying in another school earlier and shared with some friends that he was the son of lepers. They stoned him and he had to be shifted to another school.

Thundathil bemoans that Indian society still cannot accept leprosy patients or their children, "despite the fact that it is a curable disease," she says. "People still look at them with contempt. It should change."

She blames ignorance and prejudice for such views, adding that her own attitude toward lepers changed only after she joined the convent.

The native of the southern state of Kerala joined the Order of St. Augustine after 10th grade in 1985 and made her first profession four years later. She took her final vows in July 1995.

Since she wanted to dedicate her life to social work, her first appointment was with the St. Augustine Social Service Society in Sendhwa. "At that time my concept of social service was restricted to visiting the poor, sick and aged," she says.

Later, in 1991 to 1994, she completed a bachelor's course in social work from Bombay University in Maharashtra (now Mumbai University). She also earned a master of social work degree in 2004 from Devi Ahilya University in Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh.

"This helped me understand that social work is not merely visiting people but transforming the lives of the poor, sick and needy." She then rejoined the congregation's social work department and started working among the poor.

Sr. Julia Thundathil with Shiv Lova, a leprosy patient in Harsha Nagar. (GSR photo / Saji Thomas) She met the six lepers during one of those visits. "Until then I was not much aware of the plight of lepers," she recalls.

She had her share of hardships on her way to this stage. Initially, the congregation – used to more traditional ways – was not enthusiastic about her mission. But they learned to value her work and appreciate her.

In 2000, she was struck with breast cancer at the peak of her activities. The disease was detected at the critical third stage and she underwent immediate surgery. "I still have pain in the body as fallout from the operation," she says.

The disease prompted her to expand her work, and she began working with differently abled persons.

A survey she conducted in the district a few years ago revealed that about 20,000 people among a population of 1.4 million were disabled.

The nun has formed a network of self-help groups whose members visit the homes of disabled people and counsel their families to accept them as a blessing rather than a curse. She appointed one caretaker for each family who would help build their self-esteem. These self-managed groups are composed of poor community people helping themselves out of adverse circumstances through financial planning under the guidance of experienced volunteers.

More than 150 self-help groups have been set up to assist 1,800 people with disabilities. "Work is in progress to link the entire 20,000 disabled under one umbrella," says Sr. Navya Thomas, an Augustinian nun who assists Thundathil in her ministry.

"We have also formed a Disabled Persons Organization to bring together every differently abled person and educate them about their rights and responsibility. They will get special training for livelihood projects so that they don't have to rely on the mercy of others," says Thomas.

About 1,800 disabled persons have been trained so far in tailoring, weaving, and spice and clothing production. Each person earns an average of 300 rupees (about U.S. $4.50) every day. "This gives them confidence and hope to lead a dignified life," Thomas says.

Thomas reports that Thundathil recently led the congregation to launch community health intervention and HIV/AIDS screening, awareness and control programs.

"We also work among the tuberculosis patients in this backward tribal-dominated district," Thomas adds.

Indian Christian elite condemn 'sinister discrimination'

Sean Smith
The Tablet
November 2, 2015

Christian leaders in India have strongly condemned growing intolerance in the country towards non Hindus and “sinister attempts” to abolish positive discrimination policies that reserved jobs and services for those from lower castes.

“[We] as Christians in unequivocal terms denounce the growing intolerance in the country,” the statement signed by influential educators, clergy, a former police chief and the archbishop of Gujarat.

“We also denounce the sinister attempts to do away with reservation policy and ultimately the attempt to undermine the Constitution of India; we denounce the planned move to utilise religion for politico-economic benefits; we denounce the well orchestrated efforts to use government machinery to achieve ones evil ends; we denounce all the efforts to divide the nation into fiefdom of some elements.”

“We denounce all the attempts to erode scientific temper and scholarship by meddling with the education system of the country,” the letter said.

“We are in a special way concerned at how the Indigenous Adivasi People in our country are being coerced to leave their traditional nature-based religious beliefs and practices and are subjected to so-called ‘ghar vapsi’ by some hindutva elements thus ushering in disharmony within their communities. Under this pretext, they are being alienated from their natural habitat and resources.”

The ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has denied that it has any intention of abolishing the reservation policy of the country, which since 1950 has seeked to address the rampant discrimination there is in the country. But a number of senior politicians have called for positive discrimination to end.

The statement was signed by the Principal of St. Xavier's College, in Kolkata, Fr. Felix Raj, along with a former police chief of Karnataka Francis Colaso, Archbishop Thomas Macwan of Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and writer and Christian activist John Dayal.

India: The Hindu woman who risked her life to save a group of nuns

Paolo Affatato
Vatican Insider
August 25, 2015



She put her life on the line to save Christians. Satyabhama Nayak is a Hindu woman who opened her doors to a group of nuns and hid them in the midst of the anti-Christian pogroms that raged across the Indian state of Orissa in August 2008.

In the district of Kandhamal, in Orissa, faithful were rounded up, beaten and became the victims of punitive expeditions, which forced them to abandon their homes and properties amid a wave of violence triggered by Hindu extremist groups. Religious hatred turned into a full-on manhunt with tragic consequences: more than 400 villages were “cleansed” of all Christians; 5,600 homes and 296 churches were burnt, 100 people died (but the government only recognises 56 of these deaths), thousands were wounded, a number of women were raped, 56,000 people were displaced. One of the most despicable of crimes, was the rape of sister Meena Barwa by a number of men. She was then forced by her persecutors to walk through the streets naked as a sort of trophy symbolising the men’s victory.

Seven years on, the Christian community complains that the insufficient administration of justice and political complicity have led to a significant number of guilty individuals going unpunished.

According to the figures published by the local Church, the police has approved 1,541 out of the 3,232 criminal complaints filed by Christians. Of these, only 828 cases were actually taken to trial. In 169 cases, legal procedures ended with the full acquittal of 1,597 defendants because key witnesses were often subjected to threats and intimidation. And while in 86 cases the sentences handed down were very light, 90 other cases are still in the investigation phase but as time passes, the chances of gathering irrefutable proof are lessening.

Since then, every 25 August, the symbolic date when the violence broke out, the Christian community in Orissa celebrates a special “Day of Remembrance”, organising conferences, public demonstrations, peace marches and prayer vigils in order to keep this dark chapter of Indian history fresh in everyone’s minds.

According to John Barwa, Catholic archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, “justice means obtaining compensation, rebuilding houses, the possibility to return to one’s origins. Christian citizens are asking to be treated like everyone else, according to the principles of equality.”

It has to be said that alongside the negative experiences of Hindu extremists persecuting Christian communities, there are also situations where different communities and faiths peacefully co-exist in Orissa. In recent months, the Christian Forum of Sambalpur, another district of Orissa, sent a memorandum to the state governor, S.C. Jamir, expressing "profound gratitude to the administration of the district of Sambalpur for having enforced the law, ensuring peace and security to the Christian communities and other minorities in recent years”. The Forum recalls that Christians “are compassionate, kind, humble" and have always contributed to social harmony.

On the anniversary of the massacres that will leave an indelible mark on Christians in Eastern India, the story of Satyabhama Nayak comes to the fore again in commemoration of that suffering and draw people’s attention back to the seed of goodness that lies within human beings, regardless of religious belief, ethnicity, language or nationality.

“The nuns from the Balliguda convent rushed over to my house as the rioters milled around nearby. Seven nuns had fled walking through the countryside. Some were wounded and they were all terrified. I was speechless and I asked my grandson to find out what the upheaval was all about,” recalls Satyabhama in a moving testimony.

“I was scared and prayed to God to keep me and the nuns safe because extremists showed no mercy towards those who helped Christians,” she continued. “We learnt that one nun was found in the home of a Hindu man and she had been raped. I tried to calm the nuns and we hid them in the sheep pen.”

The woman concluded by saying: “One of my neighbours warned me: the rioters were after Christians who were hiding in Hindu homes. If you want to spare your life, get rid of those nuns. I said I did not want to. Whether Hindu or Christian, we are all human beings. The next day we snuck into the forest and stayed there. There were Christian men and boys with the nuns. After three fear-filled days, the police finally arrived. God’s Providence helped us and we saved ourselves.”

Sisters in India discuss how attacks, rapes affecting their ministry

Jose Kavi
Global Sisters Report
August 20, 2015


Christians in India seem to be jittery these days. They feel helpless amid unprecedented attacks they have been facing for some time now.

On June 20, a Catholic nun in her late 40s was gang-raped in the central Indian town of Raipur. No arrests have taken place even after almost two months. In March, another nun in her 70s faced a similar tragedy in an eastern India state. The police have arrested Bangladesh nationals for that crime.

As usual, church groups, including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, protested by issuing statements of condemnation and demanding immediate arrests of the culprits. They noted certain impunity in the increasing attacks on church workers and institutions. The administration, they alleged, does little to check such incidents.

