Aid to the Church in Need: India: Violence against Christians sweeps Orissa again

India: Violence against Christians sweeps Orissa again

Posted by Press release on 27/8/2008, 1:14 pm
Board Administrator

ACN News, Wednesday, 27th August 2008 –

INDIA

Violence against Christians sweeps Orissa again
• Priests and sisters tortured, stripped and paraded in public
• Churches burnt and people forced to flee their homes
• Extremists warn of more attacks to come

By John Newton

A CATHOLIC charity has condemned as “cruel and depraved” vicious attacks on Christians in India, who have been unfairly blamed for the murder of a Hindu political leader.
At least five people were confirmed as dead and many others were wounded after fanatics went on the rampage on Monday (25th August), in the eastern state of Orissa, burning churches and homes, torturing priests and forcing people to flee their homes.

The violence across the state came after Laxmanananda Saraswati, a senior member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad party (VHP), and four others were killed in a grenade attack on Saturday (23rd August). Party members were reported as accusing Christians of arranging Mr Saraswati’s murder. Hours later the violence began.

John Pontifex, from the charity Aid to the Church in Need, which has received exclusive reports of the violence, gave this reaction to the atrocities: “These attacks are cruel and depraved in the extreme”.
Noting that the attacks were the second assault on Christians in Orissa in nine months, Mr Pontifex added: “It is now clear that Christians in this part of India have become scapegoats – the targets of violence that erupts at the slightest provocation, irrespective of culpability. “This wanton cruelty must stop. We call on Christians and all people of goodwill to pray for those who are grieving lost loved ones and live in fear of what tomorrow might bring.”

As a full picture of what happened begins to emerge, Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, has received exclusive reports pointing to the scale of the atrocities.
A priest, who contacted ACN with news of the violence, said: “Your solidarity and prayers in this moment of fear and anxiety will help strengthen our brethren.”
The information, received from leading clergy, highlight fears of yet more violence to come.

The charity was told that a religious Sister working at the pastoral centre in the Archdiocese of Bhubaneswar was gang-raped before the building was blown up with explosives.

The pastoral centre’s director and a religious Sister fled advancing mobs but were chased down in the house of a local Catholic. Both the director, who is a priest, and the Sister were “stripped and paraded in public” before being handed over to the police.

Two other priests from Jajpur Road district, were also stripped before being beaten up in the nearby jungle.

The caretaker of a children’s hostel in the region, Rajani Majhi was burnt alive.

Nearby, a priest was very badly beaten up in Padampur (Bargarh District). He was taken to hospital where his condition is described as “very serious”. His house was set on fire and his jeep was burnt.

Several village churches in Rourkela diocese were torched, including the Catholic Church and convent in Madhupur.

The priest, Sisters and boys from the Church-run hostel have hidden in people’s homes in local villages.

But worse could follow. Sources close to ACN revealed that on Sunday (24th August) Hindu fanatics, vowed to continue attacks on Christians churches and other institutions across Orissa, especially Sundargarh district, starting today (Wednesday 27th August).

The attacks on the 25th August came during a bandh, a protest where the general public are expected stay in their homes and not go to work, called for by the VHP, although the Supreme Court of India prohibited bandhs in 1998.

Hindu extremists have targeted Christians in Orissa before at Christmas 2007, when 70 churches and other Christian institutions were attacked and 600 Christian homes were destroyed.

Aid to the Church in Need provided aid for the Church following the riots last December, and is standing by to help following this current emergency.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org