By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Oct 25, 2023: The Vatican approval to the beatification process for the Kandhamal martyrs has brought great joy to Christians across India.
“Feeling gratitude to Living God, the God of the suffering. Tears roll down,” Sister Meena Barwa, a survivor of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Odisha’s Kandhamal district, told Matters India, reacting to the news from the Vatican.
John Dayal, former national president of the All India Catholic Union who remains connected with the Kandhamal survivors, says: “Surely it is day of great joy for each one of us who has had the privilege to accompany the brave people of Kandhamal since Christmas Eve of 2007 when they paid such a heavy price for nurturing and living their faith as Christians.”
Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, head of the Catholic Church in Odisha, hails the Vatican move as “a momentous occasion in the life of our Archdiocese of Cuttack- Bhubaneswar, Odisha Church and the Church at large.”
The Vatican’s October 2 decision was first communicated to the Divine Word prelate by Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli.
Archbishop Barwa says the “Nihil Obstat” (no objection) granted by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints in Rome affirms that it sees no doctrinal or moral impediments to investigating the life, virtues and sanctity of the Servant of God Kanteshwar Digal and companions.
“This is a testimony to the authenticity of the proposed cause and its alignment with the teachings and values of our faith,” Archbishop Barwa asserted.
The prelate says the lives of Servant of God Kanteshwar Digal and companions have been a source of inspiration for Christians in India. “Through their unwavering faith during the 2008 Kandhamal communal violence, they have left an indelible mark on our spiritual journey,” he adds.
Violence against the Odisha Christians erupted in Kandhamal with Hindu right-wing groups blaming Christians for the August 23, 2008, murder of their religious leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, despite Maoist rebels claiming the assassination.
More than 100 people were killed and at least 64,000 displaced. More than 300 churches were destroyed in the district and 6,000 Christian houses were destroyed and 56,000 rendered homeless.
Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national convener of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace based in Patna, Bihar, says the Vatican approval “is indeed great news in our contemporary times. it will boost the courage of many more now.”
Dayal, who has made frequent visits to Kandhamal, recalls that the violence of December 24, 2007, was repeated in August 2008, at a far higher level and in the unfolding of a deep and sinister conspiracy. “The toll remains the highest in 300 years in the 2,000-year history of the community in the Indian subcontinent.”
The lay leader calls it proper that the Church has allowed the process for the eventual collective sainthood of those killed during the Kandhamal violence. “The violence faced by the Catholic community, Tribal and Dalit, was immense. The numbers and viciousness of atrocities, arson, and eviction remain mind numbing 15 years later,” he points out.
“For some of us, the tragedy was personal. We lost friends. Even in this hour of joy, I mourn my friend Father Bernard [Digal], a son of the Kandhamal plateau and treasurer of the archdiocese of Cuttack Bhubaneswar when his life was cut short by the inhuman assault on him. He never recovered.,” Dayal recalled.
The Catholic lay leader in his early 70s says “each of the murdered men women and children, and the survivors have taught us deep and lasting lessons in faith. Kandhamal itself has become a beacon, a flame visible from afar, for the community spread so thin in so many vulnerable areas of our land. It provides solace to the unending chain of victims of religious fundamentalism and murderous hate that lights anew by some evil hand every time we think has been defeated and is dying out.”