Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Tabernacle stolen, hosts defiled at India church

So I found this story (link).

And these as well:

Catholic Bishop, priests attacked in India (link)
Attack on Bishop “barbaric”: Church leadership (link)
Mumbai: Bombay Catholic Sabha Condemns Attack on Vasai Bishop and Three Others (link)

I have a good friend from India so I asked him if this is common. He said that there is some anti-minority sentiment. Sometimes politicians use the Hindu=Indian for political purposes. And that Typically when these parties come to power they turn a blind eye to the attacks on minorities unless a big issue is made of it. He said that most of the attacks can be traced to a few organizations. There have been quite a few cases in recent years.

I noticed there is also violence against Muslims as well.

I mention all of this because it is very strange to me. In Egypt Copts have been oppressed most of the time for about 1400 years, it is truly the Church of Martyrs. Christianity is nothing new in India. St. Thomas the apostle took it there a long time ago, just as St. Mark took it to Egypt.

When my friend worked with me people would be surprised that he was Catholic. I'd say, "Christianity has been in India since before there was a Europe." The same is true of the Copts.

But in America we are not aware of the rich Christian traditions of other countries. The American media just assumes that there is no such thing as the persecution of Christians anywhere because we are a majority here. I'll see ten stories on the news tonight about what movie stars are no longer married, but not one on the suffering of the Copts or what just happened in India.

But, to quote Gandhi : "You must be the change you want to see in the world."

So, I'll keep posting. So people know.

2 comments:

kairosnow said...

Thanks David for taking it up upon yourself to let others know. I'm a catholic too, from India. Could you guess it ?.

PRAMOD GUPTA said...

INDIA ,A PREDOMINANTLY HINDU NATION , ALWAYS BELIEVED IN RESPECTING EQUAALY, THE RELIGION OF OTHERS, PERHAPS IT IS IN CONTRAST TO THE TEACHINGS OF CHRISTINITY AS PRACTISED IN INDIA. THE FALSE CRITICISM OF HINDU TENETS, AND DENEGRATION OF THEIR ETOHOS HAS CASUALLY BEEN RESPONDED BY THE NATIVES.