On Sunday 2 December, the day the Church celebrated the first Sunday of Advent, in Uttar Pradesh about 150 Hindu fanatics attacked a church and interrupted the prayer with the complicity of the local police. Then they launched an ultimatum to the faithful: either they close the place of Christian worship, or “they will suffer severe consequences.”

Shibu Thomas, founder of Persecution Relief that defends discriminated Christians in India, denounces to AsiaNews: “The police, which should be ‘guardian of the law,’ does not perform its duties and takes a position influenced by pre-judices and bigotry against the Christian minority.”

The attached church is located in Naubasta, in the district of Kanpur. The activist says that the radicals arrived waving orange flags (the colour of Hindu nationalists), singing praises to the god Ram and shouting slogans against Christians. “They sowed fear and terror in the community,” he adds.

Some women in the church have requested police intervention, “believing that they could reason with the fanatics, since it was evident that they were acting out of ignorance.” But the agents imposed the interruption of prayer and asked Christians to leave. Then they also dispersed the troublemakers who, regardless of the presence of the police, threatened to return later.

Rev. Jeetender Singh, in charge of the New India Church of God, tells the Christian network that two days before the incident, the local police inspector had visited the church. On that occasion he informed Pastor A.B. Singh who had been charged with a complaint against him for alleged “forced conversions.” After the attack by the radicals, he reports, the inspector himself refused to collect the complaint of the Christians.

India’s National Commission for Women has accused Catholic Church officials of failing to support and protect a nun who has accused a bishop of raping her.

Chairwoman Rekha Sharma told media in Kochi city on Dec. 1 that the official church was “glorifying” Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar while failing to protect the alleged victim.

“They [church officials] are glorifying the accused bishop,” Sharma said after meeting a delegation of Catholics who sought the commission’s intervention to provide security for the nun and her supporters in a convent.

Sharma alleged that church officials were not listening or acting to protect the nuns. The church has also failed by not having an internal system to report sex abuse, she said.

“There was nobody she [the nun] could go to and complain. We have also written to the church urging them to constitute internal complaint committees where women can complain,” she said.

The 48-year-old nun, former superior of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation, complained to Kerala police in July that Bishop Mulakkal raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

Five other nuns, who be-long to the congregation that functions under the bishop’s patronage, held a public protest calling for the bishop’s arrest. He was arrested on Sept. 21 but a court bailed him on Oct. 15.

The biggest church in Arunachal Pradesh was blessed on December 5 in one of the last villages of the north-eastern India.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, blessed the Sacred Heart Church at Neotan, a small village in Changlang district.

The marked, the day, the Neotan villagers accepted Catholic faith 19 years ago. Neotan sits on India’s border with Myanmar.

Msgr Elias Gonsalves, the new archbishop of Nagpur, will focus on dialogue as his priority.

Speaking to AsiaNews, he said he was “humbled” about his appointment because “the Archdiocese of Nagpur is an old diocese, with its own rich roots” and can be considered a “cultural, political and religious centre of India; hence, dialogue will be a priority in this multifaceted diocese.”

Intolerance towards religious minorities, especially Christians, is on the rise among young Indians, warns Michael Williams, dean of Mount Carmel Schools in India, during a meeting in the British House of Lords organised by a Christian group, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.

Citing government figures, the Indian educationist noted that attacks against religious communities have jumped by 30 percent in the past three years with around a thousand incidents in 2017, 111 people killed and more than 2,500 wounded.

According to Williams, India’s “fundamentalist” government is to blame for creating a climate of intolerance and violation of human rights in the country akin to the current radicalisation in Islamic countries and the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s.

In his view, the modus operandi of the incidents is very similar and include the ‘return home’ movement to convert people to Hinduism.

Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes is among 70 people who will be honoured for promoting democratic and republic characte-ristics of the Indian Constitution.

The award titled “Neelkanth Samman” was presented on November 26, the Constitution Day, at Mavlankar Hall in New Delhi.

The day marks the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Indian Constitution, “a significant even in the political history of our nation,” says Sanjay Paswan, patron of Kabir ke Log and a former federal minister, in his invitation letter to Sister Fernandes.

The November 13 letter also says two NGOs — “Kabir ke Log” and “Centre for Dalit Studies, India Foundation”—decided to give the award to the Catholic nun for her “outstanding contribution towards democratic ethos and constitutional commit-ment.”

The awardees are scholars, activists and thought leaders, Paswan explains.

Sister Fernandes said she was surprised when she got a call on October 15 regarding the award. She was invited to New Delhi to receive the award.

The nun, a native of Goa, says she never thought that she would get an award although she has been advocating that Indians should be informed about their constitutional rights.

“I feel both humble and grateful to the Almighty who continues to journey with me,” she told Matters India on November 20. “It has strengthened my belief to continue to work with those who are on the margins — those who need a voice,” she added.