Catholic educational institutions to be closed on Friday: Orissa violence

All Catholic educational institutions in the country will remain closed on Friday, in protest against violence on Christian community in Orissa said the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI).

At a press conference in New Delhi, the Delhi Archbishop Vincent Concessao said the Catholic community has nearly 25,000 educational institutions, making it the second largest educational provider in the country.

Christians being targeted in Orissa are innocents and the attack carried on despite the churches and Christian organisations condemning the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmananda must be deplored said the Archbishop.

“Christians are victims of a calibrated malicious campaign by certain unruly organisations, which take the law into their own hands,” he said.

During CNN–IBN’s 'Face the Nation' show, Reverend Dr Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India urged all Christian institutions to remain closed on Friday to protest the Kandhamal violence.

Howell claimed conversion has become an excuse to attack Christians and malign them. “The VHP gets the maximum amount of money India than Christians. Christians have used money to serve and empower the poor and marginalized. Not a single case has been proved till date in the courts of forced conversion (by Christian groups),” he said.

He added that Christians were considered soft targets because of the general perception that they would not retaliate.

The National Commission for Minorities meanwhile has asked the State government to submit a report on the violence against Christians.