Fears mount for India's Christians as violence spreads

September 16, 2008

Hindu-Christian tension mounted in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, where 14 churches were attacked on Sunday. UCA News’s T. S. Thomas reports, ‘Police drove around 500 protesting Catholics inside a church and locked them in from outside … In another incident, police entered a church and beat Catholics praying for atonement for church desecration.’ On Monday evening, a church was attacked in the southwestern state of Kerala, the area of India evangelized by St. Thomas the Apostle. India, which has fewer than 20 million Catholics – the US has nearly 70 million – has more seminarians than any other nation in the world and more seminarians than all of North America and Central America combined. Within India, Kerala produces the greatest number of seminarians. In Orissa, where recent anti-Christian violence began, 25,000 Catholics are still hiding in the forest. At the request of the Italian foreign minister, the persecution of Christians in Orissa will be discussed at the Sept. 29-30 summit meeting between EU member nations and India.

 

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Further information:

• Kerala church attacked, state beefs up security (ICNS)
• Tension mounts as Christians protest attacks on Karnataka churches (UCAN)
• Karnataka violence: Home Ministry seeks report (ICNS)
• Police clash with Christian protesters in India (Vatican Radio)
• Catholics in Orissa draw strength from Eucharist to cope with fear of violence (UCAN)
• Persecution of Christians in Orissa will be raised at European Union-India summit, as concern grows in Europe (UCAN)
• Laborers for the harvest: promising vocations news from Asia, Africa, and Oceania (Catholic World Report)