Italian solidarity towards Orissa Christians

(Aug. 29, 2008) In a show of solidarity for the Christians of India’s Orissa state, Italian Catholics and citizens are planning to hold a vigil with public prayers and fasting next week. Fr GianPaolo Gualzetti, Director of the Cultural and Missionary Activities Centre of the PIMR missionaries in the northern Italian city of Milan said the day of solidarity was planned for September 5, the liturgical feast day of the Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata. In a letter to Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Fr. Gualzetti expressed the Italian people’s dasness over the terrible news of massacres and devastations that have affected various parts of Orissa. “As citizens of the world we are struck by the wave of hatred that is sweeping over so many poor and defenceless men and women by people indoctrinated in ideologies based on exclusion and intolerance,” he wrote. Local communities will pray on 5 September, and will meet in Milan for a moment of public fasting and prayer in solidarity with Orissa Christians. Fr. Gualzetti assured Cardinal Vithayathil they would urge Italian political leaders to pressure the Indian government to truly uphold religious freedom, guaranteed under India’s constitution. Meanwhile India’s ambassador to Italy, Arif Shahid Khan has been summoned by the Italian foreign ministry on Monday to discuss the anti-Christian violence in Orissa.