Bishop of Mangalore Stresses on Need for Introspection in his Independence Day Message

(August 14, 2010) Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza of Mangalore, South India conveyed his wishes and message to the citizens for 64th Independence Day on Friday August 13. ”Six decades have passed since our country’s Independence. It gives an opportunity to introspect on what we have achieved in the past 63 years and what we have got to achieve in future”, said the bishop. “The globalization has led to commercialization of our culture and moral values. The nature and environment has been threatened in the name of development. There lies no value for honesty and humanity. Religiousness is also losing its meaning, hence the need to introspect, he said. Dr D’Souza said, “We ought to introspect on what were our aspirations during the freedom struggle and after so many years of Independence till now. We have been focusing on every Independence Day celebrations for many years that what got to be done to get real freedom, although we are just politically liberated. Therefore, real assessment on what we have done so far in this regard needs to done.” Mangalore District in the past two years has experienced serious religious violence from the hands of Bajrangdal activists, a pro Hindu organisation.