At Weekly General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI Condemns Anti-Christian Violence in India, Reflects on St. Paul the Apostle

(27 Aug 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI today called for a return to peace and calm in the Indian state of Orissa, which has been the scene of deadly episodes of anti-Christian violence this week. The Holy Father’s appeal came during his Weekly General Audience. Emer McCarthy reports…

On Wednesday Pope Benedict spoke of his profound sorrow at news of attacks on the Christian community in the Indian State of Orissa.


The Pope deplored the murder of a radical Hindu leader Saturday last, an episode which sparked of four days of deadly violence across the tense state.

There Hindu mobs angered at their leaders’ killing took to the streets targeting Christian religious and lay people in a series of attacks that have left as least 11 people dead, nearly all Christians, and led to the destruction of Christian homes, churches and orphanages.

In his appeal Wednesday Pope Benedict said “the sacredness of every human life must be respected and every attack on human life condemned”. Pope Benedict expressed his “spiritual closeness to all those brothers and sisters in the faith who are so sorely tried”. Moreover, he prayed that “the Lord accompany them and support them in this time of trial, and implored local civil authorities and religious leaders to work together to re-establish peaceful coexistence between the different communities of Orissa, which he underlined has long been a distinctive mark of Indian society”.

The Pope’s heartfelt appeal was launched Wednesday morning from the dais of the Paul VI Audience hall. He had travelled to the Vatican from his Summer residence high in the Roman Hills to resume his weekly appointment with pilgrims.

Before this Summer break the Pope had announced that on his return he would be dedicating his weekly catechesis to a series of lessons on the life and work of St. Paul of Tarsus, whose anniversary is being celebrated this year by the universal Church :

“Today’s catechesis presents the life of Saint Paul, the great missionary whom the Church honours in a special way this year. Born a Jew in Tarsus, he received the Hebrew name “Saul” and was trained as a “tent maker” (cf. Acts 18:3). Around the age of twelve he departed for Jerusalem to begin instruction in the strict Pharisaic tradition which instilled in him a great zeal for the Mosaic Law. On the basis of this training Paul viewed the Christian movement as a threat to orthodox Judaism”.

Pope Benedict XVI noted how Saul fiercely “persecuted the Church of God” until a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus radically changed his life.

“He subsequently undertook three missionary journeys, preaching Christ in Anatolia, Syria, Cilicia, Macedonia, Achaia, and throughout the Mediterranean. After his arrest and imprisonment in Jerusalem, Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to the Emperor. Though Luke makes no reference to Nero’s decision, he tells us that Paul spent two years under house arrest in Rome (cf. Acts 28:30), after which—according to tradition—he suffered a martyr’s death. Paul spared no energy and endured many trials in his “anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor 11:28). Indeed, he wrote: “I do everything for the sake of the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:23)”.


Pope Benedict concluded by inviting the men and women before him to emulate the Apostle to the Gentiles by striving to doing the same.

The Pauline year runs to June 29, 2009.