St. Paul’s Church, in Imphal, capital of Manipur state, after the church was set on fire in 2023. / Credit: Anto Akkara
Bangalore, India, Mar 28, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
After Indian officials’ announcement that Easter Sunday would be a “working day” this year was met with widespread protests from Christians, the governor of the state of Manipur in northeast India issued a statement reestablishing the annual holiday.
The March 28 reversal by the Manipur government, which is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came within 24 hours after Manipur Gov. Anusuiya Uikey canceled the Easter holiday.
“In partial modification of the government order … dated 27th March, 2024, the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare that only the 30th March 2024 [Saturday] will be working day for all government offices,” the order read.
The previous day the government had announced that “the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare 30th [Saturday] and 31st [Sunday] March 2024 as working days for all government offices.”
Christians account for nearly half of Manipur’s population of 3.7 million.
Archbishop Linus Neli, who heads the 100,000-strong Catholic Church in the state, told CNA that the Church had protested the cancellations of the Easter holiday to government officials.
“We are storming the competent authority, awaiting reply,” Neli said.
A half an hour later, the archbishop shared with CNA the government’s “revised order regarding [Easter] working day.”
Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara
Prior to that, several Christian groups including those in Manipur had called for the cancellation of the order that stunned the Christians across the country.
“The decision to declare these sacred days as regular working days is not only insensitive but also disrespectful towards the religious sentiments of the significant portion of the population in Manipur,” lamented the Senapati District Catholic Union of Manipur in its condemnation of the governor’s order on the morning of March 28.
Of the 3.7 million Christians in Manipur state, 26% are ethnic Naga tribals, 16% are members of Kuki tribes, and more than 10% of the nearly 2 million Meiteis have also embraced the Christian faith in Manipur.
“By compelling government offices to operate on these holy days, the order not only disregards the religious rights of the Christian community but also fails to recognize the cultural diversity and religious pluralism that should be upheld and respected in democratic society,” the Senapati district Catholic forum pointed out.
“Height of insanity of the Manipur government,” a Christian pastor from Manipur who runs a theological college outside Manipur told CNA.
“What is happening is Manipur is nothing new,” John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic columnist and activist, told CNA.
“The BJP governments both at the national level and in several states had tried to insult and tinker with Christian holy days like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter several times in the past,” Dayal pointed out.
“In 2002, I moved the Delhi High Court successfully against the bid to make Good Friday and Easter Sunday ‘working days’ against the Atal Behari Vajpayee [who was the BJP prime minister then],” said Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council headed by the prime minister.
“This Manipur move is keeping with [Prime Minister] Modi’s consistent scheme to whittle away rights of Christianity and Islam in new ‘Bharat.’” (Bharat is the new name the Hindu nationalist BJP has proposed for India).
Since May 2023, Manipur has seen a protracted violent clash between the majority Meiteis, most of them Hindus, and the minority Kukis (all of them Christians) that has left more than 230 dead by the official conservative death toll. Over 50,000 Kuki Christians have been chased out from the Imphal valley along with over 10,000 Meiteis who were driven out from Kuki strongholds.
Amid the violence, over 600 churches have also been destroyed. The majority of them were Kuki, but 250 Meiti Christian churches were destroyed as well in what is seen as an attempt to stop Meiteis from embracing the Christian faith.
Meanwhile, in another piece of good news for the Christian community, Carmelite Sister Mercy, who had been arrested on a charge of “abetting the suicide” of a sixth-grade girl at the Carmel School in Ambikapur in central Chattisgarh state, was released on bail on March 28 by the trial court.
The girl student committed suicide at home after the nun had questioned her and two other girls for being together in the bathroom for a long period of time. After other students complained to the nun, she asked the girls to bring the parents to school the next day.
Following the suicide of the girl, Hindu nationalist organizations promptly organized a huge crowd to march to the school. Police were brought in and arrested the nun the next morning. Although the large crowd tried to storm the school on Feb. 8, police prevented an arson attack.
Catholic faithful offer prayers during an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad in India on Feb. 14, 2024. / Credit: NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images
Bangalore, India, Mar 27, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
A watchdog group that monitors violence committed against Christians in India has released a study documenting 161 such crimes in the first 75 days of 2024.
