By Philip Mathew
Bengaluru: Some 1,500 Catholic religious men and women gathered in the southern Indian city of on February 25 to discuss the current situation of India.
The Bengaluru unit of Conference of Religious India (CRI) organized what they termed as Sanyasa Sangama (religious gathering). Its theme was “Response of the consecrated to the .changing scenario of India.”
Speaking on the occasion, Salesian Father Edward Thomas, president of CRI Bengaluru, reminded the gathering that “Christianity is not a cult or a religion, but a spiritual movement.”
He regretted the increase in intolerance and violence in the name of religion, caste, creed and region. “We need new ideologies and new theologies to counter. We need new wine in new wineskins,” he said.
The priest also noted that the Christians must be in the forefront to take care of the “last, least and lost.”
Christians should not indulge in religious conversion, but become converters of the heart, he told the gathering.
Dinesh Gundu Rao, a leading politician in Karnataka, said that in spite of the allegations that Christians indulged in conversion, their population in India has not increased. So, such are baseless allegations by vested interests, said Rao, a leader of the Indian National Congress Party.
The CRI is a conference of major superiors Catholic religious congregations. It is also a body of 1,15,000 religious men and women spread all over the country.
Among the goals of CRI is to “promote fellowship at all levels of the Christian community in a spirit of humble service and in collaboration with all sections of the people of God and all people of good will.”
Felicitating social and political leaders and cultural presentations were among the highlights of the event.