The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : CBCI rubbishes claims of rampant conversions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 27, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

CBCI rubbishes claims of rampant conversions

Special Correspondent

Hindutva activists accused of building up a vote bank for Lok Sabha polls

Induced conversions against the principles of Catholic church
‘30,000 people still in forests in Orissa fearing attacks’

Bangalore: Criticising the sangh parivar for “using the bogey of conversion” to attack Christians, Catholic Bishops Conference of India president Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil asked how could the number of Christians remained a mere 2.3 per cent of the population if the churches indulged in rampant conversion?

Speaking to presspersons here on Friday at the end of the two-day executive body meeting of the CBCI, Rev. Vithayathil said that while speaking about one’s faith was a right guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution, conversion by allurement or force was against the basic principles of the Catholic church.

The National Minorities Commission had clearly stated that there were no cases of forced conversion booked anywhere in India, added Archbishop Raphael Chinnath from Bhubaneswar.

The Parivar was using “the ploy of giving a dog a bad name before killing it,” he added.

Rev. Vithayathil said that the attacks on Christians and Christian institutions in several States across India was being carried out by the “trained agents of radical Hindutva activists” to build up a vote bank for the Lok Sabha elections.

CBCI had demanded a ban on “fundamentalist groups which train terrorists under the banner of Hindutva or any other name”.

Both the Centre and the States had failed to take stringent action against those responsible for the incidents and reports of violence continued to pour in from States like Orissa, said Rev. Chinnath.

The Orissa Government had given an affidavit to the Supreme Court on September 8 stating that the situation was under control, but the situation on the ground was to the contrary, he said.

Rev. Chinnath said the attacks were closely linked to the rise of the Dalit communities in Khandamal in Orissa because of the educational and developmental initiative of the church.

Most of them were earlier “no more than slaves under the upper caste people” and the educational activities of the church had questioned this caste hierarchy, he added.

Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandes, Secretary General of CBCI, said 30,000 people in Orissa were still in the forests fearing attacks and no compensation had reached them. They were not safe even in refugee camps, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section