By Purushottam Nayak

Bhubaneswar, July 8, 2023: Christians in the eastern Indian state of Odisha seem elated that Pope Francis has created a commission for new martyrs.

They hope the new commission would address their demand that the Church recognize as martyrs their people killed during the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Odisha’s Kandhamal district.

“The Vatican move is a welcome step in the right direction,” says Ajay Kumar Singh, a human rights activist and part of a seven-member committee that prepared a document on the Kandhamal victims.

Father Singh, who has fought for justice for the Odisha victims, says the Kandhamal violence that lasted for several months was one of the biggest attacks on Christians in the past 300 years of India’s history.

Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the head of the Catholic Church in Odisha, points out that the Kandhamal Christians were killed solely because of their “unwavering faith” in their faith.

“They were not criminals, nor were they anti-socials or a burden on society. They were well-liked community members,” asserted the Divine Word prelate in his foreword of the book “Kandhamal Massacred in Anti-Christian violence in 2007-2008” sent to the Vatican for the recognition of 36 Catholic martyrs of Kandhamal.

Pope Francis on July 5 released a letter announcing the establishment of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints’ “Commission for the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith,” in view of the Jubilee of 2025.

The working group’s objective will be to draw up a catalogue of all Christians who have shed their blood to confess Christ and bear witness to the Gospel.

“Martyrs in the Church,” wrote the Pope, “are witnesses of the hope that comes from faith in Christ and incites to true charity. Hope keeps alive the profound conviction that good is stronger than evil, because God in Christ has conquered sin and death.”

The Commission will continue the search to identify the Witnesses of the Faith in this first quarter of the century and to continue in the future. This work was started during the Jubilee Year of 2000.

“Martyrs,” the Pope continued, “have accompanied the life of the Church in every age and flourish as ‘ripe and excellent fruits of the vineyard of the Lord’ even today… Martyrs are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries: they are bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, lay people and families, who in the different countries of the world, with the gift of their lives, have offered the supreme proof of charity.”

Father Singh says the Pope’s letter indicates that the Vatican is really concerned about faith and religious freedom as the fundamental and cornerstone of human rights and dignity.

He says the Kandhamal violence killed more than 100 people and displaced at least 64,000 others. More than 300 churches were demolished, 6,000 Christian houses destroyed and 56,000 rendered homeless in the district. The victims include both Catholics and Protestants.

Father Singh is happy that the Pope wants all Christians, not just Catholics, who were killed for the faith, to be recognized as martyrs. “It is a welcome step,” he told Matters India.

He and others have demanded that the Catholic Church recognize all Kandhamal victims as martyrs, irrespective of their denomination.

The priest wants the Vatican to create a mechanism for recognizing, documenting and processing the faith of martyrs rather than leaving it all to the local churches that he says might not have the needed resources and guidance. “Unless that is addressed, the Pope’s letter would remain unfulfilled, however well-intentioned it may be,” he asserted.

Archbishop Barwa expressed his happiness over dossiers on the Kandhamal presented by the committee. “They have presented the truth about the people who were killed, how they died, and how they witnessed living faith,” he added

The Pope’s letter was welcomed by some Kandhamal survivors. “I am grateful and thankful to the Pope for the letter,” Asalota Nayak, widow of Bikram Nayak, one of the 36 Catholic martyrs.

“I earnestly pray that the innocent blood of my husband for the sake of Christian faith be known and recognized in the society,” she told Matters India July 8.