Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Fears Mount for India's Christians as Violence Spreads

Christian Homes Burned in Orissa

Hindu-Christian tension mounted in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, where 14 churches were attacked on Sunday. UCA News’s T. S. Thomas reports, ‘Police drove around 500 protesting Catholics inside a church and locked them in from outside … In another incident, police entered a church and beat Catholics praying for atonement for church desecration.’ On Monday evening, a church was attacked in the southwestern state of Kerala, the area of India evangelized by St. Thomas the Apostle. India, which has fewer than 20 million Catholics – the US has nearly 70 million – has more seminarians than any other nation in the world and more seminarians than all of North America and Central America combined. Within India, Kerala produces the greatest number of seminarians. In Orissa, where recent anti-Christian violence began, 25,000 Catholics are still hiding in the forest. At the request of the Italian foreign minister, the persecution of Christians in Orissa will be discussed at the Sept. 29-30 summit meeting between EU member nations and India.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is sad to see that VHP/ Bajrang Dal are getting the largest contributions from US. This money supplied from US is used to bring down Churches and attack tribals in India.

The BJP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and VHP which are anti-christian are a bigger danger than terrorist organisations. They must be banned and their fund raising in western countries should be stopped.

Everything should be done by western nations to stop atrocities agains Christians in India.

Time to wake up and stand up to call of sane and secular Indians!