In India, where rape is the fourth most common crime against women — after domestic violence, assaults with intent “to outrage the modesty of a woman” and abduction — it should come as no surprise that Catholic nuns are among the victims. Some have called the attacks “deliberate attempts” to intimidate the Christian community. Others, however, say the violence is a reaction because women religious appear to the public as independent women living with property, money and status.

The attacks have rattled Catholic nuns in India. Many shared their anguish and frustration about the violence with Global Sisters Report.

Sr. Rita Pinto, who heads India’s more than 100,000 Catholic nuns, said her immediate reaction to the latest rape was, “Not again.” She called such attacks “inhuman atrocities” on nuns who work for the poor and marginalized and a betrayal to the Indian Constitution that pledges to protect every citizen. Pinto, a Society of Sacred Heart nun, is the president of the women’s section of the Conference of Religious India, the national association of Catholic Religious.

Presentation Sr. Shalini Mulackal, who teaches systematic theology at Delhi’s Vidyajyoti College of Theology and is president of the Indian Theological Association, believes the June 20 rape was a planned act “definitely aimed” to scare local Christians and those working for their advancement.

Mulackal justifies the church reaction to a nun’s rape, saying it perceives such an attack on sisterss as violence against itself. However, she wants the church also to protest when other women are attacked.

The Presentation nun narrated how a top church leader explained at a July protest rally in Delhi that rape deprives a nun of her virginity, the most precious gift she can offer Christ. Such views, the nun theologian said, stem from a “patriarchal myth” that reduces women, even nuns, to their bodies. “Virginity is of the heart primarily, and the physical virginity is only a sign of that deeper virginity. Sisters who are raped against their will do not lose their virginity,” Mulackal asserts.

She further adds that, in a patriarchal society like India, women are raped to teach a lesson to their family and community. The Raipur case, she says, is part of a deliberate move to attack church workers in Chhattisgarh state where right-wing Hindu groups find various ways to oppose the church. The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party) has been ruling the state for more than a decade.

Pinto too says Catholic religious women are paying the price for their gender in a country where a woman is attacked every two minutes on some level, according to 2012 National Crimes Record data on crimes against women. People dedicated to God had earlier enjoyed respect and non-interference until recently, she said. “The present situation smacks of some viciousness and a kind of a hate campaign.”

However, Chhotebhai (a name meaning “little brother”), who is former president of the All India Catholic Union, says the nuns are attacked not because they are women, but because they are perceived as “missionaries with a sinister agenda” to convert gullible Hindus to Christianity. Chhotebhai’s union is the largest lay association in the country.

Why do such attacks take place?

Chhotebhai sees “a deliberate attempt” to intimidate Christians in India, because they are soft targets.

Pinto suspects a systematic plan is at work to target the church and its workers. “It seems all this is done with impunity because there is an unspoken acceptance and even encouragement from the powers that be. In spite of concrete evidence, no steps are taken to punish the perpetrators of such ghastly crimes,” she bemoans.

Mary Bambina Sr. Lee Jose, executive editor of Companion India, a monthly magazine for church leaders, says certain groups do not want “the poor uplifted and enjoying their God-given rights.”

Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a Catholic laywoman theologian in India, asserts that people see nuns living alone and keeping property and money.

Gajiwala opposes viewing the attacks on nuns as a separate issue. “What makes nuns different? Why is the rape of a Christian girl or woman not seen as an attack on the church? Why do we wake up only when nuns are raped and not when women are raped?” she asked in the social media group of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights.

Every day, 93 women are raped in the country, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The latest data shows the number of rapes was 33,707 in 2013, up from 24,923 in the previous year. However, most rape cases are never reported in India, it says.

A Dalit (formerly known as from the “untouchable” caste) woman was raped by four men in Bihar just eight days after the Raipur incident, but there was hardly any public outcry against the crime.

Gajiwala says all women, not just nuns, suffer after a rape. Indian society, she explains, views the rape victim as bringing shame to her family and sometimes ostracizes her. Women who dare to report rape are forced to re-live the ordeal answering questions from lawyers and the media, she says.

Impact on a rape victim and her order

The Raipur victim’s congregation, Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, said the incident has hurt them deeply. “We could not talk to each other for days,” said one nun on condition of anonymity in July.

The victim, she added, has not recovered from the trauma. Adding to her woe is the regular quizzing by police teams and other groups — so much so that she cringes upon seeing new policewomen who come on rotation to provide her security.

