{"id":574,"date":"2024-05-14T10:16:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T10:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/?p=574"},"modified":"2024-05-14T10:16:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T10:16:20","slug":"indias-christians-marking-10th-anniversary-of-anti-christian-violence-in-odisha-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/indias-christians-marking-10th-anniversary-of-anti-christian-violence-in-odisha-state\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Christians marking 10th anniversary of anti-Christian violence in Odisha state"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article__subTitle\">Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) are marking the 10th anniversary of the anti-Christian carnage with a Mass on August 25 at St Joseph Convent School in Bhubaneswar.<\/div>\n<div class=\"title__separator\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__text\">\n<p><b><i>By Robin Gomes<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Christians in India will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrible massacre and atrocities inflicted on Christians in the eastern state of Odisha, with a\u00a0<b>Holy Mass in the state capital Bhubaneswar on August 25.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Archbishop John Barwa<\/b>\u00a0together with the\u00a0<b>Catholic Bishops Conference of India<\/b>\u00a0(CBCI) are organizing the Holy Mass on the theme, \u201c<b>Reconciliation, Thanksgiving and Grace<\/b>\u201d, appealing for secularism, democracy, justice and peace and brotherhood.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Black day &#8211; August 25, 2008<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>It was on August 25, 2008, that hell broke loose on the Christians of Kandhamal District, with Hindu extremists attacking them for the\u00a0<b>August 23 murder of Hindu leader Swami \u200eLakshmanananda Saraswati,\u00a0<\/b>even though Maoist rebels \u200eclaimed the assassination.<\/p>\n<p>Considered to be<b>\u00a0India\u2019s worst anti-Christian persecution<\/b>\u00a0in 300 years, the outrage that followed for months, forced an estimated 56,000 Christians to flee to the safety of forests and homes of friends and relatives. Some 5,600 houses and 415 villages were raided and set on fire. According to government figures, 38 people were killed and two women raped, though activists give a higher number.\u00a0 Scores of people were injured and permanently maimed.<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"article__readmore\">\n<div class=\"teaser--labelEvidence teaser teaser--type-article \">\n<article>\n<div class=\"teaser__labelWrapper\">\n<p>\u201cThe inhuman attack on innocent people caught unaware in the middle of the night of August 25, 2008 will always remain a\u00a0<b>black spot in the history\u00a0<\/b>of the traditionally peace loving people of Odisha and Independent India,\u201d Archbishop Barwa said in a press statement announcing the August 25 anniversary\u00a0<b>Mass at St Joseph Convent School in Bhubaneswar.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was heartbreaking,\u201d he said, was that the \u201cmassacre of the innocents continued unabated for months.\u201d\u00a0 &#8220;What happened in Kandhamal, should have never happened and should never ever happen again,\u201d he appealed.<\/p>\n<h2><b>Church close to the victims<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Speaking to Vatican news, Archbishop Barwa said that in the past 10 years his archdiocese has \u201cremained close to the victims\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) are marking the 10th anniversary of the anti-Christian carnage with a Mass on<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-svd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cuttackbbsrad.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}