New Delhi: Catholics of all three ritual Churches in India on October 16 prayed for peace between their nation and neighboring Pakistan.
“It is not that we do not pray for India. We do pray for our country every day. Perhaps we are the only community that does it so religiously,” said Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), who led an hour-long prayer program at Rajghat, a Gandhi memorial in New Delhi.
Bishop Mascarenhas said the idea to pray for the country came from CBCI president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, who on October 16 appealed all Catholics and people of goodwill in India to observe a day of prayer for the country.
The appeal came as relations between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-capable nations, worsened threatening peace in South Asia. “May every place of worship chime with prayers for our beloved nation, its leaders and its people,” the cardinal’s appeal had said.
In New Delhi, more than 300 people attended the program. It began with a silent walk from the Gandhi memorial’s parking place to the black marble platform, one kilometer away, that marks the spot where India’s father of the nation was cremated on January 31, 1948, a day after his assassination.
After paying floral tribute to Gandhi, who is considered the modern apostle of peace, the group, comprising Latin, Syro-Malankara and Syro-Malabar Catholics, assembled under a tree in the Rajghat complex.
“Nobody wants war,” asserted the priest, who said organizing prayer service was the right thing to do when people are at loss as to what to do to bring peace. “When human wisdom fails, we need divine wisdom,” he added.
Bishop Jacob Barnabas of Gurgaon said India has become “a miracle” for the whole world because of the way it forges unity among its people diverse cultures, languages and religions. He told the gathering to be proud of the nation that has remained “a land of peace and religiosity” for millennia.
Observing that only a few people are trying to disturb peace in the country, the Syro-Malankara prelate expressed the hope the prayer program would help change their hearts.
The program ended with the participants pledging to reject violence and work for peace in society and community. They also resolved to oppose oppression and discrimination and treat everyone with respect.
Non-violence that Mahatma Gandhi promoted is “a positive, active principle and practice” and not just the absence of violence, they noted.
While praying for world peace, the gathering sought the power to be gentle and forgiving and to accept endure and accept what is right and just.
They also prayed for vision and faith to work for “new world” that is free from violence and where fear does not force men to do injustice to others and selfishness to hurt their neighbor.
Similar programs were held in other parts of India.