Vatican expresses solidarity with Church in India hit by violence

(August26,2008):- The Holy See has expressed solidarity with the Church in India on hearing of the tragic news of violence against the Church, its institutions and the faithful in India’s eastern State of Orissa , said a communique issued on Tuesday by Vatican’s Press Office. In a statement the Vatican said " The Holy See expresses reprehension for actions, which harm the dignity and freedom of people and compromise peaceful civilian coexistence." It appealed for an end to violence and for a climate of dialogue and reciprocal respect.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Orissa State on Tuesday, after two people were burnt to death and more than a dozen churches torched by suspected Hindus angry over the murder of their leader. Hundreds of police were deployed in three towns in Orissa's rural Kandhamal district, as they tried to end two days of violence in which, a Christian orphanage was also torched by suspected Hindu mobs. Violence erupted after armed men killed a Hindu leader linked to the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and four others last week, an attack fundamentalist Hindus blamed on Christians. Local TV stations showed an angry mob vandalising a church, throwing away furniture and setting them on fire. Villagers blocked roads with logs and boulders to stop police from entering the trouble spots.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of India – CBCI, counted 32 incidents of violence against Christians in Orissa over the past two days. In protest, it said some 25,000 Catholic schools and colleges in India would be closed on Friday. "People are totally harassed, driven away from their homes, beaten up and institutions destroyed," Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi told a press conference. Christians in eastern India have condemned this week's killing of the Hindu leader.
Police blamed the killings on local Maoist rebels taking sides in a controversy over religious conversions, but Hindu fundamentalists say Christians were to blame for the killings. Police say by attacking Hindus, the Maoists were trying to win support among the region's poor tribes, most of whom had converted to Christianity. India's constitution is secular, but most of its billion-plus citizens are Hindu. About 2.5 percent of Indians are Christians.