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Mob butchers India’s Christian minority

Thousands of Christians have fled their homes in eastern India after mobs burned down dozens of churches and killed at least 14 people. Priests and religious have also been targeted and some nuns have been raped Photos:CNS/AP

BYANNAARCO

RIOTERShavemurdered at least 14 Christians and driven thousands of others from their homes in some of the worst anti-Christian violence in India’s history. As communal fighting continued in the Orissa province this week, at least 60 churches, many of them Catholic, and religious buildings were burned to the ground and thousands of homes destroyed. Hindu mobs started attacking Christians in the Kandhamal region after Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, leader of the hard-line Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and four of his associates were assassinated last month. The government attributed the killings to Maoist extremists and a senior Maoist leader later claimed

responsibility. But Hindu activists in the region blamed Christians, with whom they have had a historically uneasy relationship. As The Catholic Heraldwent to press some human rights groups reported as many as 40 people murdered. Conservative estimates suggested that some 6,000 people had fled to government-run refugee camps, with an estimated 5,000 more hiding in forests around Kandhamal. But Church groups said tens of thousands had fled the violence. In one of the worst reported incidents, a lay Catholic in Tiangia was literally ripped apart by a frenzied mob while two others were left so badly injured they later died from their wounds. Religious and priests have also been targeted and at least six have been seriously injured. One 21

year-old lay missionary was burned alive in the orphanage where she was working and several nuns have been raped, according to reports. Members of the Missionary Sisters of Charity –the order founded by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta –were pelted with stones leaving one sister seriously injured, said Asia News, a Vatican-based news agency. In another incident rioters tried to set a priest on fire, but then stripped and beat him instead while a nun who was with him was raped repeatedly by the assailants. The mob tried to force the priest to also rape the nun as the police stood by, according to Catholic News Service, a US-based press agency. When the priest refused they attacked him with iron bars. The rioting escalated, spreading across the region, and police and

paramilitaries extended the curfew from nine districts to three more on Monday. Although officials said that the violence would be over by the weekend the clashes continued. On Sunday night four more churches and dozens of houses were burned down. Tension began spreading to other Indian provinces including Karnataka and Madya Pradesh in central India where Bajrang Dal groups, the VHP’s youth wing, burnt effigies of missionaries. Scuffles between Hindus and Christian students also broke out. The National United Christian Forum, which is led by Archbishop Vincent Concessao of New Delhi, has appealed to Christians across India to help “the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction of churches and homes damaged in Orissa in the wake of the worst ever commu

nal riots against Christians”. The forum also criticised the police for being “mere bystanders as the rioters rampaged through village after village”. It has also called for this Sunday to be a Day of Prayer and Fasting in solidarity with the victims of the uprisings. There is a history of violence against Christians in Orissa, where high numbers of lower-caste Indians are converting to Christianity. Missionary work has angered Hindus, who claim that Christians bribe people to convert. However, many lower-caste Indians abandon Hinduism to escape the near-slavery and poor living conditions in which the caste system entraps them. A delegation of civil leaders met President Shrimati Pratibha Patil on Monday to demand that she stop the rioting. It included

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar and Archbishop Concessao. It called for legal action against the three radical Hindu groups –the VHP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bajrang Dal –for inciting the violence. Across India nearly 50,000 Christian schools closed in solidarity with children in the Orissa province. Catholics alone manage some 20,700 educational institutions in India. Fr Babu Joseph, the spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said: “All Christian schools in the city and across the country are closed to express solidarity with the innocent people in Orissa who have been targeted. Rallies were held in several parts of the country.” Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against the attacks in Orissa during

his general audience last week, saying that he was deeply saddened by them. “While I firmly condemn every attack on human life, whose sacredness must be respected by all, I express spiritual closeness and solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the faith who are so harshly tried,” the Pope said. In Calcutta the Sisters of Charity held subdued celebrations for the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birthday. A Solemn Mass and prayers for the victims of the attacks took the place of the lively, joyful festivities that usually mark August 26. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the violence as a “national disgrace” and promised compensation.

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Royal Mail brings out stamp in honour of eugenicist Marie Stopes

BYEDWEST

BIRTHCONTROLpioneer Marie Stopes, who advocated the sterilisation of the poor and mixed-race, is to be honoured on a stamp. The 20th-century Scottish eugenicist is one of six “women of distinction” to feature in a new series issued by the Royal Mail next month. Stopes will appear on a 50p stamp alongside the suffragette Millicent Garrett Fawcett, politician Barbara Castle and the black civil

rights activist Claudia Jones. The choice of Stopes is especially controversial as she was accused of being racist and anti-Semitic, and an admirer of Adolf Hitler. As late as August 1939, less than a month before the start of the Second World War, she sent a collection of poems to the German dictator with a gushing letter attached that began: “Dear Herr Hitler, Love is the greatest thing in the world: so will you accept from me these [poems] that you may allow the young

people of your nation to have them?” Born in 1880, Stopes gained a first-class degree in botany from University College London before opening Britain’s first family planning clinic in 1921. In 1919 she urged the National Birth Rate Commission to support mandatory sterilisation for parents who were diseased, drunk or of “bad character”. Her 1921 slogan, “Joyful and Deliberate Motherhood, A Safe Light in our Racial Darkness”, reflected her

eugenicist views, and in 1935 Stopes attended the Nazi-run International Congress for Population Science in Berlin. She also cut her son Harry out of her will after he married a near-sighted woman, the daughter of engineer Barnes Wallis. Even when she planned to adopt, in 1926, Stopes said she stipulated that the boy must be “completely healthy, intelligent and uncircumcised”. Stopes’s organisation, the Society for Constructive Continued on Page 3

Pilgrimage in doubt after Barclays gaffe

BYMARKGREAVES

APILGRIMAGE to Spain was thrown into jeopardy last week after a high street bank rejected a cheque because it was written in Welsh. The £22,000 cheque was supposed to pay for the travel and accommodation costs of 50 pilgrims following in the footsteps of the 17th-century Welsh saint John Roberts. But the trip was thrown

into doubt after Barclays Bank rejected the cheque four times. Hywel Williams, Plaid Cymru MP for Caernarfon, North Wales, said he was “outraged” by the delay. A spokesman for Barclays said it was down to “human error” and would be resolved soon. St John Roberts, a Benedictine monk from the village of Trawsfynydd, Snowdonia, travelled to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain in the 17th century. But on his return to England he was hanged, drawn and quartered for his faith.

Archbishop praises Spanish soccer hero

BYEDWEST

ARCHBISHOPVINCENTNichols of Birmingham has met his hero –Fernando Torres, the Liverpool and Spain striker. The archbishop, a Liverpudlian by birth, met the Spaniard before the Aston Villa-Liverpool match last Sunday, a 0-0 draw. Archbishop Nichols said: “I was delighted to meet Fernando Torres, a player with great skills.

On the football pitch he doesn’t retaliate or quit. I encouraged him to be a great role model for his many young fans throughout Europe.” Mr Torres scored the winning goal in the final of Euro 2008 in Vienna this summer, helping Spain to its first major trophy in 40 years with its 1-0 win over Germany. Mr Torres, nicknamed El Niñño (“the boy”), became Liverpool’s record signing when he arrived from Atletico Madrid for £20 million in July 2007.

FOUNDER OF LITTLE WAY ASSOCIATION MOURNED PAGE 2INSIDE: