Indian Catholics have been urged not to retaliate to attacks by masked
vandals who desecrated a church in the southern state of Kerala on September
4, reports the Catholic News Agency.
"We will act according to the law," Bishop Stanley Roman of Quilon, told
Fides news agency. "We have reported the incident to the police, we are
confident in the work of the police and hope that they can identify the
culprits and bring them to justice as soon as possible."
Around 20 men broke into a church in the village of Kottenkulangara on
Sunday evening, destroying its altar, vestments, and confessionals, Fides
reports. Local Catholics arrived but did not manage to stop the attackers,
who forced the Catholics from the church and escaped.
The Bishop of Quilon, who visited the church after its desecration, said
Christians in Kerala are "exposed to the growth of different religious
extremism," from both Hindu and Muslim groups.
"In the area there is a very lively and large Catholic community," Bishop
Roman said. "This is why we plan to build a larger church. Perhaps this
project has alarmed the Hindu extremist groups that already, indirectly,
seek to intimidate us."
"We have had, in recent years, a growth of these Hindu extremist groups in
Kerala and we begin to suffer the consequences. But it is also true that,
consequently, small Islamic groups are proliferating. And all this could
endanger (the) social peace and religious identity that has always
characterised Kerala."
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=28036
