Vandals Smash Statue of Jesus at Catholic Church in India
Two youths climbed the walls of a church compound in northern India the day after Christmas, demolished a life-size statue of Jesus, and vandalized the lighting system before fleeing the scene.
The vandalism took place at the historic Holy Redeemer Church in Ambala, Haryana state. The church was constructed in 1843 during the British colonial period.
On December 28, state police arrested Ambala residents Sandeep Kumar and Ravinder Kumar, who will be charged in connection with the desecration. The two will reportedly be arraigned Wednesday.
Bishop Ignatius Loyola Mascarenhas of Shimla-Chandigarh told Crux, a U.S.-based online Catholic news outlet, he was “pained and anguished” over the profanation at the church.
“On Christmas Day, thousands of people of other faiths come to visit the crib in this Holy Redeemer Church,” Bishop Mascarenhas said. “The Church closes at 10:30 pm, because of the 11:00 pm curfew. This incident took place on the intervening night of Christmas day and December 26 between 1:40 am and the wee hours of the morning.”
“I was very emotional and had to control my tears,” the bishop said in describing his reaction to the vandalism. “My parents were married in this very same Holy Redeemer church in 1948 and my sister was baptized in this church.”
“It was not a good surprise to see the statue smashed on the ground,” he added.
In the state of Haryana, which abuts the national capital of Delhi, Christians comprise just 0.2 percent of the population, which is overwhelmingly Hindu.
Haryana has been governed since 2014 by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a group associated with the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose members include Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to a report by the Indian watchdog group Persecution Relief, crimes against Christians in India rose by 60 percent from 2016 to 2019. Persecution Relief cited a “direct link” between BJP gaining power in a state and an increase in attacks against Christians in that state.
There were 330 anti-Christian incidents in 2016, 440 incidents in 2017, 477 in 2018, and 527 incidents in 2019, the group said.
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