INDIA: Police condemned after church arson attack in Hyderabad

By Eva-Maria Kolmann and John Pontifex

The damaged Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in Hyderabad

Police “inactivity and neglect” are to blame for repeated attacks on a church in India, according to the parish priest who has made an official complaint to the state authorities.

In the latest incident at the end of August, attackers targeting Mother Mary Church in Hyderabad, central India, set fire to the main altar, bibles, missals, hymnals, crucifixes and liturgical vestments.

Responding to the atrocity at the Syro-Malankara Catholic church, parish priest Father John Felix wrote an open letter to the authorities of the State of Andhra Pradesh, declaring that the incident occurred “on account of the inactivity and neglect of the police and other authorities”.

In the letter, a copy of which has been made available to Aid to the Church in Need, the priest complained that proceedings relating to attacks perpetrated in the years 2004 and 2008 had been closed by the police with no action being taken.  

In July 2004, a 100-strong mob abused and threatened to kill a priest and parishioners helping while the church was being built.

In July 2008, two years after the church had been completed, 250 people – including infants, the sick and elderly – were made to suffer when the building was locked from the outside.

Father Felix stated: “In order to avoid further conflicts… we practised forgiveness and love of enemies.”

But the priest went on to call on the authorities to reopen the earlier cases as well as investigate the latest incident, stressing that the congregation was “under constant threat”.

Responding to inquiries from Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Jacob Barnabas stated that at present the church was under police protection, adding that the parish intends to repair the damage as soon as possible.

He called on Catholics worldwide to pray for his faithful stating that there were “people in the district who do not want to have the church here”.

Churches across India continue to be overshadowed by the memory of the severe anti-Christian violence of 2007-8.

Although centring on a remote and rural district in the eastern state of Orissa, attacks on Christians and church institutions have also been frequently reported in other parts of the country.

Many of the assaults have occurred in the context of accusations of forced conversions.

Christians in India number about 22 million – two percent of the total population. As an Eastern Catholic Church, the Syro-Malankara Church in India is in full communion with the Holy See. It has 430,000 faithful.

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• India
• Persecution

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