Pathanamthitta – The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) has condemned ‘terrorism in the name of religion’ in various parts of the world.
A pastoral letter issued by KCBC president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Catholicos recently and read in churches on Sunday expressed concern over the cruelty meted out to human beings and their harassment in the name of religion, especially in the Middle East countries and Africa.
The Cardinal called upon the Christian community in Kerala to conduct prayers and observe fast across the State during the ongoing 40-day lent to awaken human conscience against such barbarian acts.
He said March 24 should be observed as a day of prayer and fasting at all Christian Church centres, parishes, and institutions attached to it.
The Cardinal said all Catholic dioceses and parishes across the State should organise Way of the Cross processions on March 27, expressing solidarity and spiritual oneness with the 21 Coptic Christian martyrs in Libya who were butchered by religious terrorists, reported The Hindu.
The Cardinal said the believers, upholding the value and preciousness of life, should donate blood on March 29 as a model to the world at a time when religious terrorists shocked the world with their heinous acts of bloodshed.
Believers should organise workshops, seminars, and such programmes to make people aware of the growing threats posed by religious terrorism and fundamentalism. Believers should bring to the notice of the authorities if they were in the know of any local-level terror activities, the Cardinal said. The Catholics, in association with various other Christian sections, should strive to protect the constitutionally guaranteed secularism and democracy of the country. The organisations which resorted to such cruelty demeaned religion itself, he said.