These numbers may underestimate the number of crimes and acts of persecution committed against Christians in India, according to A.C. Michael, a Catholic and coordinator of the United Christian Forum (UCF), which released the report.
“These figures are based only on the complaints registered on our toll-free helpline number (1-800-208-4545) to report incidents of anti-Christian violence. The actual numbers will be certainly much more,” Michael told CNA on March 27.
“We feel frustrated that despite documenting and making public the shocking data regularly, there has been no response from the government nor any effort has been made to curb the steadily rising number of violent incidents,” he said.
Categorizing the 161 incidents, Michael listed 71 cases of detainment/arrest by the police, 18 incidents of social ostracization, 72 cases of physical violence, 15 cases of forced “reconversion,” one incident of a church being sealed, and another in which a church was torched, with mob violence being part of most of these incidents.
Violence and persecution against minority Christians, who account for only 2.3% of India’s 1.41 billion people (nearly 80% of whom are Hindu), have been on a steady rise since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose to power under the stewardship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after winning the 2014 national election. In May 2019, the BJP was reelected with an increased majority.
UCF had recorded only 147 incidents of violence against Christians in 2014, Michael said. The number of incidents went up to 177 in 2015, 208 in 2016, 240 in 2017, 292 in 2018, 328 in 2019, 279 in 2020, 505 in 2021, 599 in 2022, and 731 in 2023.
The UCF statement also highlighted the victimization of Christians in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh state in central India, which reported “incidents with dignity of burial rights denied to Christian families.”
“Chhattisgarh, a state notoriously known for social ostracization of Christians, is the No. 1 leading state in assaults against Christians with 47 incidents of reported violence,” the UCF pointed out.
“Christians are being denied access to water from the community borewells of the village. Sadly, even dead Christians are not spared, as many were denied burial as per Christian rituals. Local [Hindu fundamentalist] villagers have been threatening to cremate the bodies as a final act of reconversion,” UCF decried.
Such blatant attacks on the Christians, Michael said, are rooted in BJP leaders’ anti-Christian rhetoric. He noted that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai accused “Christian missionaries of carrying out religious conversion under the guise of providing education and health care facilities while warning to stop the practice.”
But, Michael pointed out, Christians in Chhattisgarh account for just 2% of the state’s 25 million people.
The UCF statement also highlighted the persecution of Christians in BJP-ruled northern Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of 231 million and “ranks second [among] states where Indian citizens are being persecuted for practicing Christianity.”
“There is clear evidence of state-sponsored harassment of Christians in this state as the police file false allegations of conversion against the pastors even for praying in birthday parties and other social gatherings. UCF helpline has recorded over 30 incidents of arrests and detentions of pastors under the UP Freedom of Religion Act,” the Christian Forum noted.
Of the 161 incidents recorded in the first 75 days of 2024, UCF pointed out: “There are 122 Christians who have either been detained or arrested on the false allegation of conversions.”
The UCF data was released on the eve of the March 22 National Day of Prayer that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) called for in the wake of increasing atrocities against Christians and religious polarization in the country.
Thousands of churches across the country held special prayers on the day with special holy hours, rosaries, and Stations of Cross in response to the CBCI appeal for “peace and harmony.”
Meanwhile, the 2023 year report of the Religious Liberty Commission of Evangelical Fellowship of India expressed anguish over “the alarmingly steep rise in the number of violent incidents against the Christian community.”
“The Indian political apparatus, its law enforcement agencies, and its justice system, specially at the level of villages and small towns, have been found wanting and slow in its responses despite urgent pleas for help from victims, church leaders, and civil society,” the report lamented.
Hong Kong.Hong Kong media tycoon and founder of Apple Daily newspaper Jimmy Lai Chee Ying arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court, May 18, 2020. / Credit: Yung Chi Wai Derek/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 13, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).
A religious freedom advocate from Hong Kong is warning that proposed legislation could further restrict religious liberty and lead to the persecution of the Catholic Church and other Christians.
Frances Hui, a Hong Kong native who has political asylum in the United States, expressed concern about the possible enactment of the controversial proposal Article 23, which would expand a 2020 national security law. She made these comments during a Hudson Institute panel discussion on “The Repression of Hong Kong and Heroism of Jimmy Lai.”