The victim recounted to her community members what happened to her on that fateful night. She woke up around 2 a.m. hearing some commotion and saw two masked men inside her room. She was on night duty at a maternity clinic for the poor. Two girls, her assistants, slept in another room. She tried to defend herself but the intruders overpowered her, forced some pills down her throat, and one of them covered her mouth with his hands. She could not shout for help and soon fell unconscious. Her superior found her the next morning semi-conscious, semi-clad and tied to a post of her cot.

The attackers, who entered the clinic by cutting through a window grille, did not take away cash or goods. “What was their motive, we do not know,” the nun said and added that they suspect it was a planned act to intimidate them.

The victim says she was raped, but the police and the administration insist she was only molested (a crime known as “outraging the modesty of a woman,” or sexual assault without penetration), giving the impression that the government wants to downplay the incident.

“The police are trying to find out how the sister and the girls did not hear the noise of cutting the grilles. They are creating artificial noise now and asking them if they heard such noise at that night. It sounds absurd but that is what they are doing,” the nun said.

The church’s response

Some people find the church responses to the incidents peripheral.

Sr. Lissy Maruthanakuzhy, a freelance journalist, recalls that the church had gone silent on the murder of two nuns in Mumbai 25 years ago after newspapers alleged that they had been sexually active. “But the truth is that their hearts are still bleeding, seeking justice from the church and the government.”

Chhotebhai says the allegation led to a call for exhuming the nuns’ bodies to ascertain the facts. However, the church leaders “balked at the idea, and the cloud of doubts remained. This was a gross mishandling of the situation and the crime was never resolved,” he wrote in MatttersIndia.com.

Sr. Talisha Nadukudiyil, secretary of the bishops’ Council for Women, bemoans that the church protests seem to fall on “deaf ears” as attacks are repeated. “What sort of consolation can we promise to a devastated nun and her community?” asks the Sisters of the Destitute nun. The church should protest all incidents of violence against women in India, she stated.

Women religious remain committed to their charisms, work

Chhotebhai says panic could spread if such incidents grow in frequency, “which is exactly what right-wing forces want.”

Pinto claims that nuns have realized the vulnerability of the work situation. “What has happened to one can happen to me. However, I do not experience panic but a realization of the need to be cautious,” she says and adds that she can no more take for granted the freedom and trust nuns used to enjoy.

Mulackal says most nuns are willing to suffer, even die, because they have opted to work for Christ. She cites the case of Sr. Valsa John, who was axed to death by a mob in 2011 because of her organizing work for tribal people displaced by mines. When she started receiving threatening calls, she chose not to move out.

However, the recent incidents have alerted the nuns to be cautious. Jose says she takes “extreme care” to avoid being alone after evening. She does not answer phone calls from strangers and avoids receiving gifts.

Mulackal says nuns will be prudent in their dealings but continue to do what they are called to do without fear. “If we need to protect ourselves, it would be good if we train ourselves in some skills, like learning karate,” she says.

Asked if congregations should close convents in remote and isolated places, all nuns GSR spoke to were emphatic in saying, “No.” However, everyone stressed the need to build local support.

Rather than closing the convents, Mulackal wants the nuns to strengthen themselves by taking legal measures and accepting help from neighbors. “We must also have a list of local resources on which we can immediately fall upon in case of necessity,” she said. “In any case, if we are really close to the people, they will protect us.”

Nuns working at the grassroots level are also determined to stay on.

Sr. Jancy Vattakanal, superior general of Deen Bandhu Samaj (Society of the Friends of the Destitute), a Chhattisgarh-based congregation, told GSR in March that many of her nuns work in villages under the control of Maoists, outlaws who wage war against the government.

“As we are caught between the Maoists and the police, we have to answer both forces like the villagers,” she said.

She is worried about sending sisters to those areas because their safety is unpredictable. “The only assurance we have is the hope that nothing would happen to them since they are sisters and priests. So far, no negative incident has happened to Catholic priests and nuns in Maoist areas.”

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read full story and see more pictures at Global Sisters Report

To preserve the memory of India's martyrs, someone will have to pick up the tab

John L. Allen, Jr.
Crux
August 2, 2015


Memory might not be the end of justice for the victims of persecution, but it’s surely the beginning. If no one even remembers their suffering, there’s little basis to hope for anything else good to happen.

In Catholicism, the primary way to preserve the memory of martyrs is by beatifying and canonizing them, meaning declaring them saints.

