Archbishop Oswald has called for prayers for peaceful outcome of verdict on Ayodha
Mosque
(Sept.21,2010) The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, CBCI, has
called on all the Churches in the country to pray for peace, head of an Indian
court ruling on Friday, regarding the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque in Uttar
Pradesh, and the Hindu-Muslim clashes that followed. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop
of Bombay said the “verdict on the Ayodhya mosque should be fair, accepted by all
parties, and lead to interfaith harmony. India has a pluralist tradition of peace
and this must be defended at all costs,” he added. The Cardinal urged the faithful
to act as bridge builders for dialogue and tolerance. The Court in charge of the
case will have to rule on the destruction of the Babri Masjid (Mosque) in Ayodhya,UP,
which occurred 1992. On 6th December of that year, 150,000 people, egged on by the
Sangh Parivar, a Hindu nationalist umbrella organisation, stormed and demolished the
mosque. Clashes followed that led to the death of more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslim.
Now, leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stand accused of
provoking the incident. Stating that the outcome of the trial touches everyone,
not only Hindus and Muslims, Cardinal Oswald said “ The Church is not a party to this
case, but it has a role to play as a bridge builder for understanding, tolerance and
respect. For this reason, we must use prayer, the most powerful weapon we have at
our disposal, he said The archbishop of Bombay is the first religious leader to
ask his fellow believers to pray for Ayodhya, which, after the destruction of the
mosque, was turned into a Hindu temple.