After Crosses Destroyed, Indian Catholics Pray For Persecutors

Unidentified people destroyed nine of the 14 crosses St. Lawrence Shrine in Mangalore diocese's Attur parish put up a year ago. The crosses, leading to a hilltop, were set up to mark 14 events associated with Jesus' passion and death.

MANGALORE, India (UCAN) - Catholics of a southern Indian parish say their participation in the traditional Way of the Cross on Palm Sunday helped them forgive people who have hurt their religious sentiments.

Unidentified people destroyed nine of the 14 crosses St. Lawrence Shrine in Mangalore diocese's Attur parish put up a year ago. The crosses, leading to a hilltop, were set up to mark 14 events associated with Jesus' passion and death. On March 16, Palm Sunday this year, about 1,000 parishioners climbed this hill.

Mangalore, a port town 2,290 kilometers south of New Delhi, is a major Christian stronghold in Karnataka state.

Attur parishioner Lawrence Noronha told UCA News on March 18 that the Palm Sunday service reminded them of the hate campaign Jesus encountered and "its modern-day repetition." He said local Catholics discovered the broken crosses during the last week of January, when the parish celebrated its annual feast. The parish repaired the crosses and used the Way of the Cross on Palm Sunday to pray for people who destroyed them.

Parish priest Father Arthur Pereira, who led the service, told UCA News the prayers reminded people of the need to forgive those who "traveled before us through the 14 stations and destroyed the crosses."

According to him, Catholics have used the parish-owned hillside for a 1-kilometer Way of the Cross since the parish opened around 200 years ago. The Palm Sunday program ended at the foot of a 200-year-old cross on the hilltop. The crosses to mark stations along the way were constructed about a year ago.

Father Pereira described the shrine as a center of interreligious harmony where people from other religions also come to pray. About 300,000 people attended the annual feast this year, he said. Then he added, "Maybe the miscreants were jealous of the shrine's growing popularity."

The priest did not accuse anyone or any group over the destruction of the crosses. "We don't know who did it, but it was deliberately done to create communal disturbances," he said.

Some parishioners feared trouble during the Palm Sunday program, but it "went on smoothly," the priest continued. "In fact more people attended it this year."

Peter Noronha, a parishioner, said the Way of the Cross helped people forgive the culprits and pray for them. "If Jesus faced crucifixion then, we have to expect such elements now," he added.

Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore, who heads the Catholic Church in Karnataka state, said the destruction of the crosses "deeply pained" him because the shrine is associated with the history of Catholics in Mangalore, whose ancestors withstood persecution some 200 years ago.

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In 1784, local Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan arrested 60,000 Christians, confiscated their property and deported them to his capital, Srirangapatinam, 200 kilometers southeast of Mangalore. Many died in captivity. British forces helped liberate them 15 years later, and allowed survivors to return to their original land. About 15,000 of them returned to Mangalore.

Archbishop Moras told UCA News on March 14 that the Attur shrine, built in 1801, is among the first churches the liberated Catholics built. He regretted "a tremendous" increase in the "hate campaign" against Christians in the past few years.

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Republished by Catholic Online with permission of the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), the world's largest Asian church news agency (www.ucanews.com).