The Indian Women Theologians Forum (IWTF) has expressed solidarity with a nun who dared to complain against a bishop who allegedly had abused sexually for over a period of two years.

“We are pained that her appeals for justice in the Church were met with silence,” the forum said in a press release on October 1. It justified the nun’s move to complain to the police, saying she was “left with no option but to go to the civil authorities to seek justice.”

The forum said it was “appalled” at the way many within the Church heaped condemnation and contempt on her.

“Church leadership has failed to understand the impact sexual abuse has on a victim – the trauma that a victim had to undergo to process the abuse from someone who is a spiritual leader who takes the place of God in her life,” explains the press release signed by forum secretary Virginia Saldanha and members Kochurani Abraham and Sister Manju Kulapuram. The women theologians say they stand by the nun because the two years of sexual abuse have affected her mentally and spiritually.

Aggression and violence against Christians have been registered in recent weeks in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India. This is what A.C. Michael, human rights activist, Christian and former member of the Indian Government’s minority commission says in an interview with Agenzia Fides. Michael states that the attacks are perpetrated by Hindu fundamentalist groups, in collaboration with local police authorities. The activist notes that in September 2018, in the district of Jaunpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, at least 12 incidents of violence against Christians occurred.

Some Protestant Christian Pastors were woken up in the middle of the night and arrested on false charges of “fraudulent conversions.” Roads leading to churches are controlled by the police with checkpoints. The believers are stopped and cannot go freely to church, “and the police force them to go home,” denounces A.C. Michael. Other Pastors are threatened and they have not been allowed to carry out service in church.

Among the incidents that occurred on September 5, police arrested Pastor Durga Pradesh and a crowd of 270 Christians from Jaunpur. On 11 September, after pressure from radical Hindu groups, the police arrested Pastor Rajendra Chouhan and seven other faithful, releasing them after three days. On September 13, a crowd of extremists interrupted a prayer vigil led by Pastor Ravindra. On the same day local Christian leader, Ram Milan, was beaten, and in another place, the police took into custody Pastors Ram Ratan and Thomas Osoof, who had come from Mumbai, and were leading a prayer assembly. The police also arrested Pastor Gulabchand along with three other faithful, releasing them the next day.

On 16 September, the police blocked all the roads leading to the church of Bhulandih and asked the faithful to return home, arresting four Christians and were released on bail three days later. Pastors Anil Kumar, Praduman, Deepak Kumar, Monu and Ravinder were also arrested while celebrating a religious ceremony and then released on bail on 18 September.

According to the 2011 census, Jaunpur has a population of 180,000, 88% Hindu, 12% Muslim, 0.11% Christians and other minorities. Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous and politically important state, with a total population of 200 million.

India’s Supreme Court has asked federal and state governments to comply with its two- month-old instructions to end mob violence and lynching, which activists say shows the government’s failure to check hard-line Hindu violence.

The country’s top court on Sept. 24 asked all state governments to file action reports on its July 17 directions for governments to check mob violence, especially those linked to acts by vigilante groups protecting cows, a revered animal in Hinduism.

“There is a collapse of governance and law and order. Since the government is not taking the court direction seriously, the court has to intervene,” said Father Denzil Fernandes, director of the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi.

The court directions included using media to tell masses that the street violence and mob killings will attract legal action and punishment. In order to check violence, it also asked to appoint district level police officers to stop the spread of irresponsible messages and to punish police who derelict their duty.