[Goanet] Karnataka: Century-old church vandalised in Udupi

[Robin Viegas]

From: b sabha <bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com>



Century-old church vandalised in Udupi

December 14, 2016 by admin<http://www.thecsf.org/author/admin/>
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[http://mattersindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/udupi_church-370x290.jpg]Bangalore,
 December 14, 2016: Vandals desecrated a century-old landmark Catholic church 
that runs two schools and a college in southern Karnataka, leaving behind a 
shattered statue and another partly damaged in the Sunday afternoon attack 
barely a fortnight before Christmas.

The intruders, however, could not enter the church building in Shirva, Udupi 
district, as all the doors had been well secured.

But the assault left a sour taste in the relatively peaceful district that has 
rarely seen such attacks on minority institutions.

Church sources said the 103-year-old institution - Our Lady of Health Church - 
in Udupi district, around 380km from Bangalore, had its usual Sunday mass but 
the authorities found the statues vandalised when they returned after the 
afternoon break yesterday.

The one completely destroyed was that of St Antony while a statue of St 
Lawrence had been displaced from its pedestal and damaged in the process, 
parish priest Father Stanly Tauro said.

The statues, both 2ft tall, were placed just outside the main door of the 
church, which runs the Don Bosco School and St Mary's school and St Mary's 
College on its 10-acre campus.

"Everything was fine when we left around 12.30pm (on Sunday), the usual time 
when everyone leaves after the mass. The incident was discovered after 3pm," 
the priest told The Telegraph today.

Tauro had immediately informed police, who arrived and took his written 
complaint.

"I have no idea who would do such a thing. But it appears the incident took 
place between 1pm and 3pm, when no one was around on the campus," Tauro, whose 
parish is home to around 1,050 Catholic families, added. "Unfortunately no one 
is around on Sundays (as the schools and the college were closed for the 
weekend).

Tauro said both the CCTV cameras at the spot were out of order. "We realised 
the CCTV system was dead when we checked it yesterday. I feel it was affected 
because of frequent power failures in this area."

Immediately after the complaint the police had deployed fingerprint experts and 
sniffer dogs. "This area has not seen any such incidents. So we are looking at 
all possible angles," Udupi district police superintendent K.T. Balakrishna 
said.

The officer said a special team had been assigned to investigate the case. An 
FIR has been registered under the penal code's Section 295, which deals with 
destruction and desecration of religious places.

Sunday's incident in Udupi was the first since March 2013, when a group of 
alleged Bajrang Dal activists barged into a Christian prayer hall and assaulted 
seven worshippers. Twenty Bajrang activists were later arrested.

- telegraph