Narendra Modi created hist-ory on Dec. 23 when he became the first Indian prime minister to visit the headquarters of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in New Delhi. The prime minister took part in the Christmas celebrations hosted by the bishops at the CBCI Centre premises. He also interacted with key leaders from the Christian community, including cardinals, bishops and prominent lay leaders of the Church. Addressing the program, Prime Minister Modi said Christ teaches love, harmony, and brotherhood and urged everyone to work towards streng-thening these values in society. He said attempts to spread vio-lence and cause disruption in society pained him. The prime minister stressed that only a hu-man-centric approach, as adopted by India, could take a 21st-century world to new heights. Citing the Christmas market attack in Ger-many and the 2019 Easter bom-bings in Sri Lanka, Modi said it is important to come together and fight such challenges. The prime minister recalled “a very satis-factory moment for me when we safely brought Fr Alexis Prem Kumar from war-torn Afghanistan a decade back.” Fr Kumar, a member of the Jesuit Refugee Services, was working in western Herat province of Afghanistan when gunmen took him into custody on June 2, 2014. It was PM Modi to announce the Jesuit’s release first through a tweet on February 22, 2015.