A crystal-clear case for that honor can be made for the martyrs of Kandhamal in India, where violent anti-Christian pogroms in 2008 left some 100 people dead. The victims were largely Dalits, “untouchables” under the caste system, and “tribals,” meaning India’s original inhabitants — precisely the sort of people on the periphery Pope Francis so often extols.

Today their sainthood cause is stalled, not because of a lack of sanctity, but rather, a lack of means.

There’s no question about the heroism of their deaths. They were often burned alive, hacked into pieces, even disfigured by acid. Women were raped, and men were tortured. In one case, a Christian man had his genitals cut off and his intestines ripped out, with his attackers wearing them around like a macabre trophy.

The violence was carried by out by radical Hindus wielding clubs, swords, and torches, shouting war cries that were often chillingly to the point, such as, “Kill Christians!”

Seeing these martyrs of Kandhamal declared saints is “my wish and my people’s wish,” said Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the diocese where Kandhamal is located, adding that it has universal support among India’s Catholic bishops.

Roughly half the 100 Christians who died were Catholics, making them eligible for a sainthood cause. Yet Barwa, who’s also the uncle of a nun raped amid the mayhem, said there is no such process underway.

“We don’t have the personnel or the money for the research that’s required,” he said. “This process needs a lot of documentation, capturing the real stories.”

Barwa explained that the logistical challenges are compounded by the fact that the victims were often illiterate and lacked even basic records such as birth certificates.

“If I employ someone [to prepare a sainthood cause], I’d have to pay them,” Barwa said. “It’s a specialized job, and not just anybody can do it. I’m not able to employ anyone, and my priests don’t have the skills.”

The story of the Rev. Bernard Digal, the lone Catholic priest to die in the 2008 riots, illustrates the memories at risk of being lost.

Retired Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who was in charge of the diocese at the time, said Digal was in Kandhamal when the house of a parish priest he was visiting was attacked. They fled to a nearby forest, where they remained three days without food and water. Eventually Digal made a break for it, leaving in a jeep with his driver.

He and the driver were captured. Digal was beaten with crowbars and sticks and stripped naked, then doused with kerosene as the mob attempted to burn him alive. He tried to run away, but his attackers beat him again until he fell to the ground, blood flowing from his head, and lost consciousness.

Thinking he was dead, Cheenath said, the mob abandoned Digal’s naked body.

His driver came looking for him in the morning, and later informed the police. Along with a few villagers, the police took Digal to a local public health center. Eventually he was airlifted to a Mumbai hospital.

Digal died two months later, on Oct. 25, 2008. Doctors had operated on him to remove a blood clot from his brain, caused by the beating. His lungs collapsed, he fell into a coma, and he passed away.

Digal was 48. He’s one of seven victims memorialized on a pillar in the village of Tiangia, which was blessed by Barwa in February.

Cheenath said Digal’s story is the story of all those who perished.

“These 100 people, they are all martyrs,” he said, expressing hope that one day “there will be a feast for the martyrs of Kandhamal,” and that the pope himself will come to India to preside over a sainthood ceremony.

It’s a beguiling dream, in part because the agony is far from over.

Just last week, there were unconfirmed reports that two more Dalit Christians were gunned down by paramilitary forces on a hilltop where they had gone in search of a cellphone signal, in an effort to phone their children who had moved away to look for work.

Such killings are common, observers say, in a context in which police and paramilitaries are allied with militant Hindus and local elites.

“They look for any excuse to kill us,” said the Rev. Ajaya Kumar Singh, a Catholic priest who heads the Odisha Forum for Social Action.

As a result, canonizing Digal and the other martyrs of Kandhamal would not merely be an act of historical justice. It would also be a way of shining a spotlight on what continues to be a danger zone.

Barwa said it would be a “great joy” if someone were to help defray the cost of a sainthood process, and he would be “delighted” to accept.

In sum, the case for a halo for the martyrs of Kandhamal seems a slam-dunk. The question now is whether somebody — perhaps affluent Christians in the West, whose social standing generally insulates them from such risks — will help cover the tab.

* * * * *

read more on anti-Christian persecution in India at Crux

India tolerant? its Christians beg to differ

John L. Allen, Jr.
Crux
July 19, 2015



At the level of sweeping stereotypes, most Westerners tend to think of India and its dominant religion, Hinduism, as bastions of tolerance. Ever since the Beatles traveled to an ashram to study meditation, there’s been a chic about Indian spirituality as the ultimate in “all paths lead to the same place.”

