Prelates take their protest to the street

Some 140 bishops took to the  streets of Bangalore last week to protest against the surge of anti-Christian propaganda and attacks on Christian targets since last year’s election of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Church is concerned by reports of mass “reconversions” to Hinduism known as Ghar Wapsi (literally, “homecomings”) that they say target poor Christians.

The Latin-rite bishops, led by Bombay Cardinal Oswald Gracias, recited the rosary and sang “Ave Maria” as they walked to the St Anthony friary church during the week-long assembly of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of India. They were joined by more than 2,000 Catholics, including hundreds of nuns and priests, outside the church.

Earlier in Delhi, Catholics, including women, children, nuns and priests, were bundled into police vans as they prepared to march to the house of interior minister Rajnath Singh to protest against the torching and desecration of five Catholic churches in the capital in the past two months.

n The Indian Government has apologised for failing to provide visas to for two senior Vatican officials – Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and Archbishop Protase Rugambwa of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples – who were due to attend the assembly of the Indian bishops.