Vatican reminds India of Gandhi

Reminding the life of Mahatma Gandhi, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday appealed for an end to violence in Orissa.

Urging the governments in India and Iraq to protect persecuted Christian minorities, Pope said, "At the moment, I am concerned and thinking of the suffering in these countries."

Pointing Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose belief in non–violence and satyagraha inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world, the Vatican called for an end to violence.

"During the course of (Gandhi's) struggle for freedom, he realised that 'an eye for a eye, and soon the whole world is blind,'" Cardinal Jean–Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter–Religious Dialogue, said in the address.

"He is a model for non–violence and he led by example to the point of laying down his life because of his refusal to engage in violence."

While half of the Christian community of Iraq's northern city of Mosul has fled recently after attacks and death threats, in India over 60 have been dead and thousands rendered homeless of anti–Christian violence.

The assasination of a Hindu leader in Orissa sparked some of the worst anti–Christian violence in decades.