The umpteenth episode of profanation of a sacred place in India.
A group of youths has turned the Syro-Malabar church of St. Alphonsa in the city of Kankanady, upside-down.
Kankanady is a port town in the state of Karnataka.
The sacred objects and vestments destroyed, include a statue of Jesus Christ and a Bible kept in the sacristy.
One of the youths responsible for the act of vandalism, in a further act of contempt, left the sacred building wearing vestments he found in the sacristy.
This is a “vile” act that “has wounded the sensibility of the faithful,” Mgr. Lawrence Mukkuzhy, the bishop of Belthangady said, in an interview with AsiaNews.
In 23 years of history, Mgr. Mukkuzhy continued, the church of St. Alphonsa had never suffered damage or vandalism. The attack of 3 November “is a vile gesture... events of this kind should not happen in any place of worship.”
The president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, Sajan K. George, spoke of “the 38th anti-Christian attack in Karnataka”, where the government of the BJP – a movement linked to the Hindu extremist wing – is not guaranteeing safety to religious minorities.
He denounced – AsiaNews reports – the “complicity of the authorities” and the ease with which extremists escape the reaches of the law. And the sense of impunity, Sajan K. George concluded, is confirmed by the laughable penalties imposed on the authors of the violence against the churches in Mangalore in 2008: all this has guaranteed a sense of impunity, that “permits fundamentalists to perpetrate their reign of terror and inter-confessional violence.”
Some retain, instead, that the group of Hindu fundamentalists is envious of the social activities sponsored by Christians on behalf of the poor, since this generous attention – aimed at offering instruction and helping the weakest classes become socially self-sufficient – would threaten the policy of exploitation and oppression incarnated by Hindu fundamentalism.
Thus, Christian missionaries are threatened, frightened and falsely accused, in an attempt to force them to leave.
The Christian activist Sajan K. George points the finger at the government, which seems to do nothing to stop the violence that for the past few years has brought the religious minorities in India to their knees.
The Hindu extremists, paradoxically, enjoy the authorities' protection, and are thus able to act undisturbed in their campaign to undermine the services offered the poor and marginalized.