Jamshedpur, India, Feb 22, 2008 / 00:22 am
At a recent plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), bishops held two unscheduled meetings to study recent attacks on Christians. The bishops also discussed proposals to coordinate the Church’s civil and political activities to counter increasing anti-Christian violence in India.
Last December, Hindu extremists attacked Christians in the east-coast state of Orissa, disrupting preparations for Christmas and burning their property.
Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi and outgoing president of the CBCI, said that attackers had looted and burned Christian churches and homes. “What they could not carry, they heaped them together and burned," he said, describing the destruction as “diabolic.”
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, whose Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar includes the afflicted district, said the conflict began on December 23, when Hindu radicals forcibly shaved the head of a Protestant pastor. The next day, the radicals disrupted Christmas preparations in a Christian-dominated village. They pursued Christians and burned their shops.