Bhopal remembering India’s Christian martyrs

(August 28, 2010) The Archdiocese of Bhopal in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state is observing “Indian Martyrs Day” on Sunday, the last Sunday of August, to remember Christians killed for their faith in India. Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, who heads the Church in Madhya Pradesh state, sent a message through mobile phone to his priests, religious and lay leaders. The archbishop’s move echoes the demand of a lay movement to observe a Sunday in August to remember Christians killed because of their faith throughout India. The Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasangh, a Christian confederation, began the demand after some 100 people, mostly Christians, were killed in Orissa state in violence that started in August 2008. Madhya Pradesh itself has witnessed several anti-Christian attacks that Christian leaders say have increased after the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2003. Isai Mahasangh has appealed to all bishops to observe a Sunday in August as martyrs’ day. Father Anand Muttungal, coordinator of the confederation, said they hope the entire country and the Church will observe the day “sooner or later, as the blood of those died will never go waste.”