Aid to the Church in Need: India: Orissa - Peace on earth.....for the time being

India: Orissa - Peace on earth.....for the time being

Posted by Press release on 3/1/2009, 7:41 pm
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ACN News, Tuesday, 30th December 2008 – INDIA

Peace on earth.....for the time being

By John Pontifex

CHRISTIANS in India fearful of falling victim to a second Christmas under attack have won a temporary reprieve after extremists called off their protest at the eleventh hour.
With just days to spare, the Hindu militants in Orissa cancelled their ‘Christmas shutdown’ under pressure from the state government but latest reports received by the charity Aid to the Church in Need give 14th January 2009 as the new date for the ‘Bandh’ strike action.
The protest was called by fanatics enraged by alleged government inaction following the death last August of controversial religious leader Swami Lakshamanananda Saraswati.
With no sign of a break-through in the hunt for the Swami’s killer, Hindu militant Saraswati Sradhanjali Samiti set 25th December for the ‘Bandh’.
The news sparked fears of a repeat of anti-Christian violence a year ago and last August when up to 500 died and nearly 50,000 were displaced in attacks in Orissa’s Kandhamal district. Nearly 150 churches were damaged or destroyed in the violence.
So far, ACN, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, has received only one confirmed incident of violence – arson attacks on two Christian-run grocery stores in a village outside the Kandhamal town of Mondasore.
Speaking from India in an interview with ACN, Fr Madan Singh, a spokesman for Archbishop Raphael Cheenath SVD of Bubaneswar-Cuttack, said: “We were so relieved that our worst fears didn’t come true. There were many rumours of violence but so far there have been no major incidents.”
He said that Christians still mostly living in massive relief camps in and around Kandhamal had low-key Christmas celebrations under the watchful eye of large-scale government security.
On Christmas Eve, services were held before nightfall to reduce the risk of attacks.
Fr Singh stressed the “courage and determination” of priests and faithful during celebrations in which 13,000 Christians spread across 10 or more relief camps had Mass and a meal organised and funded by the Church.
Meanwhile Kandhamal priests are stepping up the search for missing catechist Jubaraj Digal who is thought to have been abducted over Christmas by Hindu militants on his way home to Konjamendi village in Balliguda parish.
Fr Singh said fears remained high, with rumours of attacks, especially against priests and religious Sisters.
In a separate report to ACN from Kandhamal, a priest wrote: “We heard that priests and nuns would be abducted on the 23rd of each month so there is tension in the district. This harassment may have been done to create panic.”
Fr Singh said concerns were heightened by so far unsubstantiated reports that the government had yesterday (29th December) closed one of its relief camps in Phulbani, with up to 70 Christians now under pressure to return home where militants have threatened violence if people do not convert to Hinduism.
In his Christmas message, Archbishop Cheenath underlined the people’s “pains and agonies”, adding: “It is time that we stand united, determined to dismiss all that divides us and say in once voice, enough is enough…
“We need to exhibit our togetherness and respect for one another celebrating our diversity of cultures and faith and begin the process of healing.”

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 Australain 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: [url=http://www.aidtochurch.org ]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