The four phase Ad limina visit of bishops from India – the fourth
largest Episcopal conference in the world – entered its final stage on
Thursday with bishops from the eastern region.
They were led by the Archbishop of Mumbai, Cardinal Oswald Gracias,
who described the meeting with Pope Benedict in an interview with
Vatican Radio: “It was a very good meeting with the Pope. We spoke about
the situation in India, the challenges we have, the good news we have
and also about the hopes we have for the future. The Holy Father was
very interested in knowing about the situation of how Indian Christians
are treated, our efforts for inter-religious dialogue and also about how
we go about our pastoral work”.
On Friday it was the turn of bishops from Karnataka, a region that
has longed be plagued by fundamentalism that often targets religious
minorities, in particular, the Christian minorities. Only last week
Hindu extremists attacked a church, threatening its pastor. It is the
latest in a series of episodes.
“These have been a cause of worry and the Holy Father specifically
asked also if there is violence”, reveals Cardinal Gracias. “I would
think that certain fundamentalist forces have tried to take advantage of
a situation and are really creating a problem where there is none,
creating a certain animosity towards Christians and the Gospel making it
appear as if the whole of India is in danger because of the activities
of the Christians and the missionaries which is not true at all. The
Gospel is a message of love and peace and joy and human growth which
does not threaten anybody. It’s not all over India, it is only in
certain pockets but really I would not be honest if I did not say that
there is violence in parts of the country even today. But it is
certainly much, much better than before”.