The President of the Bishops’ Conference of India urged the chief minister of West Bengal to act swiftly to bring to justice the men who gang-raped a 71-year-old nun in her convent at the weekend.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis was speaking after visiting the sister in hospital in Ranaghat. He said: "I, being the President of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India, would like to assure our reverend sisters here that the whole Church in India, the whole community is with them and also we would like to ensure that justice is done and justice brought to the people who are affected.”
"We would also like to thank the public of this place and the public of the entire country who are showing their sympathy and their sentiments of togetherness at this point of time," he added.
Speaking from the hospital in Ranaghat where she is recovering, she repeatedly said: “My heart is broken," but was more concerned about the security of the school and its students than the trauma she was in, hospital superintendent Atindranath Mondal said.
She also prayed that the men who harmed her would be forgiven, the Times of India reported.
Bishop Joseph Soren Gomes of Krishnagar, who visited her in hospital for a second time on Monday, quoted her as saying: “Justice should be done. This should be never be repeated or happen to anyone else."
Protestors demanding justice clashed with police on Monday and hundreds of people joined students of the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ranaghat in Kolkata, at a silent, candle-lit prayer vigil.
West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday handed the investigation over to India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, amid mounting anger that none of the suspects, including those caught on CCTV footage during the attack, have been arrested.
The cardinal and Archbishop of Kolkata Thomas D'Souza also visited the convent where the attack took place. The nun was assaulted by thieves who broke into the convent, gagged a security guard and assaulted the nun before ransacking the premises and stealing cash, a laptop and a mobile phone, police said.
Fr Savarimuthu Sankar, a spokesman for the Delhi diocese, said: "Even if you call it an isolated incident, the background and the atmosphere for such an attack had already been there, so you cannot simply ignore it as a one-off incident.”
The incident is the latest high-profile sexual assault in India. Last week the Indian Government banned a BBC documentary about a December 2012 gang-rape, sparking domestic and international condemnation.
Top: a student takes part in a candle-lit vigil; above: the nun's convent. Photos: CNS/EPA
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