A Priest and Nun are Arrested in India and the Catholic Church Announces Day of Prayer and Fasting in the Face of Religious Persecution
The Catholic Church in India has announced a day of prayer and fasting in response to growing religious persecution. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), released a statement on February 7th, voicing their concern at growing persecution in Indian society and political life.
The bishops wrote: “Attacks on Christians continue to increase in different parts of India. Destruction of homes and churches, harassment of personnel serving in orphanages, hostels, educational and healthcare institutions on false allegations of conversion have become common.”
Christians make up about 2.3% of India’s population, as the nation's third-largest religious group, following Muslims (14.2%), and the majority Hindus (79.8%). (Source: The Pillar)The bishops wrote, "as Christians, our first response is prayer," and they ask that everyone in the country pray and fast for "peace and harmony" on March 22nd.
Asia News IT reported that a Catholic priest, Fr Dominic Pinto, was arrested by police in Barabanki district, Uttar Pradesh, along with others on charges of trying to "convert poor Hindus".
Fr Pinto is the director of Navintha, the diocesan pastoral centre of the Diocese of Lucknow, which occasionally hosts meetings organised by a Protestant group along with Khrist Bhakta (Followers of Christ), a movement whose members follow the teachings of Jesus without formal conversion to Christianity.
The First Information Report (FIR) at the Deva police station named 15 people, including five women, accused of violating Uttar Pradesh's harsh anti-conversion law.
The complainant, Brijesh Kumar Vaishya, accuses them of attracting to Christianity poor Hindus from Dalit communities, including women and children.
During the incident, a group of Hindus tried to attack the women attending the prayer meeting and protested in front of the police station demanding that the name of the Catholic priest be included in the FIR.
Fr Dominic Pinto had granted a Protestant group the use of some “space for a day to conduct their training or prayer service. It was a rather large group of over 200 people. They were having their talk, preaching, and praying,” said Bishop Gerald Mathias of Lucknow speaking to AsiaNews.
“A group of VHP[*] or Bajrang Dal[†] complained to the police that conversion was going on there. It was totally false. There was no conversion involved. Police came and stopped the prayer and preaching. In the meantime, the VHP/Bajrang Dal mob broke the CCTV cameras and ransacked the place,” Bishop Mathias explained.
“Police took Fr Dominic and about nine pastors and group leaders to police station for questioning. This is a gross misuse of the draconian anti-conversion law in the State,” he lamented.
For the bishop, “Police registered the FIR without any evidence or proof of conversion. They come under mob pressure or succumb to the dictates of higher ups. This is a typical case of harassment and atrocities against Christians.”
Now, “We are praying earnestly and working to get bail at the earliest. I hope and pray that justice and good sense will prevail." (Source: Asia News IT)
Matters India, a Catholic news platform, looked into the issue. Citing data from the United Christian Forum, a New Delhi-based ecumenical group, it noted that 287 of the 687 incidents of anti-Christian persecution reported across India in the period January-November 2023 took place in Uttar Pradesh.
Christians account for only 0.18 per cent of the State’s population of more than 200 million people, 79.73 per cent of whom are Hindus.Matters India reports that a Catholic nun has been taken in judicial custody in connection with the death by suicide of a school girl in India's central state of Chhattisgarh.
A court in Ambikapur, a major city in Sarguja district, on February 7th sent the Carmelite Sister Mercy to jail after police charged her with abetting the suicide of the sixth grader the previous night.
The girl, who studied in Carmel School in Ambikapur, accused the nun in her suicide note of torturing her, forcing her to end her life.
The 30-year-old school is managed by the Congregation of Mother Carmel, based the state of Kerala.
Father Lucian Kujur, director of education in Ambikapur diocese, denied the charge against the nun saying, “There was no truth in it.”
According to the priest, the nun had taken their girl’s identity card after she was found in the washrooms along with three other girls during class hours. Sister Mercy had asked the girls to bring their parents the following day.
Father Kujur denied that the nun had tortured the girl.
Sister Mercy, who teaches in the English medium senior higher secondary school, “did not teach the girl” but only took her identity card as she had stayed away from classes despite being in the school, the priest told Matters India February 8.
Soon after the news of the girl’s suicide spread, right wing Hindu groups protested in front of the school demanding the arrest of Sr Mercy and the school principal, another nun.
The police subsequently arrested Sister Mercy and deployed police personnel to guard the school.
Currently, “the school is closed and we expect to reopen it very soon after the situation normalizes,” Father Kujur said.
