Pune: The Catholic Church in the country has issued letters to all its dioceses, asking the Christians to be firm in their faith in the wake of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ campaign and also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene urgently to prevent incidents threatening unity of the secular nation.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, President of the Catholics Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Catholic Church in the country, has issued a pastoral letter, following a CBCI meeting held in New Delhi on January 20 to discuss the reconversion and other issues.
The CBCI chief has said, Christians in the country need an assurance from the government that they are protected, secure and safe in their motherland.
In his letter, Cardinal Cleemis said, “The untoward incidents in the country in past few months have wounded the sentiments of the minority community especially the Christian community and has shaken the faith in the secular fabric of our nation.”
“The Ghar Wapsi programmes, the ‘saffronisation’ of education and culture, and the demands for a Hindu Rashtra are again posing challenges to the secular ethos of our beloved country,” he added.
The pastoral letter has said, “Conversions of a religious nature are an exercise of one’s free will and one’s constitutional/fundamental right and freedom of conscience and of religion. Ghar Wapsi is a political process, carried out by the powerful exponents of religious nationalism - much against the principle of secularism.”
Christianity has roots in India for 2000 years
CBCI chief Cardinal Baselios Cleemis said that Christianity has its roots in Indian soil for almost 2000 years. Christians in the country have been selflessly serving the people in the fields of education and health care without any discrimination on the basis of caste or religion, he said.
