“We are gathering information on the Kandhmal martyrs:” announced Msgr John Barwa, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, to Christians in Orissa during a meeting with clergy and religious. The prelate started the formal process to have the Christians killed during the pogroms unleashed by the Hindu radicals in 2008 known as “martyrs of the faith.”

The meeting took place at the Kandhamal pastoral centre on 3 March, where over 60 diocesan priests and leaders presented various reports on financial aspects and land issues. The archbishop expressed the desire to strengthen the laity through education, both religious and secular, and to improve the socio-economic conditions of the district’s population. He said, “people are disadvantaged due to lack of higher education and professional training. We must encourage and strengthen them.”

Msgr Barwa participated in a retreat for the clergy, in which “the preacher emphasized that the Eucharist is at the heart of priestly spirituality, and invited prelates to devote more time to Eucharistic adoration and prayer.”

“I told our clergy and religious – he concludes – that it is our task to gather all the evidence and material, so that I can advocate [the cause] in the Vatican, in the first phase of the beatification process. Everyone – lay faithful, consecrated and priests – must share the documents in their possession. It is a joy for us.”

Fears of India evolving into a Hindu theocratic nation loom large as the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeks a second term by placating Hindu sentiment ahead of the April-May parliamentary election.

Secular and liberal political groups say the poll will be crucial in forging the future identity of the country, which defined itself as a secular-democratic nation after British rule ended in 1947.

“Hindu pride is the plat-form on which voters are being courted, which is a big concern,” said Alok Verma, a rights activist in the Northern State of Jammu and Kashmir.

The April 11 to May 19 elections will see 900 million eligible voters select 543 parliamentarians. The party with the most seats will govern the country for the next five years. The BJP, in office since 2014, again finds itself pitted against the Congress party, its nemes is. But critics like Verma worry it is stoking religious intolerance and hate as a ploy to win over more Hindus.

The Federation of Telugu Churches has urged Christians in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to vote for candidates who promote India’s secular and pluralistic character and foster communal harmony and peace.

Vote for those “who strive for social justice and equality of the marginalized like the Adivasis/Tribals and Dalits, especially for equal status for the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, and who protect and promote the rights of the minorities,” says a pastoral letter from the federation, the apex forum of various Churches in the two Southern Indian States that use Telugu as their common language.

The April 1 statement says the Church’s political service and political apostolate are the need of the hour.

“Hence, as bishops/Heads of Churches we encourage our members to opt for political vocation and to take up political service. FTC urges Christians, especially the youth, to take up leadership roles in public and political life,” the pastoral letter says.

Bimal Das is no more a street child, nor is he Christian. But the 30-year-old stood inside a New Delhi church and wept as he joined funeral prayers for Salesian Father Antony Thaiparambil.

Das flew in from Kolkata to attend the funeral of Father Thaiparambil, who rescued him from a street in the eastern Indian city when he was barely six years old.

“I have not seen God, nor have I seen my parents. But if God is there, I am sure he looks like this man,” he said after the ceremony.

The priest helped at least 80,000 children like Das to leave the streets and secure a decent life, Salesian officials said.

Father Thaiparambil began his work with street children in Kolkata, three decades ago in 1985. Das was one of the initial beneficiaries of his mission.

The 84-year-old priest died in New Delhi of an age-related illness on March 19. About 500 people including former street children attended his funeral officiated by Arch-bishop Anil Couto of Delhi and retired Archbishop Vincent Cocessao of Delhi.