India: New Profanation of a church in Karnataka

During the night of Saturday, November 7, the Catholic church of St. Anthony in Kavalbyrasandra, in the suburbs of Bangalore, was ransacked and profaned. The tabernacle had been broken and the hosts thrown on the floor, the cabinets had been looted; the collection boxes forced open, a chalice, two ciboria, and other liturgical objects were stolen. According to the parish priest, Fr. Arockiadas, the church, which numbers some 5,000 parishioners had just re-opened this past September 11, after construction work to enlarge it; and no incident with non-Christians communities had been reported. “In the State of Karnataka, many churches were attacked, but no culprit was ever caught,” Archbishop Bernard Moras, of Bangalore said with indignation.
Already on this past September 10, the church of St. Francis of Sales in Hebbagudi, in the suburbs of Bangalore, had been forced opened in the middle of the night and some ten stained-glass windows broken; and the statues of a Calvary standing before the shrine had been destroyed. As on the occasion of the September attack the Home Minister of Karnataka, V. S. Acharya, called the profanation of St. Anthony’s church a “minor incident.” (DICI n° 206 - 12/17/2009 – Sources: Church in Asia/Apic)