Another Catholic Statue Desecrated in Eastern India
ICC Note: Another Catholic statue has been desecrated in India’s Odisha state. According to reports, a mentally ill man was arrested by police after he destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary. This comes days after another statue of the Virgin Mary was vandalized in Odisha during the Easter holiday. This Easter season was particularly difficult for Christians in India. ICC recorded 10 separate attacks on Christians across India over Holy Week.
04/12/2018 India (Asia News) – Police in Orissa arrested a mentally ill man on charges of destroying a statue of the Virgin. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), told AsiaNews that the incident occurred on April 8th in Lafurberan, in the parish of Kusumdegi, adjacent to that of Bihabandh, where on the evening of Easter some unknown criminals vandalized the statue of Mary and the grotto with the Child Jesus at the entrance of the structure.
The president of the GCIC reports that the arrested “is not a Christian and speaks only the Odiya dialect.” In any case, he adds, “the arrest is similar to the one that occurred last July in Goa, when the police stopped a man accused of desecrating crosses. Even in that case, a vandalism took place and then the arrest.”
Sajan K George comments on the incidents that occurred at Easter in the diocese of Rourkela, “Certainly these are small incidents, but the aggression to a place of worship deeply wounds our Christian sentiment and increases the sense of fear and vulnerability of the miniscule Christian community.”
The GCIC also recalls that 10 years ago Orissa was the theater of the most ferocious anti-Christian pogrom in the history of India. “Justice continues to be denied to victims and survivors, while seven innocent Christians languish in jail”. The GCIC, reaffirms the Christian leader, “prays for peace, sectarian harmony and justice for our Christians in Orissa.”
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