Bangalore: India’s human rights commission chief says the country has witnessed some deliberate attempts to depict Christians as anti-national or unpatriotic.
“Christians in India are not less Indian, nor are they anti-national. There is a sinister attempt to relate patriotism with religion,” Justice Cyriac Joseph, acting chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, told the Catholic bishops on March 2.
The federal commission is an autonomous body to protect and promote human rights in India.
Joseph was the keynote speaker at the 32nd general body meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) at St John’s Medical College campus in Bangalore. The March 2-9 assembly is addressing among other topics, ‘The Response of the Church in India to the Present-day Challenges.”
Justice Joseph said sees no clash between practicing one’s faith and abiding by the laws. “Indian Christians are guided by the Bible in matters of faith and governed by the Constitution in matters of civic life,” he added.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, said a diminished appreciation of faith exists now. “The Christian way of life and God’s love seems to be eclipsed by a strong secular voice that comes from some within the Church that find the Church’s perennial teaching distasteful,” he added.