“The wound of Kandhamal has not yet healed, and the global Christian community must remember that. The rest of India would like you to forget, but we must not allow the erasure of hate and violence from the public consciousness."
"Hindu nationalism is growing and the minorities—both the Christians and the Muslims—often find ourselves abandoned in the face of social injustice and discrimination for religious reasons, which happens quite openly."
The Holy Spirit Sisters are a congregation founded in 1950 in Germany. They work above all in pastoral care, and their role is to support the priests in their work. The Sisters give catechetical instruction, prepare children, young people and adults to receive the Sacraments and organize prayer meetings.
The far northeast of India is linked to the rest of the country only by a narrow corridor of land. It is one of the poorest regions in India and an area of frequent unrest. In relative terms, the Catholic Church is quite young here. It began to spread here only around the end of the 19th century – and in many regions only in the last few decades. There are some 2 million Catholics living in this region, most of whom belong to ethnic minorities.
In Northeast India, the Catholic Church is still relatively young. In 2016, she celebrated 120 years of ministry here, but in many parts of this region, Catholic missionaries were only able to enter during the second half of the 20th century. This is an isolated and underdeveloped area, marked by political unrest and conflicts, by deep poverty and many other problems. But the Church here is very much alive and vital; now there are almost 2 million Catholics in the region, while the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life is growing.