Rome, Italy, Aug 29, 2008 / 17:55 pm
The Archbishop of Bombay and president of the Latin Rite Bishops of India, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, said this week that in light of the recent anti-Christian violence in the country, Catholics are devoted with greater earnestness to “prayer and to faith in the Cross of Jesus.” He also added that the roots of the violence need to be discovered and “we need to ask ourselves how to keep this from happening again in the future.”
Speaking on Vatican Radio, the cardinal pointed out that in Orissa, Christians “live with fear because they don’t know what will happen.” He said that at least 25 churches have been destroyed by fundamentalists and hostility has increased. For this reason he has called on the government “to intervene immediately.”