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WORLD October 27, 1999 VNN4997 Comment on this story Hindu Groups Want Papal Apology BY SURYAMURTHY RAMACHANDRAN INDIA, Oct 27 (VNN) — India's Hindu Groups Want Papal Apology for "Forced Conversions" By Suryamurthy Ramachandran CNS Correspondent 26 October, 1999 New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - Hindu fundamentalist groups in India want Pope John Paul II to address the sensitive issue of "forced conversions" by Christian missionaries during his planned visit to the country next month. "Mass conversion ... is incompatible with any spiritual motive," Ashok. Singhal, president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, or World Hindu Council), said Monday. "Conversion is illegal," said Surendra Jain, national convenor of the extremist Hindu youth group, Bajrang Dal. "We will have to launch another 'Bharat Chhodo' (Quit India) movement to ensure that all Christians are driven out of the country," Jain warned. During his Nov. 5-8 visit to New Delhi, the Pope will participate in a congregation of Asian bishops, meet secular and religious leaders and celebrate mass at the Nehru stadium. Singhal claimed more than 100,000 missionaries were working in India and were forcing poor Hindus to convert. His group is participating in a 940-mile protest march from Goa in southwestern India to New Delhi, scheduled to end in the capital on the eve of Pope's visit. "A forced conversion is no conversion,'' Archbishop Alan de Lastic, the head of Roman Catholic Church in New Delhi said. "A conversion takes place in the heart," De Lastic added. "Noone can get into another person's heart." The archbishop said those accusing Christians of forcing conversions in India had never produced any proof. "This is a free country ... I hope [Hindu protestors] will not spoil India's image of a hospitable country. We don't want people to say Indians insulted a religious leader." The governing Bharatiya Janata Party and its religious affiliates - one of which is the VHP - also accuse Christian missionaries who have set up schools, dispensaries and old age homes across India of forcing poor Hindu villagers to convert. VHP sources said they had shelved plans to burn effigies of the Pope, following appeals by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. However, the group still intends to burn other effigies symbolizing conversion. VHP spokesperson Manohar Puri noted that the Pope had apologized for Christian atrocities elsewhere in the world, and said he owed an apology for forced conversion in India. Puri said the Catholic Church had massacred nearly 75,000 Hindus in Goa during the 16th century, during the Inquisition, when forced conversions took place in Portugal, Spain and their overseas territories. "How far back must we go?" De Lastic responded to the charge. "We pray every day for forgiveness of our trespasses," he added, in reference to the Lord's Prayer. The Pope would undoubtedly say that prayer publicly during his visit, "and that would be an apology," he added. About 2.3 percent of India's nearly one billion people are Christians. Church leaders say the community has been the target of more than 100 attacks over the past year. Among the more serious incidents, Australian missionary Graham Stains and his two young sons were burned to death in a jeep, and a Roman Catholic priest, Arul Doss, was shot with arrows and beaten. In another incident, a nun was abducted, stripped and forced to drink urine by two men who objected to her religion. Several church buildings and Christian homes also were targeted by Hindu fundamentalists. The federal government says all the attacks on Christians have been investigated, and that many were linked to local land and property disputes. Comment on this story  Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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