Lai, a pro-democracy journalist and convert to Catholicism, was arrested on several charges under Hong Kong’s 2020 national security law and could face life in prison. His newspaper, Apple Daily, frequently published material critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Although the Chinese government charged him with colluding with foreign forces, critics of the prosecution claim that he — and hundreds of other political and religious dissidents — were arrested for their activism.
If enacted, Article 23 would expand the law to bolster the government’s crackdown on political dissidents, which has been ongoing for more than three and a half years.
The change would add new offenses, including a prohibition on external interference in Hong Kong, a prohibition on supporting external intelligence organizations, and a prohibition on electronic and computer activities without lawful authority that endangers national security, along with a prohibition on general sabotage activities, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.
Hui, who serves as the policy and advocacy coordinator at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said during the panel that the legislation would “target foreign organizations [and] their activities in Hong Kong,” which could be used against foreign Christian missionaries and Hong Kong Catholic Church communications with the Vatican.
“A lot of the small- to medium-scale church groups, the Catholic Church, and foreign missionaries would all be affected,” Hui said.
“We don’t know how they’re going to use this law to go against religious groups, but having this law passed and imposed in Hong Kong would be a great threat to religious groups in Hong Kong,” she added. “They are subject to legal prosecution. … The Catholic Church in Hong Kong … might have to stop their communication with the Vatican because it’s a foreign state.”
In such a scenario, Hui warned that the Catholic Church in Hong Kong could be forced to join the Catholic Patriotic Association, which the communist government established in 1957 to exert government control of Catholic churches in mainland China.
“We don’t know how they’re going to use this because it’s another vaguely written law, but … if they don’t like what you’re doing and they have targeted you, they have the law at their disposal to use that to threaten you and put you in jail,” Hui said.
The legislation was first proposed more than 20 years ago in 2002, but the effort was rejected after widespread backlash from the people of Hong Kong, journalist associations, and Western governments. The effort, however, was revived by Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in 2022. On Jan. 30, Lee began a one-month consultation period on the proposal.
“I think this is something the world and the American government should pay attention to and [should] speak up against it,” Hui said.
Nearly 300 people in Hong Kong, including Lai, have been arrested since the government updated the national security law in 2020. Critics believe this is a crackdown on free speech and political opposition.
“The biggest goal of [the national security law] is to stifle dissidents,” Hui said. “It has destroyed freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. It’s a very vaguely written law that pretty much applies to the whole civil society.”
The United States Congressional Executive Commission on China has encouraged President Joe Biden’s administration to issue sanctions against the judges and prosecutors involved in Lai’s case and similar cases.
Member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board William McGurn, who is Lai’s godfather and has known him for decades, said during the panel that he believes Lai would also want people to not forget “the other people locked up that don’t have his name recognition or friendliness with Western reporters and politicians.”
“I think … he stayed in Hong Kong to be with them to choose sides,” McGurn said. “Same with Cardinal [Joseph] Zen … [who] was not prosecuted under the national security charges [but] was on these other charges of organizing a group without official regulatory permission.”
In November 2022, Zen was convicted on charges of failing to register a fund that helped pay for the legal fees and medical treatments of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters. He has appealed that conviction.
The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation published a report on Jan. 30 that found that religious freedom is “deteriorating” in the city amid a “hostile takeover” from the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the report, Catholic and other Christian groups have faced accusations of supporting “violent protests” and colluding with “foreign organizations” under the 2020 national security law.
In addition to persecuting Christians, critics have accused the Chinese Communist Party of persecuting Uyghur Muslims and followers of Falun Gong, a religious and political movement.
Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province in Nigeria. / Credit: Bishop Emmanuel Badejo
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The 36th biennial assembly of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), with over 180 bishops in attendance, got underway in Bangalore on Jan. 31, 2024. / Credit: CBCI
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Seminarians at Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Nigeria’s Kaduna state where four students were kidnapped and one, Michael Nnadi, was killed in 2020. / Credit: Good Shepherd Major Seminary Kaduna/ Facebook
ACI Africa, Jan 26, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).
Last year, 2023, was a difficult year for Brother Peter Olarewaju, a postulant at the Benedictine monastery in Nigeria’s Ilorin Diocese who was kidnapped alongside two others at the monastery. Olarewaju underwent different kinds of torture and witnessed the murder of his companion, Brother Godwin Eze.
After his release, Olarewaju said his kidnapping was a blessing, as it had strengthened his faith. He even said that he is now prepared to die for his faith.
“I am prepared to die a martyr in this dangerous country. I am ready any moment to die for Jesus. I feel this very strongly,” Olarewaju said in an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Nov. 26, 2023, days after he was set free by suspected Fulani kidnappers.
The late Brother Godwin Eze who was kidnapped from the Benedictine monastery in Nigeria’s Ilorin Diocese and murdered by his kidnappers in October 2023. Credit: Benedictine monastery, Eruku
The monk’s testimony is not an isolated case in Nigeria, where kidnapping from seminaries, monasteries, and other places of religious formation has been on the rise. While some victims of the kidnappings have been killed, those who survived the ordeal have shared that they have come back stronger — and ready to die for their faith.
Seminarian Melchior Maharini, a Tanzanian who was kidnapped alongside a priest from the Missionaries of Africa community in the Diocese of Minna in August 2023, said the suffering he endured during the three weeks he was held captive strengthened his faith. “I felt my faith grow stronger. I accepted my situation and surrendered everything to God,” he told ACI Africa on Sept. 1, 2023.
Father Paul Sanogo (left) and Seminarian Melchior Maharini (right) were kidnapped from their community of Missionaries of Africa in Nigeria’s Diocese of Minna. Credit: Vatican Media
Many other seminarians in Nigeria have been kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, Fulani herdsmen, and other bandit groups operating in Africa’s most populous nation.
In August 2023, seminarian David Igba told ACI Africa that he stared death in the face when a car in which he was traveling on his way to the market in Makurdi was sprayed with bullets by Fulani herdsmen.
Seminarian Na’aman Danlami died when the Fulanis attacked St. Raphael Fadan Kamantan Parish on the night of Sept. 7, 2023. Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need
In September 2023, seminarian Na’aman Danlami was burned alive in a botched kidnapping incident in the Diocese of Kafanchan. A few days earlier, another seminarian, Ezekiel Nuhu, from the Archdiocese of Abuja, who had gone to spend his holidays in Southern Kaduna, was kidnapped.
Two years prior, in October 2021, Christ the King Major Seminary of Kafanchan Diocese was attacked and three seminarians were kidnapped.
Seminarian David Igba during a pastoral visit at Scared Heart Udei of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi. Credit: David Igba
In one attack that attracted global condemnation in 2020, seminarian Michael Nnadi was brutally murdered after he was kidnapped alongside three others from Good Shepherd Major Seminary in the Diocese of Kaduna. Those behind the kidnapping confessed that they killed Nnadi because he would not stop preaching to them, fearlessly calling them to conversion.
After Nnadi’s murder, his companions who survived the kidnapping proceeded to St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos in Nigeria’s Plateau state, where they courageously continued with their formation.
The tomb of seminarian Michael Nnadi, who was brutally murdered after he was kidnapped alongside three others from the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in the Catholic Diocese of Kaduna in 2020. Credit: Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, rector of a Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna
As Christian persecution rages in Nigeria, seminary instructors in the country have shared with ACI Africa that there is an emerging spirituality in Nigerian seminaries that many may find difficult to grasp: the spirituality of martyrdom.
They say that in Nigeria, those who embark on priestly formation are continuously being made to understand that their calling now entails being ready to defend the faith to the point of death. More than ever before, the seminarians are being reminded that they should be ready to face persecution, including the possibility of being kidnapped and even killed.
Father Peter Hassan, rector of St. Augustine Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Jos, Plateau state, said that seminaries, just like the wider Nigerian society, have come to terms with “the imminence of death” for being Christian.
Father Peter Hassan, rector of St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Nigeria, walks with an unnamed companion. Credit: Father Peter Hassan
“Nigerian Christians have been victims of violence of apocalyptic proportions for nearly half a century. I can say that we have learned to accept the reality of imminent death,” Hassan said in a Jan. 12 interview with ACI Africa.
