Indian bishops urge government to end violence directed at Christians

Published: 2005-06-22

NEW DELHI, India (CNS) -- India's Catholic bishops are urging federal and state governments to take steps to stem increasing violence against Christians in the country. The government must take "serious note of the recent spurt of violence against the church and its personnel," the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India said in a June 18 statement, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The statement was released after five incidents of violence against Christians and church property were reported in the first half of June. The bishops' conference appealed to authorities to immediately probe the incidents and to act against the "culprits who have been destroying churches and physically assaulting religious women and intimidating many others." On June 12, vandals desecrated the Marian shrine at the cathedral in Jabalpur and the Infant Jesus Shrine at Holy Trinity Church in the same town. Two days earlier, a dozen men broke into the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Raxaul, a town in Bihar state. That incident occurred five days after robbers looted a Sisters of Charity of Nazareth convent in Sokho, a parish in Bhagalpur Diocese, also in Bihar. On June 11, a Hindu group attacked a "Bible-reading session" in Mumbai. Three American preachers were wounded and then deported from India early June 14 on charges of violating visa regulations. Christian groups have condemned the deportation, saying Hindu extremists have developed a tactic of physically attacking missionaries based on trumped-up charges of illegal conversions and then getting the missionaries deported.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .