INTERFAITH  ETIQUETTE  GUIDE    Dalai Lama's Letter    Links    RELIGION IN THE NEWS    Contact Us

"Pope raps India's restraints on religious freedom"

Vatican, Jun. 26 (CWNews.com) - Speaking to a visiting group of Catholic bishops from India, Pope John Paul II has repeated his criticism of restraints on religious freedom in that country.

The Holy Father took up the controversial question of "anti-conversion" laws in the predominantly Hindu country, as he met with the final group of Indian bishops to make their ad limina visits. The bishops came from the ecclesiastical province of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Patna, and Ranchi.

In his address to the Indian bishops, the Pontiff opened with a reminder that all Christians are called to evangelize. He quickly turned to the problems in India, saying: "How unfortunate it is, then, that even today in many places in India unnecessary obstacles still impede the teaching of the Gospel." In past weeks, as other groups of Indian bishops made their ad limina visits, the Pope had made similar comments-- provoking a rash of criticism from Hindu authorities.

Undeterred by that criticism, the Pope pursued his point: "Citizens of a modern democracy should not suffer because of their religious convictions. Nor should anyone feel compelled to hide his religion in order to enjoy fundamental human rights, such as education and employment."

The Holy Father made it clear that he hoped the Catholic Church could continue with inter-religious dialogue in India, where about three-fourths of the population is Hindu and another 12 percent is Muslim. But such dialogue requires mutual respect, he pointed out. He continued: "It is unfortunate that some of the Church's honest attempts towards inter-religious dialogue at its most basic level have sometimes been hindered by a lack of cooperation from the government and by harassment from certain fundamentalist groups." That attitude is particularly regrettable, he observed, in a country like India, which has a "strong tradition of respect for religious pluralism."

Pope John Paul encouraged the Indian Church to continue evangelizing, even in the face of "many trials." He cautioned that the clergy should not yield to the temptation to water down Christian doctrine, making the faith appear as a matter of merely human wisdom, or a "pseudo-science of living well."