A leading center for interreligious dialogue in India is set to help Christians respond to last year’s violence in Orissa, east India.
Fr. Cleophas Fernandes, Director of the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Center (NBCLC), said that the institute will do all it can to help inter-faith experts address problems caused by the attacks on Christians, in which about 80 people died and nearly 30,000 were displaced. It comes as Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue reported that a meeting between Hindu and Catholic leaders in Mumbai (Bombay) on June 12th had opened a new era.
Now, in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Fr. Fernandes of the NBCLC has called for more to be done to improve relations with Hindus. He said, “After the attacks on Christians, we need to re-intensify inter-religious dialogue: Christians lost their openness.”
Fr. Fernandes added that a number of questions face the Catholics of India following the violence of August/September 2008. He asked, “How does a Christian react to fundamentalism? How does a Christian react to these attacks? Do we close up or look at it in a new way?”
Addressing the deep sense of unease felt by those involved in inter-faith work following last year’s pogroms, he said, “We need to create a platform for people to come together, to overcome any feelings of disillusionment caused by the attacks.” He continued, saying, “One way would be to invite those involved in interreligious dialogue to gather together.”
Fr. Cleophas announced the center in Bangalore could try to improve relations between Christians and Hindus by hosting such meetings. He added, “The center can become a platform for reflection in these areas.”
Interreligious dialogue has been one of the main aims of India’s National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre since it was founded 43 years ago, shortly after ago after the Second Vatican Council. Fr. Cleophas said, “We have been a pioneering center – especially in religious dialogue and enculturation.”
As religious dialogue has taken on a new urgency in India, ACN is sponsoring peace-building programs in the eastern diocese of Chuttack-Bhubaneswar. Organized under the leadership of Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, these workshops have run in places where Christians were still thought to be at risk.
As part of these projects, all groups – especially young people – have been encouraged to take part in joint activities to help rebuild trust and cooperation.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Tauran from the Vatican interreligious dialogue council said that meetings with Hindu leaders had opened a new chapter in relations.
Jayendra Saraswathi, head of the Hindu Kanchi matha monastic institution, called on Church leaders to denounce “forced conversions” of Hindus, saying that this had prompted the attacks in Orissa. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai, stressed that forced conversions were “considered invalid” by the Catholic Church and Cardinal Tauran underlined that some Protestants were far more assertive in their evangelization work than most other Christians.
