Growing Persecution of Christians in India

Catholic Online ^ | 5/19/08 | Sandro Magister

[tcg]

While the stern eyes of the world are turned toward China, in India equally severe violations of freedom and human rights are taking place amid general disinterest. With Christians as the victims.

The epicenter of the violence is Orissa, a state facing the Bay of Bengal, south of Calcutta. Here, since Christmas until now, there have been 6 deaths, 5,000 left homeless, and 70 churches, 600 homes, 6 convents, and 3 seminaries destroyed.

"An expanse of ashes, that's what is left", exclaimed Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, after visiting the areas struck by anti-Christian violence.

But alarming news is arriving from other places in India as well.

[tcg]

Horrid attacks against the churches and faithful are rising in the big Asian country, amid the silence and disinterest of the world.Are economic opportunities more important than protecting human rights?

[bobjam]

The historic reality is that Christianity (real Christianity, not the watered down dribble from ECUSA and friends) grows fastest and strongest when under government duress. Two cases in point: the Roman Empire and Communist China.

[tcg]

I know. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” observed the historian Tertullian. However, we need to stand in solidarity with persecuted brethren, pray for them, and do all in our power to stop the persecution.

[TBP]

The Inida Lobby on FR is going to get you for daring to criticize them.

Unfortunately, although Christians have been the primary targets for roughly the last decade, it’s not just Christians. Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits, and people in Assam, Bodoland, Manipur, Nagaland, and Tamil adu, among others, ahve felt the sting of Hindutva and the repression that India imoses on all its minorities.

The general idea is that everyone who lives in India must either be Hindu or be subservient to Hindus. Nobody but the Brahmins actually enjoys full human rights or civil rights.

[fatez]

Here is an interesting paradox for the US, the country that has more Christians, China, is an enemy, but probably will become friendly to the US because of this growing Christian presence in the corridors of power in China. The country that is friendly to the US right now, India, is going to be more hostile in the future because of it’s hostility to Christianity.

[topher]

In 2001, I made a trip to Rome (Italy). I met a priest from Belgium who was working as priest in Southern India.

I had several books sent to him while he was in Rome studying.

When I suggested sending books (Catholic books) to India, he said that it would cause people to be persecuted just because of the books, and that the books may not be allowed in the country. I was very surprised and saddened by this, but what he said he was going to do was put them in a library in Rome.

By the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, there is a "Yellow Building" nearby that has the "Eastern Studies" place.

I actually ordered some good books on sects on the Syro-Malobar Church and very parts of the Church in Asia.

I also attended the 2nd Thanksgiving Mass of Cardinal van Thuan, who was persecuted by the Communists in Vietnam.

However, persecution in Vietnam has a very long history. That is the reason for the apparitions of Our Lady of La Vang (Our Lady of Vietnam). She appeared to people who fled the persecution and were trying to live in the jungle.

Anyone, in the United States, people like ot ignore this, and enjoy lives of decadence... Allowing things like pornography and abortion to be a part of our culture...