By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, August 2, 2023: Catholics across India have reacted with dismay to a message on Manipur from Cardinal Oswald Gracias, a top Church leader in the country and one of the eight advisors of Pope Francis.

The cardinal’s comments “were shocking, uncalled for and totally unjustified, as they did not reflect the ground reality,” says Allen Brooks, spokesperson of the United Christian Forum of the Northeast, who was the first to report when violence broke out in Manipur state May 3 evening.

The cardinal’s 4.28-minute video message, addressed to the Catholics of Bombay archdiocese, asserts that the riots in the northeastern Indian state are not a Hindu-Christian conflict but clashes between two tribal groups.

The cardinal, while calling for a peaceful solution to the conflict, said it “has been given a religious twist, but this is not a religious conflict between two religions” but a conflict between two tribes “that have historically been very hostile to each other.”

Brooks, who is based in Assam’s Guwahati, says the conflict could have been identified as ethnic but for the “glaring” ground reality.

“With hundreds of churches and institutions belonging to Christians of Kuki and Meitei communities completely destroyed in the first three days of the conflict, the narrative was clear — it was a well-orchestrated plan,” he asserts.

He points out that the destruction of 247 churches belonging to the Meitei Christian in the Imphal Valley has shocked everyone, given their ethnicity.

“Today the Meitei Christians continue to live in fear. I’ve been informed that the Meitei Christian community is not being allowed to worship and are being threatened to return to the original fold,” he added.

Father Anand Mathew, a member of the Indian Missionary Society in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, says the statement of “one of the most important leaders of the Indian Church” has shocked him.

“Is he unaware of the ground realities? If that is true, then that speaks bad of him,” Father Mathew told Matters India.

Apostolic Carmel Sister M Nirmalini, president of Conference of Religious India, says the cardinal’s statement has disheartened her. “I tend to disagree. Can he explain to us why the BJP government is unable to control the violence and why it took 78 days for the prime minister to react?” asks the Bengaluru-based head of India’s more than 130,000 Catholic religious men and women.

Conflicts in the area, she told Matters India August 2, “have been going on for years but never have the Churches been targeted and violation of women on this scale.”

The violence has reportedly displaced 70,000 people who now live in 300 refugee camps while many others have fled to other states in India. Scores of women were raped and killed. More than 5,000 Christian institutions, including churches, and private Christian homes have been torched in the violence that has killed nearly 190 people and wounded more than 300.

John Dayal, a prominent Catholic lay leader and veteran journalist who was part of a peace team that visited Manipur in July end, urges the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), to issue “a categorical statement” that Christians have been the victims of the state-sponsored violence against Kuki Zo tribes of Manipur.

Such an action is “the only way to rectify the damage done by the cardinal’s statement which was not based on the facts and truths of the ground situation of Imphal valley and the hills of Churachandpur and other districts,” Dayal asserted.

Even Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, the head of the Catholic Church in Manipur, says Cardinal Gracias’ views did not reflect the ground reality. He said this in an interview with renowned Indian journalist Karan Thapar. Cardinal Gracias, who was the CBCI president for a total of eight years, has not visited Manipur after the violence began.

However, his successor Archbishop Andrew Thazhath visited the troubled state July 23-24 with two priests from New Delhi. He then criticized the prolonged silence and apathy of the law enforcement agencies in containing violence in Manipur.

In July, Archbishop Lumon compared the Manipur situation to 2008 anti-Christian violence in the Kandhamal district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha. He said officials in Manipur have allowed subtle attacks on Christianity, under the pretext of war against drugs or fight against illegal migrants from Myanmar.

Father Mathew suspects the cardinal’s statement was “scripted” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) combine. “The BJP IT cell quoted him immediately,” he pointed out.

Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national convener of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group, too predicts the cardinal’s statement “will be used against us.”

The Patna-based nun finds it “very embarrassing” when “the highest representative” of the Church makes such a statement. She regrets that the cardinal’s statement has put the Catholics “on a very delicate and critical position,” although “most of us don’t believe in what he has said.”

Correcting the cardinal that the Meiteis are not tribals, Sister Fernandes says Christians do not have to buy or support the government narrative on the Manipur violence. “Where is our prophetic response to denounce the wrong, name it and shame it?” she asks

Maintaining that the people in Manipur need healing as their wounds are raw, Sister Fernades pleads that one should not take away those people’s pain and nightmares with such statements. “If we can’t call a spade a spade, then let’s not say anything,” she added.

Thomas Scaria, a veteran journalist in Mangaluru who has reported on the Manipur violence, quoted Salesian Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati to say that his many fellow bishops have little knowledge about the culture and faith practices of people in the northeast, a hotspot of more than 300 tribes.

Only those who have worked in the region understand the richness of the tribal culture and their values. “The Manipur violence is certainly an ethnic cleansing drive, well planned by those in power. I feel sad that the cardinal’s statement only favors the majority community there,” he added.

Carmelite Sister Manju Devarapalli, secretary of the National Dalit Christian Watch based in Andhra Pradesh, laments that “the sense of justice and genuine interest in the lives of others in accordance with the Gospel values is corroding steeply, particularly from the ones it is expected.”

However, Jesuit Father Stanislaus Alla, who teaches moral theology in Delhi’s Vidyajyoti College of Theology, says the cardinal’s main intention was to appeal for support and prayer for peace and healing in Manipur.

The appeal made sense to its intended audience, he says. Disagreement with the cardinal’s explanation of the Manipur violence as a clash between two tribes “should not take away the merits of the appeal,” he asserts.

Father Alla also does not want people to get upset, angry or judge the cardinal’s motives and intentions even if they are disappointed with what he has said or omitted. “Certainly, the Catholics look for light, guidance and direction from the ecclesial leaders,” he agrees,

More than in the past, there are several sources for obtaining knowledge and information on contemporary concerns. In the spirit of Synodality, we should challenge ourselves to grow up and team up and do what we can and join others in confronting injustice and inequality and work for peace and harmony,” he added.