Bhubaneswar: Delhi archdiocese will join other Christian denominations and civil society groups to organize a “memorial meet” in honor of Archbishop Raphael Cheenath.
Archbishop Anil J.T. Couto of Delhi will preside over the three-hour event at 2 pm on August 27 at India International Centre
Retied Archbishop Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar died on August 14 at Mumbai after battling cancer. He was 81.
The public meeting in Archbishop Cheenath’s memory “is being organized in order to stress the strengths of India’s secular character and institutions,” said John Dayal, former general secretary of the All India Christian Council and a member of the Indian government’s National Integration Council.
Several leading members of civil society and others are expected to address the program. They include Supreme Court senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, senior journalist Seema Mustafa, and former National Minorities Commission chairperson Wajahat Habibullah.
Archbishop Cheenath played a pivotal role in the people’s struggle for justice after the August 2008 targeted anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district of Odisha, eastern India, in which more than 100 Christians were killed, 6,000 homes and over 300 big and small churches destroyed. Over 60,000 people, most of them tribals and Dalits, were displaced.
Acting on the prelate’s Public Interest appeals, the Supreme Court of India recently ordered reopening of hundreds of cases of violence that the police had prematurely closed. The court also accepted the appeal for enhancement of compensation. Abp Cheenath won significant victories in the Supreme Court, including the recent one in which 300 criminal cases were reopened after the local police had closed them, said Dayal.