Bishops plan defense against anti–Christian elements

The recent plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India (CBCI), bishops held two unscheduled meetings to study recent attacks on Christians and to combat the false accusations against the community.

The Bishops discussed proposals to coordinate the Church's civil and political activities to counter increasing anti–Christian violence in the country.

Last year, on a Christmas Eve, Hindu radicals attacked the Christian minority in Orissa, burning their properties and injuring many.

Archbishop of Ranchi and outgoing president of the CBCI, Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo, said that attackers had looted and burned Christian churches and homes. “What they could not carry, they heaped them together and burned," he said, describing the destruction as “diabolic.”

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who heads the Archdiocese of Cuttack–Bhubaneswar narrated how the seething radicals forcibly shaved the head of a Protestant pastor and extensively disrupted the Christmas celebrations.

Archbishop Cheenath urged India’s bishops not to treat the violence as isolated incidents, but instead to plan to deal with anti–Christian violence and propaganda at national and regional levels. "Be alert. Today it is Orissa; tomorrow it could be somewhere else," the archbishop said, according to UCA News.

The archbishop quoted a report by the Indian People's Tribunal, an independent organisation, who after a twenty months investigation in Orissa learnt, how the radicals were training and mobilizing people to coerce and force Hindu supremacy and hegemony.

The tribunal head K.K. Usha, a former judge said, the radical groups "legitimize their actions against minorities by invoking specific and fabricated threats to Hindus from Muslims and Christians."

The CBCI draft plan called for the Church to play an active role and exchange ideas including lobbying political and civil leaders, establishing national and regional coordination teams, and networking with other groups, including international organizations.