Aid to the Church in Need: Pray for India’s suffering Christians

Pray for India’s suffering Christians

Posted by ACN News on 19/9/2008, 8:45 pm
Message modified by board administrator 23/9/2008, 2:54 am

ACN News 19.09.2008

Pray for India’s suffering Christians
By John Newton and Eva-Maria Kolmann

AMID increasing persecution against Christians in India, a leading Catholic charity has called for an international day of prayer.
Father Joaquín Alliende, President designate of the charity Aid to the Church in Need, called on Christians throughout the world to join in prayer for India’s Christians, many of whom have been killed, mutilated and hounded from their homes.
The prayer appeal comes after latest reports gave a death toll of more than 50 following the sudden outbreak of violence which has now spread west from the eastern state of Orissa where it erupted a month ago.
Since the troubles began, nearly 70 churches and other Christian buildings have been attacked. Following attacks on Christian homes in at least 60 villages, more than 20,000 people have taken shelter in relief camps in Kandhamal district, Orissa state.
In a message for immediate release, Fr Alliende said: “Our prayers for the faithful in India are urgently needed: in order to prevent yet more bloodshed, yet more churches being burned to the ground, more sacred shrines being desecrated and more centres of care for the poorest and most needy being destroyed.
“I call upon you all to pray for the Christians in India in this hour of peril.”
He added: “Through our direct contact with the bishops we know well just how much fear and anxiety is weighing down the hearts of our brothers and sisters, who are being treated as second-class citizens. They feel defenceless.”
ACN’s president designate went on to criticise the government for its handling of the crisis.
He said: “The government appears unable to stop this social unrest. Nor has it succeeded in imposing even a minimum of control in Kandhamal. Crimes that have been committed in the past still remain unpunished.”
Fr Alliende described how priests realise that they are targets for violence, and have tried to protect their people from further trouble by taking refuge in the forests and remote areas.
ACN’s prayer appeal is set for Wednesday (24th September), which India celebrates as the feast of Our Lady of Mercy.
The charity will be organising prayers for India during a meeting of ACN leaders in Königstein, near Frankfurt, Germany.
Fr Alliende, who was ACN’s International Ecclesiastical Assistant for many years before being nominated as president, said: “For these Christians, their only remaining hope is in Jesus Christ alone, and in our prayer of solidarity.”
The violence is spreading from Orissa to other regions in India.
Last week, arsonists targeted the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of St George Church in Beltangady diocese in the west of India (17th September) and the Catholic Cathedral in the diocese of Jabalpur in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (18th September).
Eight people were injured after motorcyclists rode into 14 churches and other places of worship and ransacked them in the coastal districts of Mangalore and Udupi on the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross (Sunday 14th September).
India, with its 23 million Christians (of which 18 million are Catholics), is a priority country for Aid to the Church in Need. In 2007, the charity paid out more than $6 million in aid to India.

PRAYER FOR INDIA

Father in Heaven, you make your sun shine
on bad and good alike.
Your Son Jesus Christ died for us all
and in his glorious Resurrection
He still retains the five wounds of his Passion.
With his divine power he now sustains
all those who suffer persecution and martyrdom
for the sake of their fidelity to the faith of the Church.
Merciful and mighty Father,
do not allow Cain to return again to murder
helpless Abel, innocent Abel.
May the persecuted Christians in India remain,
like Mary, their Mother,
together at the foot of the cross
of Christ the Martyr.
Comfort those menaced by violence
and those oppressed by uncertainty.
May your Holy Spirit of love
make fruitful the witness and the blood
of those who die forgiving.
Amen

For further 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