Over 1,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes in 2022 after a group of tribals allegedly associated with the right-wing Hindu groups opposed their faith in Christianity in the tribal-dominated Bastar region. The mob assaulted them, looted their houses, destroyed crops and even opposed burial of their dead.
The state is currently ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, that heads also the federal coalition government.
Christians, mostly tribal people, make up 2 percent of the state’s more than 30 million population with more than 80 percent Hindus. (Source: MattersIndia.com)
Sources: Combined reports from The Pillar, Matters India and Asia News IT
Fr Pinto is the director of Navintha, the diocesan pastoral centre of the Diocese of Lucknow, which occasionally hosts meetings organised by a Protestant group along with Khrist Bhakta (Followers of Christ), a movement whose members follow the teachings of Jesus without formal conversion to Christianity.
The First Information Report (FIR) at the Deva police station named 15 people, including five women, accused of violating Uttar Pradesh's harsh anti-conversion law.
The complainant, Brijesh Kumar Vaishya, accuses them of attracting to Christianity poor Hindus from Dalit communities, including women and children.
During the incident, a group of Hindus tried to attack the women attending the prayer meeting and protested in front of the police station demanding that the name of the Catholic priest be included in the FIR.
Fr Dominic Pinto had granted a Protestant group the use of some “space for a day to conduct their training or prayer service. It was a rather large group of over 200 people. They were having their talk, preaching, and praying,” said Bishop Gerald Mathias of Lucknow speaking to AsiaNews.
“A group of VHP[*] or Bajrang Dal[†] complained to the police that conversion was going on there. It was totally false. There was no conversion involved. Police came and stopped the prayer and preaching. In the meantime, the VHP/Bajrang Dal mob broke the CCTV cameras and ransacked the place,” Bishop Mathias explained.
“Police took Fr Dominic and about nine pastors and group leaders to police station for questioning. This is a gross misuse of the draconian anti-conversion law in the State,” he lamented.
For the bishop, “Police registered the FIR without any evidence or proof of conversion. They come under mob pressure or succumb to the dictates of higher ups. This is a typical case of harassment and atrocities against Christians.”
Now, “We are praying earnestly and working to get bail at the earliest. I hope and pray that justice and good sense will prevail." (Source: Asia News IT)
Matters India, a Catholic news platform, looked into the issue. Citing data from the United Christian Forum, a New Delhi-based ecumenical group, it noted that 287 of the 687 incidents of anti-Christian persecution reported across India in the period January-November 2023 took place in Uttar Pradesh.
Christians account for only 0.18 per cent of the State’s population of more than 200 million people, 79.73 per cent of whom are Hindus.Matters India reports that a Catholic nun has been taken in judicial custody in connection with the death by suicide of a school girl in India's central state of Chhattisgarh.
A court in Ambikapur, a major city in Sarguja district, on February 7th sent the Carmelite Sister Mercy to jail after police charged her with abetting the suicide of the sixth grader the previous night.
The girl, who studied in Carmel School in Ambikapur, accused the nun in her suicide note of torturing her, forcing her to end her life.
The 30-year-old school is managed by the Congregation of Mother Carmel, based the state of Kerala.
Father Lucian Kujur, director of education in Ambikapur diocese, denied the charge against the nun saying, “There was no truth in it.”
According to the priest, the nun had taken their girl’s identity card after she was found in the washrooms along with three other girls during class hours. Sister Mercy had asked the girls to bring their parents the following day.
Father Kujur denied that the nun had tortured the girl.
Sister Mercy, who teaches in the English medium senior higher secondary school, “did not teach the girl” but only took her identity card as she had stayed away from classes despite being in the school, the priest told Matters India February 8.
Soon after the news of the girl’s suicide spread, right wing Hindu groups protested in front of the school demanding the arrest of Sr Mercy and the school principal, another nun.
The police subsequently arrested Sister Mercy and deployed police personnel to guard the school.
Currently, “the school is closed and we expect to reopen it very soon after the situation normalizes,” Father Kujur said.
Over 1,000 Christians were forced to flee their homes in 2022 after a group of tribals allegedly associated with the right-wing Hindu groups opposed their faith in Christianity in the tribal-dominated Bastar region. The mob assaulted them, looted their houses, destroyed crops and even opposed burial of their dead.
The state is currently ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, that heads also the federal coalition government.
Christians, mostly tribal people, make up 2 percent of the state’s more than 30 million population with more than 80 percent Hindus. (Source: MattersIndia.com)
Sources: Combined reports from The Pillar, Matters India and Asia News IT
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