Cardinal Dias defends Pope's concerns over anti–conversion laws in India

Cardinal Ivan Dias of Mumbai Archdiocese, who was recently appointed by the Pope as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the third highest authority in the Vatican, has lashed out at Hindu fundamentalists who allege that Christians indulge in "forcible conversions" by stating that personal conversion is a matter "between God and the individual concerned" as well as a "right enshrined in the Constitution of India, that belongs to every man, woman and child in our country."

During the audience which the Pope Benedict XVI recently granted to India's new Ambassador to the Holy See, the pontiff had expressed his concerns over the growing number of incidents of anti–Christian violence in the nation, stating, "The disturbing signs of religious intolerance which have troubled some regions of the nation, including the reprehensible attempt to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right of religious freedom, must be firmly rejected as not only unconstitutional, but also as contrary to the highest ideals of India's founding fathers, who believed in a nation of peaceful coexistence and mutual tolerance between different religions and ethnic groups."

This observation of the Pope was decried by Hindu fundamentalist outfits which commented that the pontiff's comments were "unjustified" and amounted to mere "interference in India's internal affairs."

Criticizing the Pope, Rajnath Singh, president of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the comments were "unjustified" and "activities that really go against the secular nature of the nation are conversions, not the laws that prohibit them."

In his letter to the Holy See, Singh said that the anti–conversion laws passed in various states "are not anti–secular since they were passed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India."

"The laws also had stood the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, which eliminated any reference to possible fraudulent interpretations of the term conversion," he said.

In Madhya Pradesh, a state dominated by the BJP, Hindu fundamentalist groups also protested against the comments of the pontiff and warned him to stop his "interference in India's internal affairs."

Cardinal Dias, coming out in defence of the Pope, in a public statement, had analysed the Christian presence in India and concluded that the "physical and verbal abuses" launched by these extremist groups are "totally unjustified and a reason for shame."

According to the cardinal, conversion from one religious belief to another is a "strictly personal matter between God and the individual concerned" and the "freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice and propagate one's religion have been enshrined in the Constitution of India."

"Conversions, however, should never be induced by force, fraud or allurement: the Catholic Church considers all such conversions as invalid," he stressed. The cardinal however warned that "any opposition by law or de facto to a genuine conversion, besides being a grave violation of the code of human rights and of the spirit of the Indian Constitution, is, above all, an unwarranted interference in God's unique competence in the matter."

Cardinal Dias has also challenged the fundamentalist groups to "produce factual evidence proving a single forced conversion to the Catholic Church in India as a sign of its bonafide intentions."

"All allegations made in this regard in the past have proved to be utterly false, like the one made last year by a Government education officer against a Catholic school in Nashik, when he was refused a favour he was demanding very arrogantly. When questioned by his superiors at Mantralaya and asked to produce proof of his complaint, he was quick to retract his accusation and he publicly apologized for his haughty behaviour," the cardinal said.

The cardinal also pointed out that though Indian Christians number about 2.3 percent of the total population, yet, their contribution to the development of the nation has been enormous. "Despite being such a tiny minority, the Christians cater to 20 percent of all the primary education in the country, 10 percent of the literacy and community health care programmes, 25 percent of the care of the orphans and widows, and 30 percent of the care of the handicapped, lepers and AIDS patients," he said, adding, "The vast majority of those who avail themselves of these institutions belong to faiths other than Christian. These institutions are much appreciated by Hindus, Muslims and persons of other faiths or of no faith at all, who admire the Christians for their selfless service of the suffering, the marginalized, the illiterate and the downtrodden."

The cardinal has also openly challenged the fundamentalist groups to examine how much "it is doing in favour of the educational, health and social uplift of the Indian people."

"The group can also ask itself why so many persons of other faiths, including even government officials, insist on their children being educated in so–called 'convent schools' or on admitting their sick and aged relatives in Catholic hospitals or homes," he said. "The same group could also make a survey as to how many of the millions of persons who have passed through the Catholic educational, health or social institutions in India from time immemorial – and these include, interalia, renowned judges and advocates, medical practitioners and nurses, political and religious leaders, and even some prominent members of the group itself! – have been converted or were asked to convert to Christianity," the cardinal continued. "They would thus find the reason why, after two thousand years of Christian presence in India and the zealous activity of its members in favour of the local population, the number of Christians remains exceedingly small in the country."

"If the said group is unable to answer these points satisfactorily, it would do well to re–consider its profoundly biased attitude towards the Christian community, and be ashamed of the attacks, both verbal and physical, which some of its members make on Christian personalities and institutions in several States in the country," Cardinal Dias concluded. "Such a behaviour is indeed unbecoming of civilised persons and seriously endangers the secular and democratic fabric of our beloved Motherland, to which Catholics in India are proud to belong as law–abiding citizens."