In Goa a Catholic priest apologised to the poll authorities for a hate speech urging people not to vote for the BJP, Goa’s Arch-bishop Filipe Neri Ferrao urged voters not to cast their ballot for those candidates who “corrupt, communalize, exploit and divide.”

In his message on the eve of Easter Sunday, Ferrao said: “As we stand on the threshold of parliamentary elections as well as by-elections in some of our constituencies, let us pray that our electorate will vote for the forces which empower the weak, the marginalised and the exploited, rather than those that corrupt, communalise, exploit and divide.” Ferrao is the religious and spiritual leader of more than a quarter of the state’s 1.5 million population which is Catholic in religious orientation.

Two viral videos featuring Father Conceicao D’Silva, in which he referred to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah as a “demon” and attributed the cause of late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s affliction of cancer to the “wrath of God,” went viral in the media, attracting uniform condemnation.

After a complaint was filed by the Goa BJP against the priest, D’Silva apologised to the district administration, which also cautioned him against making hate speeches.

Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore on April 24 asked a Bharatiya Janata Party leader to withdraw his anti-Christian remarks and offer an unconditional apology to the community.

The uncalled for remarks of K.S. Eshwarappa are condemn-able and highly deplorable, the archbishop said in a statement.

The BJP leader’s statement has done great harm to Christians and discredited their community’s credibility. So, he should withdraw his statement and tender an unconditional apology to the Christian community, asserted the archbishop, who is president of the Karnataka Re-gion Catholic Bishops’ Council.

Eshwarappa, a former deputy chief minister of Karnataka, on April 9 told press reporters on his election campaign trail at Bagalkot that his party intentionally avoided giving tickets to Christians.

“The Christians, like the Muslims were not given party tickets because Christians are not loyal to the country and not honest too,” the BJP leader added.

The Sri Lanka terror attacks have spurred India’s Goa State to provide security for its ancient Christian buildings, but church leaders say much more is needed.

A day after a series of explosions killed more than 300 people in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, Goa’s chief minister said he had asked police to provide security to churches across the former Portuguese colony on India’s western coast.

However, churchgoers and officials say only token security arrangements can be seen, particularly around historical buildings in Old Goa. They include the Basilica of Bom Jesus that houses the mortal remains of 16th century Portuguese-Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier.

All the Latin rite dioceses in India will organize special prayers to show solidarity with the Church and people of Sri Lanka.

“To pledge our closeness and solidarity with the victims of the multiple bomb blasts that took place in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, I would like to propose that we observe coming Sunday, 28th April, 2019 – Divine Mercy Sunday — as a day of prayer and solidarity,” says an April 24 circular from the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) addressed to all the Latin rite prelates in the country.

CCBI president Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao of Goa and Daman has suggested that all parishes during the Sunday Mass to add “special prayers of the faithful for the departed souls, the injured and the affected families, who are plunged in grief and pain due to these senseless attacks.”

The prelate also urged the bishops to “spend some time in prayer before the Eucharistic Risen Lord, so that the country of Sri Lanka may experience healing and receive the gift of peace.”

Security has been beefed up at churches in Indian capital, New Delhi after a series of suicide bombings killed more than 300 people in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Armed Police are guarding Sacred Heart Cathedral in the capital and asking churchgoers to pass through metal detectors. They also frisk visitors who enter the 88-year-old building.

Similar security measures have been put in place at most of the 200 churches in the city, police spokesperson Madhur Verma told media.

They have also deployed special vehicles carrying trained anti-terrorism personnel outside prominent churches, which are also under the surveillance of plainclothes police officers checking for suspicious movements, according to Verma.

The cathedral attracts thousands of people, including non-Christians, at Christmas and Easter when church officials inform police, who take care of crowd management, traffic regulations and security. “Police provided security during Holy Week and they continue it. We believe it is a precautionary measure. It is good to be cautious,” said Father Savarimuthu Sankar, spokesman for Delhi Archdiocese.

The cathedral has provided police with complete assistance and requests visitors to cooperate with police to remain safe and secure, he said. “We are here to give fool proof security to churches and people in the national capital. It’s our duty,” said a security official posted in front of the cathedral.

A group miscreants has burned down the second oldest Catholic school in Manipur over disciplinary action taken against some students. St Joseph Higher Secondary School at Sugnu in Chandel district of the north-eastern Indian state lost all its files and records of the past 55 years after the miscreants set it on fire around 9 pm on April 25. Father Jacob Chapao, the director of the Manipur Catholic Youth Organisation, has issued a condemnation letter, slamming the miscreants for the barbaric act. “Such barbaric act of vandalism on an educational institution is against the cause of humanity,” the priest said. The school, which has some 1400 students in the current academic year, took disciplinary action on six students but were allowed to attend the class as usual.

Police are protecting a Catholic convent and a school two weeks after mobs attacked and injured several people, including four nuns, in southern India’s Tamil Nadu State. Indian bishops on April 6 appealed to political leaders in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu “to deal sternly” with criminals who attacked the convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and its Little Flower Higher Secondary School in Chinna-salem town on March 25-26. “All the injured nuns are back from hospital now but police continue to guard the school and convent,” the congregation’s provincial superior, Sister Devaseer Mary, told ucanews.com on April 7.

Mobs attacked the school and convent after a grade 10 student committed suicide in the school hostel on the afternoon of March 25, hours after she had taken her mathematics exam after expressing fears of failing it. Local police officer N. Ramanathan told ucanews.com that the violence began after the school management refused to entertain a demand for 1 million rupees (US$14,250) in compensation.

Sister Mary said the school management refused to pay any compensation because the school had not committed any mistake. But those who demanded compensation on behalf of parents of the deceased student “left angrily saying they knew how they could get this amount.”

A bigger attack followed on March 26. About 200 people armed with sharp weapons, iron rods and wooden batons entered the compound. They attacked the convent, its chapel, school offices and staff in what appeared to be an organized criminal plan. They beat up nuns and school staff, destroyed furniture, windows, computers and shelves in the school office, and desecrated the chapel. The nuns estimate a loss of about 10 million rupees (US$1.4 million) from the attacks. “We are documenting the loss in a systematic way. We want the authorities to recover our loss from the criminals,” Sister Mary said.