He added: “Nevertheless, it is quite inspiring and comforting to see the many young men who are still ready to embrace a life that will certainly turn them into critically endangered species. Yet these same young men are willing to preach the gospel of peace and embrace the culture of dialogue for peaceful coexistence.”
Shortly after Nnadi’s kidnapping and killing, St. Augustine Major Seminary opened its doors to the three seminarians who survived the kidnapping.
Hassan told ACI Africa that the presence of the three former students of Good Shepherd Major Seminary was “a blessing” to the community of St. Augustine Major Seminary.
“Their presence in our seminary was a blessing to our seminarians, a wake-up call to the grim reality that not even the very young are spared by those mindless murderers,” Hassan said.
Back at Good Shepherd, seminarians have remained resilient, enrolling in large numbers even after the 2020 kidnapping and Nnadi’s murder.
Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna, Nigeria. Credit: Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, rector of a Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna
In an interview with ACI Africa, Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, the rector of Good Shepherd Major Seminary, said that instructors at the Catholic institution, which has a current enrollment of 265 seminarians, make it clear that being a priest in Nigeria presents the seminarians with the danger of being kidnapped or killed.
ACI Africa asked Sakaba whether or not the instructors discuss with the seminarians the risks they face, including that of being kidnapped, or even killed, to which the priest responded: “Yes, as formators, we have the duty to take our seminarians through practical experiences — both academic, spiritual, and physical experiences. We share this reality of persecution with them, but for them to understand, we connect the reality of Christian persecution in Nigeria to the experiences of Jesus. This way, we feel that it would be easier for them to not only have the strength to face what they are facing but to also see meaning in their suffering.”
“Suffering is only meaningful if it is linked with the pain of Jesus,” the priest said. “The prophet Isaiah reminds us that ‘by his wounds, we are healed.’ Jesus also teaches us that unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it will remain a single grain, but that it is only when it falls and dies that it yields a rich harvest. Teachings such as these are the ones that deepen our resilience in the face of persecution.”
Seminarians and their instructors at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Nigeria. Credit: Father Peter Hassan
Sakaba spoke of the joy of those who look forward to “going back to God in a holy way.”
“Whatever happens, we will all go back to God. How joyful it is to go back to God in a holy way, in a way of sacrifice.” he said. “This holiness is accepting this cross, this pain. Jesus accepted the pain of Calvary, and that led him to his resurrection. Persecution purifies the individual for them to become the finished product for God. I believe that these attacks are God’s project, and no human being can stop God’s work.”
However, the rector clarified that those who enroll at the seminary do not go out seeking danger.
“People here don’t go out putting themselves in situations of risk,” he said. “But when situations such as these happen, the teachings of Jesus and his persecution give us courage to face whatever may come our way.”
Sakaba said that although priestly formation in Nigeria is embracing the “spirituality of martyrdom,” persecution in the West African country presents “a difficult reality.”
“It is difficult to get used to pain. It is difficult to get used to the issues of death … to get familiar with death,” he said. “No one chooses to go into danger just because other people are suffering; it is not part of our nature. But in a situation where you seem not to have an alternative, the grace of God kicks in to strengthen you to face the particular situation.”
Sakaba said that since the 2020 attack at Good Shepherd Major Seminary, the institution has had an air of uncertainty. He said that some of the kidnappers who were arrested in the incident have been released, a situation he said has plunged the major seminary into “fear of the unknown.”
“It hasn’t been easy for us since the release,” Sabaka told ACI Africa. “The community was thrown into confusion because of the unknown. We don’t know what will happen next. We don’t know when they will come next or what they will do to us. We don’t know who will be taken next.”
Seminarians at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria, during a Marian procession. Credit: Father Peter Hassan
In the face of that, however, Sabaka said the resilience of the seminary community has been admirable. “God has been supporting, encouraging, and leading us. His grace assisted us to continue to practice our faith,” he said.
The jihadist attacks, which continue unabated in communities surrounding the seminary, do not make the situation easier.
Church at the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna, Nigeria. Credit: Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, rector of Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna
“Every attack that happens outside our community reminds us of our own 2020 experience. We are shocked, and although we remain deeply wounded, we believe that God has been leading us,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
St. Paul’s Church, in Imphal, capital of Manipur state, after the church was set on fire in 2023. / Credit: Anto Akkara
