C
cassini
Guest
We all are shocked by the recent deaths in India. But there is far worse being perpetrated in India by Indians, the persecution of Catholicism. Fr Gruner has just issued a news bulletin of which I post this extract:
While I was in Rome, I could see in the press and received messages from members of our Fatima Movement of Priests, about the open deadly attacks by extremist Hindus against Catholics — in the state of Orissa and elsewhere in India. The catalog of horrors makes truly frightful reading.
Outrageous offenses have been committed against the Most Blessed Sacrament and other sacred things. Priests and religious have been tortured, raped and murdered — martyred for the sake of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.
Catholic hospitals and orphanages have been destroyed. Churches have been desecrated and burned. The poor homes of thousands of Christian families have been razed.
Friend of our Lady, I was moved to tears to hear of these terrible events, which have been taking place for months now, not far from the site of our Immaculate Heart Orphanage.
And I am sorry to have to tell you that the details in the private messages I got from our priests are even worse than what has been reported in the media.
If I were a TV newscaster, I would have to tell you to look the other way if I showed you pictures of the carnage that has been inflicted on our churches and our priests and religious.
Three examples will be more than enough to give you an idea of the atrocities.
Father Thomas Chellan, 57, was one of the first victims of the anti-Christian pogrom launched by radical Hindus in the last week of August. Even though he had appealed to the local police for help, he was pulled back from the brink of death only after being abused, beaten, stripped and wounded.
Father Chellan escaped with his life. But Father Bernard Digal, of Bhubaneswar archdiocese, was called by God to lay down his life for the Faith. On August 28th, he was beaten and left for dead by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists. He died at St. Thomas hospital in Chennai two months later.
Assaulting a priest is atrocious. But what happened to Sister Meena Barwa, a Servite nun, is mind boggling in its depravity. Three days before the attack on Father Digal, she was sexually assaulted by yet another mob of Hindus. And — it is hard to believe but — the police not only failed to intervene, but actually encouraged the attacking savages!
To add insult to injury, state officials in Orissa said that they could not prosecute the rapists because Sister Meena would not testify! They stuck to this lie until she went public with her heart-rending story in October. Only then did the state government suspend five policemen for “dereliction of duty”.
The Blessed Virgin asks us for Reparation
for these dreadful sins
Let me repeat: these are just three examples and not even the very worst ones either. Thousands more crimes have been committed against our Catholic brothers and sisters and their homes, and their churches. The Pastoral Centre in Kandhamal was one of the first Catholic institutions to be put to the torch. The cost in lives and property lost and ruined has been enormous.
It pains me greatly to have to relate to you these horrific accounts. But they have received little coverage in the North American secular media. It is as if these horrible attacks on the servants of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother are not worth even reporting.
The atrocities of Orissa are not just offenses against the law and against the persons and property of the faithful. They are sacrileges and blasphemies against God.
Jesus is deeply offended by these attacks against our Catholic brothers and sisters. He takes them as if done personally to Himself. Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart is grieved by these crimes and wants us to make Reparation!
We MUST help Our Lady’s followers in India
Your prayers and devotions, especially your Rosaries and particularly the Five First Saturdays, will comfort Our Lady, and obtain for you Her assistance at the hour of your death.
There are also other things She asks you to do now, to help those good Catholics who have been so sorely afflicted.
“Savage” is not a strong enough word to convey the awfulness of the attack on Father Chellan. Yet he has only one concern: the 50,000 faithful Catholics running for their lives.
“Right now there is not a single priest or nun in Kadhamal district,” Father wrote, “everyone has fled. Plundering goes on and people are hunted down. In my agony I pray for the Christians in the forest. Even that is not a safe place. But…I am willing to return.”
How can we fail to appreciate and thank God for the courage and dedication of Father Chellan and the many other brave priests and religious of India? We must help them and the people God has placed in their pastoral care.
Thanks to our Only Way to World Peace conference in Chennai, India, we have over 500 Indian priests and bishops who are members of the Fatima Movement of Priests. They write to us regularly to report the latest news, and tell us what kind of help they need.
With the help of 1000s of friends of Our Lady — good Catholics like you — we have been able to fulfill many of their requests for literature, Rosaries and sacramentals.
