Church leaders in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mo-di’s home state have demanded strict legal action in a case of hate speech circulating on so-cial media insulting the pope and Catholic nuns.
Archbishop Thomas Igna-tius Macwan of Gandhinagar in western Gujarat state on March 21 wrote to Chief Mi-nister Bhupendra Patel to take “immediate and stringent” act-ion against a speaker, who is yet to be identified, and organi-zers of the event where defa-matory statements were made against the supreme leader of the Catholic Church.
A video of the event has been circulating on social media for the past few days and contains provocative sta-tements against local Christians and a Catholic pilgrimage cen-ter called Unteshwari Mata Mandir in Kadi village.
“We do not know the name of the speaker. But from the podium and background of the stage, it is clear that he was speaking at a Vishwa Hindu Parishad [World Hindu Coun-cil] function in Kadi, Mehsana district, north-western Guj-arat,” said Father Telesphoro Fernandes, secretary of Gujarat Education Board of Catholic Institutions.
The speech in the local Gujarati language makes sex-ually explicit references to the pope and nuns and calls on the crowd to not tolerate Christian priests and nuns in their midst.
He said the pope is the hus-band of thousands of nuns the world over because nuns during their initiation ceremony need to accept him so. Therefore, the pope is committing adul-tery, he said.