Contrary to the claims of some mediocre former ‘Traditionalist’ bloggers, the modern church produces more martyrs than at any time in its history.
On May 3rd this year, the Indian government banned internet in the region of Manipur, with the pretence of claiming to want to stop it from being used to stoke violence between the Christian Kuki-Zo and Hindu Metei tribes.
As it transpired, the following day saw two Christian girls stripped naked, molested and paraded by Hindu men. One of them was gang raped by the Hindu thugs.
Due to the ban on internet, the video did not emerge until the end of July.
Sister Maria Nirmalini, President of the Conference of Religious in India said of the shocking event:
We are shocked at the brazenness of the perpetrators
It is disturbing to see the dignity of women being violated.
It is absolutely condemnable and the perpetrators and the police who stood by watching should be punished.
Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias said:
I bow my head in shame.
This is a blot on our country, a disgrace for India.
This depraved, sadistic behavior is strongly condemned. It’s a heinous crime against our women, [and] there should be stringent action taken which will act as a deterrent. This was a lapse on the part of the government and police, who couldn’t protect these women
He said that on August 15th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, they will pray for the protection of Indian women
Prayers of consecration are recited after every Mass, [and] this year we [will] plead for the maternal protection of our Blessed Mother on our girls and women, for their safety and wellbeing
Almost 100 Christians have been killed in Manipur in recent months.
India’s leader Modi and his BJP party have allowed Hindu Nationalists to not only rape Christian women, but also to burn down churches and kill Christians. Only this week, it emerged that a Catholic priest was arrested for, get this, saying that some Hindu king was not a god.
When parliament debated these issues in Manipur, Modi was seen laughing and joking, leading to a member of the opposition stating:
Women and children are dying over there, women are being molested and raped and the Prime Minister of India is sitting in the middle of Parliament and laughing. This is not about Rahul Gandhi, it is not about the Congress, it is not about Opposition, it is about India, it is about our country. A state has been decimated, it does not exist anymore and it has happened because of the politics of the BJP -- divide and rule and burn
The silence of feminists, particularly in Ireland, is noticeable. When Savita Halappanavar died of sepsis, they held up India as a paragon of women’s safety. There has also been noticeable silence from Indian descent Irish leader Leo Varadkar and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The howls about a globalised world, a world free of borders a world of equality are all merely rhetoric to these people, who are far more insular and Anglophone in their world view than their predecessors.
As the churches of Christians in Manipur are set on fire, as Christian girls are raped, as priests are arrested, let us not believe the lie that we live in a more civilised global world than before.
