“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."
Northeast India is linked to the rest of the country by only a narrow strip of land. It is one of India's poorest regions and often a site of unrest.
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.
“Though so many died and despite all the destruction of property, no one betrayed Christ. We stood firm in our faith. We were able to face this terror only because God was with us. "