KANDHAMAL (UCAN): The Catholic Church of Archangel Michael in Gudrikia, built beside a church destroyed during the 2008 anti-Christian riots in eastern India’s Odisha state, was blessed on May 26 by Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar.
The church is a substation under the Padangi parish in the Kandhamal district.
In 2008, a rioting Hindu mob destroyed the old church after burning Mathew Nayak alive for refusing to give up his Christian faith.
“The new church is a sign of hope and faith among Christians, as it comes following the worst anti-Christian violence,” said Vincentian Father Sebastian Thottamkara, the parish priest in Padangi.
“It is still fresh in our minds, but what is more important to us is that it made us strong in our faith,” Father Thottamkara, who oversaw the church’s construction, said on May 30.
“The faith of the people has revived since the communal violence. They continue to proclaim and witness the faith through their lives,” he added.
The parish, which falls under the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, was established by the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales around 1924. It is run by Vincentian priests of the Congregation of the Mission now
The faith of the people has revived since the communal violence. They continue to proclaim and witness the faith through their lives
Father Thottamkara
The parish comprises 11 substations, including Gudrikia, serving approximately 400 Catholic families. Gudrikia alone has 45 Catholic families living among a predominantly Hindu population.
Father Thottamkara said that 14 priests and seven nuns were among the more than 500 Catholics who attended the opening of the new church.
In his homily, Archbishop Barwa expressed hope that “Archangel Michael intercede for us to encounter difficulties and threats and to remain firm in our faith.”
Father Madan Sual Singh, director of Jana Vikas, the social service wing of the Archdiocese, observed that it is difficult for the Christians in the area to forget the Kandhamal riots.
“They have lost their loved ones, homes, farmlands, cattle, and their livelihoods. But each one of them contributed whatever little was possible to ensure the new church came true,” he said.
The 2008 anti-Christian riots that began on 24 August 2008, left more than 100 people dead and hundreds wounded. The violence lasted more than four months, destroyed 300 churches and 6,000 homes and rendering more than 56,000 people homeless.
The riot followed the murder of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati, a Hindu nationalist leader in Odisha on 23 August 2008. Although Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for the murder, Hindu groups blamed it on Christians and began the riot.
