New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Monday demanded immediate inquiry into the attack on a Catholic priest and three lay leaders in Coimbatore, a textile city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The conference also urged the state government to “book the culprits and bring them before the law at the earliest.”
CBCI spokesperson Father Gyanprakash Topno noted in a press release that a mob attacked Fr Jose Kannumkuzhy, Lijo, Joseph and Stanley on January 28 when they went to enquire about the arrests of four priests managing a center for HIV patients in Ettimadai, some 20 km south of Coimbatore.
The victims belonged to Ramanathapuram Syro-Malabar diocese. They were admitted to a hospital on January 28 where the priest is in a serious condition. The others were discharged after three days.
The CBCI press noted said that the mob forced the priest and others to walk on the highway and continued to torture them. “It is alleged that the local police, though informed of the mob attack, did not act promptly,” it added.
CBCI president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis expressed sympathy with the victims and assured the Ramanathapuram bishop that the bishops’ conference would press for quick action from the authorities and demand protection for the Church personnel and minorities from such mob attacks.
Trouble has been brewing in Ettimadai after the death of a child in the HIV center named Assisi Snhehalaya and managed by the Franciscan Conventuals.
Public Relations Officer of Ramanathapuram Fr Johnson Veeppattuparambil told Matters India that the Church suspects a dismissed worker of the Snehalaya was behind the troubles.
Meanwhile, parishes in Ramanathapuram diocese conducted half-an-hour Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after Masses on January 31 for peace and justice. The parish priests also read out a letter from Vicar General Father George Narikuzhi narrating the recent incidents in Ettimadai.
The vicar general’s letter addressed to the priests in the diocese regretted that TV channels and newspapers, especially those in Tamil, had distorted the events.
The diocesan official also noted that three Franciscan Conventuals priests are under remand in a sub jail in connection with the death of the child in their center.