Anti-Conversion Laws: More Threats to Christians from Hindu Nationalists in India

We Catholic Christians are not afraid of freedom

What is happening in India is as dangerous as the evil onslaught of Islamic Jiahdism. It is a form of Hindu Nationalism which is determined to turn India into a Hindu State and compel adherence to a version of Hinduism which has no room for Religious Freedom. The leading proponents of this movement against fundamental human rights such as the right to religious freedom are adherents to "Hindutva".The fundamental beauty of the Christian faith as lived in its fullness within the Catholic Church is that we are not afraid of freedom. Just give us an altar!

P>CHESAPEAKE,VA. (Catholic Online) - As a Deacon of the Church I always look forward to the Easter Vigil Liturgy when the Elect receive the Sacraments on Initiation and candidates from other Christian communities enter into the full communion of the Church.

As the Director of Adult Faith Formation in my parish, I work with these dear men and women who have exercised their freedom and chosen to become Christians within the Catholic Church and know the great joy that fills their lives.

This is also the time of year when our young receive their First Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation. The reception of these Sacraments is at the heart of the Catholic Christian faith and forms a wonderful Rite of passage for our young.

As a revert to the Catholic Church, I know that the grace I received in those Sacraments, and in my Baptism as a child, led me home to the fullness of the Christian faith in the Catholic Church as a young man. I am eternally grateful for those Sacraments.

However, in some Nations, the reception of these Sacraments, by adults and by the young, is leading to severe persecution, oppression and arrest. My readers have followed my reports over the last few years of the horrid treatment of Catholics and other Christians by some nationalist Hindus in India.

We must never forget the martyr, Fr. Thomas Pandippally, of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate. On August 16, 2008 he watered the ground of India with his blood. This holy priest was martyred at the hands of Hindu extremists in Orissa, India precisely because he was a Christian. I wrote a tribute entitled "RIP: Fr. Thomas Pandippally, Martyr of a New Missionary Age" 
 
I have continued to write about the plight of our brothers and sisters in the land evangelized by the Apostle Thomas, India. I will not stop until it stops. India has a wonderful Christian history. The Nation has given the Church many saints, including, most recently, St Alfonsa, and, in the process of canonization, Blessed "Mother" Teresa.

Most recently, in September of 2011, a Catholic Church was desecrated by 20 masked men. They were cowards who hid their identity. They destroyed the altar, the vestments of the clergy and the confessionals. The hatred is obvious and the threat is real. All of those who bear the name Christian have an obligation in solidarity to do something about this! These are our brethren in Christ.

On Thursday I read a disturbing report from Mumbai, India by Nirmala Carvalho, one of the outstanding reporters for Asia News. It was one of a growing number of reports concerning the use of the so called "anti-conversion law" of the Indian State of Gujarat to persecute Christians.

Similar tactics are being utilized in other States in India. In Gujarat it is called the "Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act of 2008." It is anything BUT a Freedom of Religion Act.It is a violation of the Right to Religious Freedom masquerading under Orweliian newspeak in horrid legislation which is fundamentally unjust!

Religious Freedom is a fundamental human right. That is the teaching of the Catholic Church. It is also the truth as revealed by the Natural Law which can be known by all men and women through the exercise of reason. It is also nearly universally accepted - in principle. The problem comes in the application.Many Nations just give the idea lip service.  

For example, an unjust law like the "Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act of 2008" is actually used to deny religious freedom while using the term "freedom of religion". Oh, I know, some of my readers around the globe at this point may be wondering if, to use the old adage, people "who live in glass houses should throw stones".

I acknowledge that my own Nation which I love, the United States of America, is struggling for air under the boot of a rabid secularist ideology entrenched in power. Sadly, the current administration in the US uses the phrase "religious freedom" while it increasingly denies it.  I write about this human rights abuse regularly and am doing all I can to stop this advance of an anti-religious Statism under President Obama.

Here are the facts of what is happening in Gujaret, India. Thirty two children and teenagers celebrated their first communion and confirmation recently. Hindu Nationalists alleged that this celebration constituted a "forced conversion". As a result, an investigation of the priests has been opened.

Fr. Cedric Prakash is the President of the Gujarat United Christian Forum for Human Rights.He told Asia News that these accusations were, "unfounded, misleading and malicious.The children  come from Catholic families, and the 'ceremonies' mentioned in the complaints are the traditional sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation. Clearly the draconian anti-conversion law in Gujarat is not applicable in these cases. "

Think about it. What if those first communions and confirmations you recently went to resulted in the Bishop or Priest or Deacon being charged with a criminal offense? This is not the only incidentof overt religious persecution of Christians in the land evangelized by St. Thomas.

What is happening in India is as dangerous as the evil onslaught of Islamic Jiahdism. It is a form of Hindu Nationalism which is determined to turn India into a Hindu State and compel adherence to a version of Hinduism which has no room for the fundamental right to Religious Freedom.

The leading proponents of this movement against fundamental human rights such as the right to religious freedom are adherents to "Hindutva", a kind of Hindu Nationalism, a sort of Hindu version of the Islamist Jihadists.

One of the political expressions of this Hindu nationalism is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. (RSS) It purports to propagate "Hindu Culture". They want to establish a "Hindu Nation" in India. Just take the time to research these folks and you will see why they are such a threat to religious freedom in India.

Pope Benedict XVI just returned from Cuba, a beautiful Island Nation which has lived under the oppressive boot of atheistic Marxism for years. Notice the content of his message, FREEDOM! You see, this is the fundamental beauty of the Christian faith as lived in its fullness within the Catholic Church. We Catholic Christians are not afraid of freedom.

We welcome the contemporary challenge we face globally in a world rushing toward a growing religious persecution. We live in a modern equivalent of what the Prophet Elijah face with the prophets of Baal. (See, 1 Kings 18: 1- 40).We are not afraid. 

Elijah was so confident in the God of Israel he invited the prophets of Baaal to build an altar and see whose God consumed the offering. That is because we know, in the words of Elijah, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"  (1 Kings 18:39). Bring it on! Just give us a mountain upon which to build the altar!

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