05-20-2006, 02:59 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Religious intolerance: Pope stirs conversion cauldron
[ Friday, May 19, 2006 11:53:28 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
LONDON/NEW DELHI: The domestic dispute over religious conversions got an external dimension on Friday with an increasingly assertive Vatican coming down hard on India for initiatives taken by BJP governments to enact anti-conversion laws.
Thirteen months into his papacy, Benedict XVI upbraided Indiaâs new ambassador to the Holy See, Amitava Tripathi, as he presented his letters of accreditation, with the grim warning that there were "disturbing signs of religious intolerance which have troubled some regions of the nation, including the reprehensible attempt to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right of religious freedom."
This was a reiteration, though sterner, of the seven-year-old message put out by the Popeâs predecessor, late John Paul II, on a visit to India in 1999 that religious conversion was a human right and it would be unconstitutional for India to ban it.
The Popeâs warning comes at a time when the emotive issue of conversion has again hit the surface following attempts to outlaw conversions in a BJP-controlled state.
A Bill passed by the Rajasthan assembly, which evoked strong protests from Christian groups, Left and liberals, has been lying with President APJ Abdul Kalam after it was referred to him by governor Pratibha Patil, a UPA government appointee.
In the full text of the popeâs comments to Tripathi, seen by TOI, Benedict XVI, once dubbed the âPanzerkardinalâ and 'Godâs Rottweiler,' said the attempt to restrict religious freedom "must be firmly rejected as not only unconstitutional, but also as contrary to the highest ideals of Indiaâs founding fathers, who believed in a nation of peaceful coexistence and mutual tolerance between different religions and ethnic groups."
Back home, the foreign ministry, usually sensitive to any whiff of interference in Indiaâs internal affairs, chose to tread cautiously when approached for a response to the papal strictures.
"It is acknowledged universally that India is a secular and democratic country in which adherents of all religious faiths enjoy equal rights," it said.
BJP, however, did not have any compunction in taking on the hardliner Pope. It called his comments "grossly unjustified and an unnecessary interference in our internal affairs."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...539377.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
[ Friday, May 19, 2006 11:53:28 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
LONDON/NEW DELHI: The domestic dispute over religious conversions got an external dimension on Friday with an increasingly assertive Vatican coming down hard on India for initiatives taken by BJP governments to enact anti-conversion laws.
Thirteen months into his papacy, Benedict XVI upbraided Indiaâs new ambassador to the Holy See, Amitava Tripathi, as he presented his letters of accreditation, with the grim warning that there were "disturbing signs of religious intolerance which have troubled some regions of the nation, including the reprehensible attempt to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right of religious freedom."
This was a reiteration, though sterner, of the seven-year-old message put out by the Popeâs predecessor, late John Paul II, on a visit to India in 1999 that religious conversion was a human right and it would be unconstitutional for India to ban it.
The Popeâs warning comes at a time when the emotive issue of conversion has again hit the surface following attempts to outlaw conversions in a BJP-controlled state.
A Bill passed by the Rajasthan assembly, which evoked strong protests from Christian groups, Left and liberals, has been lying with President APJ Abdul Kalam after it was referred to him by governor Pratibha Patil, a UPA government appointee.
In the full text of the popeâs comments to Tripathi, seen by TOI, Benedict XVI, once dubbed the âPanzerkardinalâ and 'Godâs Rottweiler,' said the attempt to restrict religious freedom "must be firmly rejected as not only unconstitutional, but also as contrary to the highest ideals of Indiaâs founding fathers, who believed in a nation of peaceful coexistence and mutual tolerance between different religions and ethnic groups."
Back home, the foreign ministry, usually sensitive to any whiff of interference in Indiaâs internal affairs, chose to tread cautiously when approached for a response to the papal strictures.
"It is acknowledged universally that India is a secular and democratic country in which adherents of all religious faiths enjoy equal rights," it said.
BJP, however, did not have any compunction in taking on the hardliner Pope. It called his comments "grossly unjustified and an unnecessary interference in our internal affairs."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...539377.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->