INDIA Tsunami Disaster Brings Tragic Ending To 2004

Posted: 6th January 2005

NEW DELHI (UCAN): India ended the year 2004 struggling to cope with the tsunami catastrophe that killed thousands and displaced many more.
As 2005 arrived, government and hundreds of voluntary agencies were involved in an unprecedented rescue and relief operation after tidal waves devastated India's southern coast and eastern islands the day after Christmas.

The waves triggered by an undersea earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra Island battered coastlines around the Indian Ocean region. In India, government agencies put the death toll at 9,479 on Jan. 4 with more than 5,000 still missing after walls of water washed away scores of coastal villages.
Christian voluntary agencies such as Caritas India, the Catholic Church's social action wing, its American counterpart, Catholic Relief Services, and the Protestant Church's Auxiliary for Social Action have mobilized, aiming to reach remote areas where no government machinery is in place.

A tsunami-ravaged nation was not what the Congress party expected to end the year with, following its unexpected victory in the general election conducted April-May. The party then formed its first federal coalition government, after forming by itself most of the federal governments from 1952, when democratic elections began, five years after independence.

Surprising pollsters and political leaders, Indian voters dumped the previous coalition, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party). The BJP, perceived as the political arm of groups that want to make India a Hindu theocratic nation, had been in power more than six years.

Religious minorities and secular groups greeted the poll result with some relief, some people hailing it as a sign of the nation's strong roots in secular democracy and of an aversion to religious fundamentalism.
The Catholic bishops had already made electoral history of sorts when they elected a tribal prelate to head the Church for the first time. At their Jan. 7-14 plenary meeting, 150 bishops, 26 archbishops and three cardinals representing the country's three Catholic rites -- Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara - elected Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI).

Only a few months earlier, Cardinal Toppo had became the first tribal Asian inducted into the College of Cardinals. Church circles in India saw his election as conference president as setting a new trend in the country by opening the post beyond the Eurasians and prelates from traditional Catholic strongholds in southwestern India who held it in the past.
The Latin-rite Church in India is the product of European missionary efforts that began in the 15th century. The other two Catholic rites are Oriental Churches that trace their origin to Saint Thomas the Apostle and follow Syrian Church traditions. Both are based in the southern state of Kerala.

The bishops' plenary of the Syro-Malabar Church (SMC) in 2004 proved a milestone in its history. At the opening Patriarch Ignace Cardinal Moussa I Daoud, president of the Vatican's Congregation for Oriental Churches, announced Pope John Paul II's decision to allow the Church to elect its own bishops for dioceses in Kerala. The SMC is one of the "sui juris" (self-governing) Churches in the Catholic fold. However, the Vatican had reserved the right to appoint bishops and decide on liturgy and the SMC administration.

Cardinal Daoud observed that the pope earlier revoked the reservation on liturgy after recognizing the SMC synod's "sufficient collegial maturity." The decision to allow the Church to appoint its bishops, though restricted to Kerala, came after "careful deliberations," the patriarch said.

Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of Ernakulam-Angamaly, the SMC head, has called for full autonomy for the Church.

The Holy See gave the Oriental Church other cause for cheer during the year. On June 7 Joseph Vithayathil was declared a Servant of God, advancing the cause for the canonization of the cardinal's cousin. Three weeks earlier the cause of another SMC priest, Father Augustine Thevarparampil, advanced further when he was declared a Venerable, the first real step toward sainthood.

The Latin Church had similar reason to rejoice when the CBCI plenary decided to back the canonization cause for Devasahayam Pillai, a Hindu convert to Catholicism, who Church records say was martyred for his new faith in the 18th century. The bishops unanimously agreed to initiate the process quickly.
The tribal Church in northeastern India celebrated Oct. 3 when Father Andrew Marak was ordained coadjutor bishop of Tura, the first prelate from the Garo tribe in India.

Unlike previous years, 2004 ended with no additional diocese in India. The country now has 149 dioceses, the largest number in Asia. Church circles say several new ones are in the offing, but have been delayed due to various considerations.

Nonetheless, the country does have two more archdioceses following the elevation of the Latin dioceses of Raipur and Trivandrum during the year. Their bishops were simultaneously promoted to archbishops.

Other changes also occurred in the hierarchy. In January Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao succeeded Archbishop Raul N. Gonsalves as head of Goa and Daman, India's oldest diocese. In June Bishop Anthony Andrarayar of Ootacamund was transferred to become archbishop of Pondicherry-Cuddalore. The following month Bishop Bernard Moras of Belgaum was transferred to head Bangalore archdiocese.
Changes in the Syro-Malabar hierarchy brought Palai and Mananthavady dioceses new bishops and Trichur archdiocese an auxiliary. These were the last direct episcopal appointments the Vatican made for the Church.

Along with new bishops taking charge, three prelates -- Archbishop Arul Das James of Madras-Mylapore and Bishops James A. Toppo of Jalpaiguri and Michael Minj of Gumla -- died during the course of the year.

The Indian Church rejoiced after the southern state of Tamil Nadu decided May 18 to repeal its law regulating religious conversion. The Church also expressed joy April 24 when the Vatican declared St. Thomas Shrine in Kerala India's first international shrine.

The year ended with the decennial exposition of the bodily relic of Saint Francis Xavier in Old Goa. The 43-day event began Nov. 21 and attracted some 2.2 million people from India and abroad.

A momentous achievement for Protestants was the establishment of the Communion of Churches in India by the Church of North India, the Church of South India and the Mar Thoma Church. They forged the union March 10 aiming to project a united face of the Church to the nation.

The year also saw some attacks on Church workers, members and institutions. As the bishops' plenary was in progress, Hindu groups attacked priests and nuns in Jhabua diocese in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

In the same state, where a BJP government is in power, Bishop Mathew Vaniakizhakkel of Satna was forced to stay six days inside a mission compound in March, surrounded by a mob that blamed missioners for the death of a 13-year-old girl student. The girl's body was found in a Church-managed hostel in Siddhi district, but the autopsy report indicated the death was a suicide.

On Feb. 10, rightwing Hindu activists attacked a Christian village in Orissa, eastern India. They seized some Christian women, stripped them and shaved their heads in an attempt to make them renounce their faith.

In neighboring Jharkhand state, a Catholic priest was stabbed on Aug. 22. He survived after spending several days in a coma.

Six days later, a Catholic priest was stabbed to death in Kerala, the first such incident in the state with the largest number of Christians in India. This marked a new trend as anti-Christian violence until then was limited to northern India, where Christians are a miniscule community. Almost a month later, a Hindu group attacked several Missionaries of Charity in Kerala.

On Dec. 13, even before the devastation wrought by the tsunamis, a pall of gloom again descended on the Indian Church when a court in Jharkhand sentenced Catholic Father Swaminathan Christudas to three years' imprisonment with hard labor on a seven-year-old charge of sodomy. Church people say the charges were trumped up and the judgment flawed. They have appealed the ruling to a higher court.

Article Source: UCANEWS