One might profitably ask Christians in today’s India, however, whether those stereotypes have anything to do with their reality. The answer you’re likely to get is, “Are you kidding?”

In truth, India’s small Christian minority has felt under the gun for a long time, and they say things have become considerably worse since a political party called the BJP, backed by fundamentalist Hindu movements, swept to power in May 2014.

(Calling the Christian presence “small,” by the way, is relative. Christians comprise around 2.5 percent of the national population, though some put it as high as 4 to 6 percent if house churches and independent movements are counted. India is so huge, however, that even the low-end estimate works out to almost 25 million people.)

Recently an Indian website was created to collect reports of anti-Christian persecution, called Speak Out Against Hate, and it claims that so far in 2015 there’s an average of at least one violent episode every week.

Here are some typical examples:

On July 7, a band of Hindu radicals burst into the Jeevan Jyoti Convent School in Isagarh, Ashoknagar, hassling a Catholic nun and beating up a priest. A police report was filed, but so far no action has been taken.

On June 28, in Adoni, Kurnool, the Christu Calvary Konda Church was attacked by radicals shouting Hindu nationalist slogans. The mob attempted to assault the pastor and his wife, who were forced to hide until police arrived.

A week before, a Catholic shrine in Tangasseri, Kollam, was desecrated. The assailants left behind posters using derogatory language about Christian clergy, and also threatening to bomb a nearby shopping center affiliated with the local Catholic diocese.

In response to such incidents, a cross-section of Christian leaders in January launched a new movement called the United Christian Forum for Human Rights. Lay activist John Dayal presented the initiative at a Delhi news conference.

“2014 was a particularly traumatic year,” Dayal said. “It was conceived in sin, in a campaign based on hate.”

Yet Dayal stressed that the problems facing Christians hardly began with the BJP’s resounding victory in last year’s national elections.

“Since 1997, we have been recording between 150 and 350 cases of violence a year,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who runs the government … the non-state actors and the problems with the criminal justice system remain the same.”

For many Christians in the country, a cataclysm that unfolded in the eastern Indian state of Orissa (Odisha) in August 2008 still colors the way they see their situation.

Early that month, a revered Hindu spiritual leader named Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was assassinated, most likely by Maoist guerillas. Radical Hindus, however, blamed his death on Christians and unleashed their rage on the local Christian population.

In an orgy of violence that quickly spread to 600 villages, half of the 100,000 Christians in the area found themselves homeless, forced to seek refuge in a nearby forest. Some 120 Christians are believed to have been killed, some of them hacked to death by machete-wielding radicals. Three hundred churches were burned along with 6,000 private homes.

During the rampage at least three women were gang-raped, including a Catholic nun. The tragedy was compounded during the exile in the forest, as more Christians died of either starvation or snakebite while waiting to go home.

Dayal said Christians are still waiting for justice to be done for the victims of Orissa.

“Out of 120 killed, there have been only two convictions,” he said. “One was a life sentence for murder, and one just seven years for abduction … as if nobody killed the rest of them.”

While anti-Christian persecution is a global problem, the form it takes in India is especially noteworthy for three reasons.

Religious prejudice is often bound up with ethnicity and poverty. India’s Christians are disproportionately drawn from the ranks of the Dalits, meaning the “untouchables” under the old caste system, and are therefore likely to be poor. By some estimates, 60 to 75 percent of the country’s Christians are Dalits, making them easy targets.

Anti-Christian persecution isn’t all about Islam. The truth is that Muslim radicalism in places such as Iraq and Syria could disappear tomorrow, and that wouldn’t mean that Christians elsewhere are safe.

It’s not just rogue states such as North Korea where Christians are at risk. India is a vibrant democracy and among the emerging superpowers of the early 21st century, with a constitution that guarantees religious freedom, though that’s hardly the reality on the ground.

Dayal says that despite the threats, India’s Christians do not intend to passively accept their plight.

“We claim our rights as children of God and as citizens of the state,” he said, “with the Bible in one hand and the constitution in the other.”

For all kinds of reasons, including India’s capacity to use its growing power wisely, everyone – not just Christians – has a stake in hoping that Dayal and his fellow believers prevail in that effort.

India's minority Christians struggle against violence and persecution

Jose Kavi
National Catholic Reporter
May 29, 2015


The shrill sound of his car alarm awoke Fr. Eugene Moon Lazarus around 3 a.m. on March 16. As he rushed out of his room, three other priests living in the presbytery also came out with puzzled looks.

