the goan I network
PANAJI
A Goan bishop and four prelates visited the Sundargarh District of Odisha on Saturday, where Catholic and Hindu places of worship were vandalised by anti-social elements, and expressed deep anguish over the incidents.
According to a statement by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), miscreants vandalized a grotto outside the compound of St Thomas Church, Salangabahal, mutilated the Statue of Our Lady, and broke the head of the Statue of Child Jesus in the grotto on April 1, in the late night of Easter Sunday.
Miscreants smashed a statue of Our Lady in another Grotto in Gyanpali village and attempted to burn the Church of the Victory of the Cross in Bihabandh in the Diocese of Rourkela.
On April 7, a delegation of bishops comprising CBCI Secretary General Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas SFX, Archbishop John Barwa SVD (Regional Chairman of the Odisha Catholic Bishops’ Council), Bishop Kishor Kumar Kujur of Rourkela, Bishop Telesphore Bilung SVD, (Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Ranchi) and Bishop Alphonse Bilung, SVD, (Bishop Emeritus of Rourkela) visited the affected areas.
They were received by a large number of priests, sisters and people, whom they led in prayer at each of the places. Sr Teresa Dungdung, Superior General of the Handmaids of Mary also joined the bishops.
Bishop Mascarenhas informed the people that Swami Goswami Sushil Maharaj and Paramjit Singh Chandok had denounced the attacks on Christian places of worship in no uncertain terms, when several religious heads had met for a Collective Action for Dialogue and Social Harmony at Margao on Thursday.
Prayers were offered for reparation as well as for forgiveness and conversion of those who were involved in these reprehensible crimes.
According to security forces, there seemed to be a systematic premeditated ploy to disturb the peace of the people who have been living in age old harmony with each other in these villages.
It appears that the anti-social elements targeted the holy places of two communities seeking to create a communal divide.
Bishop Mascarenhas also conveyed the solidarity of all bishops and of the whole Catholic community in India.
“While we reiterate that incidents against places of worship should have never happened and bring us shame and pain, we are proud of the people of Sundargarh District who have shown that we are capable of fighting the forces that want to divide us and polarize us,” said the CBCI.
