India: The Virgin Profaned
Another violent act against the Catholic minority in India was perpetrated on the morning of May 20, 2017: an angry crowd of about a hundred people vandalized a church consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima in a village of the archdiocese of Hyderabad, in the south of the country. The assailants destroyed the crucifix and broke the statue of the Blessed Virgin.
The church had just been consecrated on May 13 by the archbishop, Archbishop Thumma Bala, on the day the universal Church celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima. “This act of profanation, vandalism, and the destruction of statues deeply wounds the religious feelings of the Catholic community. We are very upset,” lamented Archbishop Bala, quoted by the press agency Asianews.
A ceremony of reparation, in keeping with what the Church prescribes in such circumstances, will be held in the profaned sanctuary after the investigation is over.
The President of the Global Council of Indian Christians, Sajan K. George, also expressed his indignation; there is no doubt for him that this umpteenth act of vandalism is the work of anti-Christian Hindu nationalist groups, whose violence has redoubled since the victory of their political party, the BJP, at the last Indian general elections.
As for the police, they prefer to minimize the facts and pretend that the attack could have been motivated by a real estate dispute on the construction of a church that might have disturbed the sensibilities of the locals. This is not the first time the Christian minority has complained of police complicities and their refusal to file complaints for anti-Christian acts, or even to intervene when there is violence.
Sources : Radio Vatican / Christianophobie - FSSPX.News- 05/27/17