But we need still more, much more – things which these good priests can’t get from their dioceses or elsewhere.
While I was in Rome, I could see in the press and received messages from members of our Fatima Movement of Priests, about the open deadly attacks by extremist Hindus against Catholics — in the state of Orissa and elsewhere in India. The catalog of horrors makes truly frightful reading.
Outrageous offenses have been committed against the Most Blessed Sacrament and other sacred things. Priests and religious have been tortured, raped and murdered — martyred for the sake of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.
Catholic hospitals and orphanages have been destroyed. Churches have been desecrated and burned. The poor homes of thousands of Christian families have been razed.
Friend of our Lady, I was moved to tears to hear of these terrible events, which have been taking place for months now, not far from the site of our Immaculate Heart Orphanage.
And I am sorry to have to tell you that the details in the private messages I got from our priests are even worse than what has been reported in the media.
If I were a TV newscaster, I would have to tell you to look the other way if I showed you pictures of the carnage that has been inflicted on our churches and our priests and religious.
Three examples will be more than enough to give you an idea of the atrocities.
Father Thomas Chellan, 57, was one of the first victims of the anti-Christian pogrom launched by radical Hindus in the last week of August. Even though he had appealed to the local police for help, he was pulled back from the brink of death only after being abused, beaten, stripped and wounded.
Father Chellan escaped with his life. But Father Bernard Digal, of Bhubaneswar archdiocese, was called by God to lay down his life for the Faith. On August 28th, he was beaten and left for dead by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists. He died at St. Thomas hospital in Chennai two months later.
Assaulting a priest is atrocious. But what happened to Sister Meena Barwa, a Servite nun, is mind boggling in its depravity. Three days before the attack on Father Digal, she was sexually assaulted by yet another mob of Hindus. And — it is hard to believe but — the police not only failed to intervene, but actually encouraged the attacking savages!
To add insult to injury, state officials in Orissa said that they could not prosecute the rapists because Sister Meena would not testify! They stuck to this lie until she went public with her heart-rending story in October. Only then did the state government suspend five policemen for “dereliction of duty”.
The Blessed Virgin asks us for Reparation
for these dreadful sins
Let me repeat: these are just three examples and not even the very worst ones either. Thousands more crimes have been committed against our Catholic brothers and sisters and their homes, and their churches. The Pastoral Centre in Kandhamal was one of the first Catholic institutions to be put to the torch. The cost in lives and property lost and ruined has been enormous.
It pains me greatly to have to relate to you these horrific accounts. But they have received little coverage in the North American secular media. It is as if these horrible attacks on the servants of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother are not worth even reporting.
The atrocities of Orissa are not just offenses against the law and against the persons and property of the faithful. They are sacrileges and blasphemies against God.
Jesus is deeply offended by these attacks against our Catholic brothers and sisters. He takes them as if done personally to Himself. Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart is grieved by these crimes and wants us to make Reparation!
We MUST help Our Lady’s followers in India
Your prayers and devotions, especially your Rosaries and particularly the Five First Saturdays, will comfort Our Lady, and obtain for you Her assistance at the hour of your death.
There are also other things She asks you to do now, to help those good Catholics who have been so sorely afflicted.
“Savage” is not a strong enough word to convey the awfulness of the attack on Father Chellan. Yet he has only one concern: the 50,000 faithful Catholics running for their lives.
“Right now there is not a single priest or nun in Kadhamal district,” Father wrote, “everyone has fled. Plundering goes on and people are hunted down. In my agony I pray for the Christians in the forest. Even that is not a safe place. But…I am willing to return.”
How can we fail to appreciate and thank God for the courage and dedication of Father Chellan and the many other brave priests and religious of India? We must help them and the people God has placed in their pastoral care.
Thanks to our Only Way to World Peace conference in Chennai, India, we have over 500 Indian priests and bishops who are members of the Fatima Movement of Priests. They write to us regularly to report the latest news, and tell us what kind of help they need.
With the help of 1000s of friends of Our Lady — good Catholics like you — we have been able to fulfill many of their requests for literature, Rosaries and sacramentals.
But we need still more, much more – things which these good priests can’t get from their dioceses or elsewhere.