They found some strangers running away from Lazarus' car, which was parked inside the church premises. The car doors were open. They also found at least four broken statues of Mary and one of baby Jesus.

In the report he filed with local police, Lazarus said what pained them most was seeing a dog leash tied to the neck of life-sized statue of Mary.

"The attackers have not only broken the images inside the church, but they have played with the sentiments of Christian community," he said.

Lazarus is the parish priest of St. Mary's Church in Agra, a city in Uttar Pradesh state famous for the Taj Mahal.

Such incidents have been reported from various parts of India over the past few months.

A month earlier, a Catholic nun in her 70s was gang-raped and a convent was looted in Ranaghat town in West Bengal state.

Before that, five churches and a convent school were targeted in New Delhi, the nation's capital. The first was on Dec. 1, 2014, when a mysterious fire gutted St. Sebastian's Church in Dilshad Garden, an eastern suburb.

A statement from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India after the Agra attack said such incidents are not "mere acts of vandalism, but well planned dastardly acts, aimed at deeply wounding the religious feelings and creating a feeling of insecurity among the minorities." The attackers, the bishops said, wanted to inflict "maximum shame and disgrace" on Christians. The bishops demanded swift action against the culprits.

In a week, police arrested three people -- all Muslims -- in connection with the Agra incident. They said April 24 that the incident was the result of unrequited love between a Muslim boy and a Catholic girl.

Those arrested in the nun's gang rape case were Muslim, which caused some Christian leaders, who say the incidents have been carried out by Hindu radical groups, to believe the incidents are deliberate attempts to put India's two prominent religious minority groups -- Muslims and Christians -- at loggerheads.

According to John Dayal, a Catholic lay leader and former member of the prime minister's National Advisory Council, the police seemed to take special care not to identify any Hindu as a suspect.

"Criminals can come from anywhere," he told NCR. "They can be hired by anyone. The police are often wrong. They arrest Muslim youth for being terrorists but have to release them because their version is rejected by the court."

The arrests of Muslims help the government not to act against the Hindu radicals, he said.

Dayal and others say Christians have faced persecution since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to office a year ago.

Modi is a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, a national volunteer organization), the umbrella organization blamed for a wide range of sectarian riots in India. It was founded in 1925 to unite Hindus, counter British colonialism in India, and suppress Muslim separatism. The British colonists had banned it once and the Indian government three times, first in 1948 when a former RSS member assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.

Dayal said while many see RSS cadres' hands in the recent attacks on churches, the RSS is keen to prove the Christian complaint of persecution as false and that no Hindu is involved. They want to show that the allegation of Christian persecution is a ploy to collect funds from within and outside the country, he said.

But many academics, social activists and political leaders blame the Hindu radicals for the attacks.

A group of them drawn from all religions staged a protest in New Delhi on March 19, the day the Modi government completed 300 days in office. They labeled the church attacks as part of Hindu radicals' systematic attempts to intimidate Christians under the new government.

They released a report that listed at least 43 deaths in more than 600 cases of violence, 149 targeting Christians and the rest targeting Muslims, during those 300 days. The group said India witnessed several cases of desecration of churches, assault on pastors, and illegal police detention of church workers in the same period.

Dayal, who helped write the report, said the actual number of anti-Christian incidents is higher because many cases go unreported. The RSS and organizations affiliated to it became more active after Modi came to power, he said.

"There is also impunity," he added.

Speeches by Hindu leaders and some ministers against Christians and Muslims give credence to such a view.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat often says that every Indian is a Hindu, and minorities will have to learn their place in the country. "Hindutva [Hinduness] is the identity of India and it has the capacity to swallow other identities," he said in August. "We just need to restore those capacities."

On April 20, Munna Kumar Shukla of the Hindu Mahasabha (the grand council of Hindus) justified the attacks on churches, saying such acts do not violate law because churches are no more places of worship, but factories for converting Hindus to Christianity. In fact, he said the federal government should protect and award those targeting churches.

Shukla's remarks not only disproved the police and government stand on those incidents, but unnerved the Catholic bishops. They issued a statement April 24 condemning Shukla's remarks as "highly insinuating and derogatory," saying they contribute to an increase in violence against Christians and other minorities.

"All such attacks indicate a sinister pattern and evil design calculated to denigrate and defame the Christians, peace-loving and law abiding citizens of India," the statement said.

R.K. Chattree, a Hindu social activist who attended an April 23 protest rally against the Agra incident, said all attacks in the past six months had the same modus operandi, which he said "indicates the role of the same group in all incidents."

