Cardinal: Anti-Christian Violence Disgracing India

(September 25, 2008) The ongoing anti-Christian violence in India is a "disgrace" and horrifying to people of good will in India, regardless of their religious beliefs, says the archbishop of Bombay. Cardinal Oswald Gracias called the campaign against Christians by Hindu extremists "inexplicable," a "disgrace" and "madness," reported L'Osservatore Romano in Rome. "All persons of good will in India, whether Christians, Hindus or Muslims, are horrified and astonished by the diabolical hunt of Christians to kill them and destroy their homes and churches," he said. "We must not give in to the temptation to resignation, and even less so to that of vengeance. In the end, it won't be fundamentalism that prevails. Prayer, including for those who hate us, is our main weapon." Though India has often been the home of Hindu-Christian tension, a wave of escalated violence began in late August after the murder of a Hindu leader. Since then several Christians have been killed, churches and properties have been burned, and thousands of Christians have fled their homes.Despite the current situation, the cardinal explained that India "is a great country in which many hopes have been placed. He further added that this hope is supported in an important way by interreligious dialogue, which he called necessary to give "hope to India and the whole world." The Church, he added "will continue to be on the side of the poor and the sick without looking to see if they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians. It will reaffirm the right to life for all: It is terrible that newborns are killed if they are female." In the meantime Archbishop Cheenath, of Cuttock-Bhuvanewar, who was on a trip when the persecution broke out, has not been able to return home because he has received death threats from extremists.