By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, May 13, 2023: Frustrated at the Indian Church leaders’ “lukewarm response” to attacks against Christians, an advocacy group of progressive Catholic priests and nuns has urged them to become good shepherds “who do not run away when the wolf comes to attack the sheep.”

An open letter from the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace (FORUM) addressed to the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) also calls for a national seminar to evolve policies and strategies to face the current challenges.

“We are upset about the lukewarm response of the official Church to the increasing violence against Christians ever since Narendra Modi came to power and even the appreciation of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government at the centre by some bishops,” the letter laments.

The May 12 letter begins with the forum members expressing shock and distress at the recent violence in Manipur that has led to 60 deaths and injury to 230 people in the northeastern Indian state.

Quoting official statements, the forum said the Manipur violence has also displaced 35,000 people and destroyed 1.700 houses, besides torching 100 churches. “Actual loss of lives and property could be far more than what is reported officially,” the letter says.

Observing that the majority of the victims are Christians, the forum sees in the Manipur violence a pattern “very similar” to what happened in Odisha’s Kandhamal district in 2008.

Around 100 people were killed and more than 56,000 people displaced during anti-Christian violence that lasted four months in Kandhamal.

The forum is also upset with the lack of unity among India’s bishops in responding to the current attacks against Christians.

While CBCI president Archbishop Andrews Thazhath was satisfied with making appeal for praying for peace in Manipur, the Cardinal Poola Anthony, head of the Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council, and Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore “had the courage and compassion to condemn the rampant violence” targeting the Christian tribal in the state.

Cardinal Poola and Archbishop Machado also reminded the federal and the state governments their responsibility to protect the life and property of people and to foster religious tolerance, respect and understanding, said the letter signed by forum national convener Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national secretary Capuchin Father Anonty F Thekkiniyath and national treasure Indian Missionary Society Father Anand Mathew.

The forum found it ironic that Cardinal George Alencherry’s reported statement that Christians are safe under the Modi Regime. The cardinal, who heads the Syro-Malabar Church, made the statement April 9 after the Bangalore archbishop and two Christian organizations filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court against increasing attacks on Christians.

Earlier on February 19, thousands of Christians of all denominations organized a protest at Jantar Mantar against attacks on Christians in different parts of the country. Among the participants were Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi and Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of the Syro-Malabar diocese of Faridabad.

On the day Cardinal Alencherry made the pro-Modi statement during an interview in Kochi, the two archbishops in the national capital accorded a cordial welcome to Modi at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Church on the occasion of Easter.

The forum also mentions the April 24 meeting of the heads of different Churches, including Cardinal Alencherry, with Modi during his visit to Kerala. “On both occasions the bishops failed to raise the issue of increasing violence against Christians and attacks on their churches and institutions,” the forum laments.

Such “ambivalent, confusing and even contradicting statements” from the Church leaders have “highly confused” the Christians in India, especially Catholics, the forum bemoans.

Hence the forum suggests that the CBCI take initiative to organize an “All-India Seminar: The Church in India Today,” to evolve policies and strategies to face the current challenges.

A similar program organized May 15-25, 1969, in Bangalore is considered a watershed in the history of the Catholic Church in India.

“At this crucial juncture the Church cannot be silent or cannot appear to be supportive of the anti-people government; it has to play a prophetic role,” the forum asserts.

It was the seminar to be attended by representatives of bishops, priests, religious women and men, lay women and men, experts in politics, economics, law, journalism, media and other subjects.

“A divided Church cannot face a powerful adversary. Hence, the leaders in the Church shall take immediate and urgent steps to settle conflicts within it through a process of dialogue, and foster better cooperation and coordination among the three rites,” says the letter.

The forum wants the Catholic Church to take the lead to network with other Churches and denominations “in view of the huge challenges the minorities are facing in India under the BJP regime.”

It urged the Church leaders to rise to the occasion, leaving behind their petty and vested interests, for the sake of the people of India and to prove to be good shepherds “who do not run away when the wolf comes to attack the sheep.”