The Indian Constitution allows citizens to profess, practice and propagate the religion of their choice. The constituent assembly that drafted the constitution from 1948 to 1950 rejected Hindu nationalists' demands to make India a theocratic nation, like neighboring Pakistan. The drafters chose secularism as the national identity to allow equal respect and treatment for all religions.

This was done despite India being overwhelmingly Hindu. The national census in 1951 recorded 84.1 percent Hindus in a population of 361 million. Muslims were 9.8 percent, Christians 2 percent and Sikhs 1.9 percent. The rest were Buddhists, Jains, animists and atheists. Half a century later in 2001, Hindus were 80.5 percent of just over a billion Indians. Muslims were 13.4 percent, Christians 2.3 percent and Sikhs 1.9 percent.

RSS and other groups say that the Hindu population has gone down partly because of Christians indulged in fraudulent conversion of the poor and gullible Hindus. So much so, its chief found fault even with Mother Teresa.

Bhagwat told a meeting Feb. 23 that the world-renowned nun's prime motive for service was to convert the poor and destitute to Christianity and that her selfish aim devalued the virtues of a noble cause. He also said he had seen forced conversion of tribal people by Catholics when he was working in India's northeastern region.

Such statements have emboldened people to organize religious rituals to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism through what they call "ghar wapsi" (homecoming) at various places in the country.

The 300-day report says these divisive activities have diverted the government from fulfilling its election promise. Modi, the report notes, came to power riding a promise of development. Development remains a mirage even after 11 months, but the hate has spread across the country, it adds.

Navaid Hamid, general secretary of the Movement for Empowerment of Muslim Indians, said at the March 19 protest that Hindu radicals and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party) "do not believe in diversity and wish to have everyone follow their own dictates." This has brought the basic tenets of the Indian Constitution -- secularism and pluralism -- "constantly under attack, and minorities are a part of that," the Muslim leader said.

Prime Minister Modi's initial silence on the attacks baffled many because when he took the oath of office, he called for a 10-year moratorium on sectarian violence. He not only refused to reprimand his Cabinet colleagues for making anti-minority remarks, the 300-day report says, but declared Christmas as a "Good Governance Day" to honor former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was born Dec. 25.

Some Christian leaders at the March 19 protest told NCR that Modi reprimanded them for being misled by newspaper reports when they complained about the church attacks. They said he refused to acknowledge Christians were under attack.

However, he relented after his party suffered a defeat in the election for Delhi legislative assembly. (The BJP could win just three seats in the 70-member house.) Modi addressed Christians for the first time Feb. 17, nearly nine months after he took over as a prime minister.

"We cannot accept violence against any religion on any pretext, and I strongly condemn such violence. My government will act strongly in this regard," he said.

But Modi's assurance seems to have little impact as the attacks on churches continue and the Hindu hard-liners indulge in hate speeches.

Meanwhile, people such as Jayanta Roy Chowdhury, a New Delhi-based journalist and a Hindu, urge Christians not to become defensive because India will remain a secular country. Chowdhury told NCR that Modi and his cohorts do not have the support they think they have because Indians generally do not like radicals.

Chowdhury, however, wants all religions to curb "crazy evangelists" among them.

Nirendra Dev, also a Hindu journalist in the capital and an admirer of Modi, said he does not believe Christians are being targeted. The attacks are incidents with a peculiar pattern, he told NCR. He said he blames Christians and Hindus for the present situation.

Hindus, as the majority community, should have acted more responsibly, he said, adding that a substantial section of Christians had turned anti-BJP and backed the opposition Congress.

Fr. Ajay Kumar Singh, a social activist in Odisha, an eastern Indian state, said anti-Christian violence is not a recent phenomenon. Odisha witnessed one of the worst attacks against Indian Christians: An estimated 100 Christians were killed and some 50,000 rendered homeless in monthslong violence that began Aug. 24, 2008, a day after Maoists killed a 90-year-old Hindu sage and his five companions.

It was also in Odisha that Hindu radicals burned to death Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons, ages 10 and 6, in January 1999. A few months later, the same radicals killed Fr. Arul Doss of Balasore diocese.

Singh said he blames the early RSS leaders for such "alarming situations" by identifying Muslims and Christians as internal enemies for subjugation and elimination.

"I am concerned about the India's survival as a secular and democratic nation," the priest told NCR. "It is not just the minorities' life at stake, but the very fabric of the nation."