<span style='color:red'>The motives for manufacturing the myth of AIT (Apostle of India Thomas): </span>
The history of Christianity, crowded as it is with crimes of the most horrendous kind, provides a running commentary on the Christian doctrine. And the biggest share in Christian crimes down the centuries can safely be alloted to the Roman Catholic Church, its head, its hierarchy, its theologians, its religious orders, and its missionaries.
There is, however, one criminal field in which the Roman Catholic Church has remained unrivalled. No other Christian denomination - these are as many as 23,000 of them comes anywhere near the Roman Catholic Church when it concerns committing of blatant forgeries and foisting of pious frauds. It is no exaggeration to say that starting with Jesus Christ, the entire doctrinal and institutional edifice of Catholicism rests on a series of staggering swindles.
The Roman Catholic Church in India has remained true to the tradition. The literature it has produced during the last five centuries is full of lies of the filthiest sort, not only about Hindu religion and culture but also about its own âreligionâ and role. And this garbage heap is topped by the hoax about the so-called St. Thomas.
What difference does it make whether Christianity came to India in the first or the fourth century? Why raise such a squabble when no one denies that the Syrian Christians of Malabar are fairly old immigrants to this country?
Firstly, it is one thing for some Christian refugees to come to a country and build some churches, and quite another for an apostle of Jesus Christ himself to appear in flesh and blood for spreading the Good News. <span style='color:blue'>If it can be established that Christianity is as ancient in India as the prevailing forms of Hinduism, no one can nail it as an imported creed brought in by Western imperialism.</span>
Secondly, the Catholic Church in India stands badly in <span style='color:blue'>need of a spectacular martyr of its own. Unfortunately for it, St. Francis Xavier died a natural death and that, too, in a distant place.</span> Hindus, too, have persistently refused to oblige the Church in this respect in spite of all provocations. The Church has had to use its own resources and churn out something. St. Thomas about whom nobody knows anything, offers a ready-made martyr.
Thirdly, the Catholic Church can <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>malign the Brahmins more confidently.</span> Brahmins have been the main target of its attack from the very beginning. Now it can be shown that the <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Brahmins have always been a vicious brood, so much so that they would not stop from murdering a holy man who was only telling Godâs own truth to a tormented people.</span> At the same time, the religion of the Brahmins can be held responsible for their depravity.
Fourthly, the <span style='color:blue'>Catholics in India need no more feel uncomfortable when faced with historical evidence about their Churchâs close cooperation with the Portuguese pirates in committing abominable crimes against the Indian people.</span> The commencement of the Church can be disentangled from the advent of the Portuguese by dating the Church to a distant past. The Church was here long before the Portuguese arrived. It was a mere coincidence that the Portuguese also called themselves Catholics. Guilt by association is groundless.
Lastly, it is quite within the ken of Catholic theology to claim that a land which has been honoured by the visit of an apostle has become the patrimony of the Catholic Church. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>India might have been a Hindu homeland from times immemorial. But since that auspicious moment when St. Thomas stepped on her soil, the Hindu claim stands cancelled.</span> The country has belonged to the Catholic Church from the first century onwards, no matter how long the Church takes to conquer it completely for Christ.
writes K Elst
The history of Christianity, crowded as it is with crimes of the most horrendous kind, provides a running commentary on the Christian doctrine. And the biggest share in Christian crimes down the centuries can safely be alloted to the Roman Catholic Church, its head, its hierarchy, its theologians, its religious orders, and its missionaries.
There is, however, one criminal field in which the Roman Catholic Church has remained unrivalled. No other Christian denomination - these are as many as 23,000 of them comes anywhere near the Roman Catholic Church when it concerns committing of blatant forgeries and foisting of pious frauds. It is no exaggeration to say that starting with Jesus Christ, the entire doctrinal and institutional edifice of Catholicism rests on a series of staggering swindles.
The Roman Catholic Church in India has remained true to the tradition. The literature it has produced during the last five centuries is full of lies of the filthiest sort, not only about Hindu religion and culture but also about its own âreligionâ and role. And this garbage heap is topped by the hoax about the so-called St. Thomas.
What difference does it make whether Christianity came to India in the first or the fourth century? Why raise such a squabble when no one denies that the Syrian Christians of Malabar are fairly old immigrants to this country?
Firstly, it is one thing for some Christian refugees to come to a country and build some churches, and quite another for an apostle of Jesus Christ himself to appear in flesh and blood for spreading the Good News. <span style='color:blue'>If it can be established that Christianity is as ancient in India as the prevailing forms of Hinduism, no one can nail it as an imported creed brought in by Western imperialism.</span>
Secondly, the Catholic Church in India stands badly in <span style='color:blue'>need of a spectacular martyr of its own. Unfortunately for it, St. Francis Xavier died a natural death and that, too, in a distant place.</span> Hindus, too, have persistently refused to oblige the Church in this respect in spite of all provocations. The Church has had to use its own resources and churn out something. St. Thomas about whom nobody knows anything, offers a ready-made martyr.
Thirdly, the Catholic Church can <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>malign the Brahmins more confidently.</span> Brahmins have been the main target of its attack from the very beginning. Now it can be shown that the <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Brahmins have always been a vicious brood, so much so that they would not stop from murdering a holy man who was only telling Godâs own truth to a tormented people.</span> At the same time, the religion of the Brahmins can be held responsible for their depravity.
Fourthly, the <span style='color:blue'>Catholics in India need no more feel uncomfortable when faced with historical evidence about their Churchâs close cooperation with the Portuguese pirates in committing abominable crimes against the Indian people.</span> The commencement of the Church can be disentangled from the advent of the Portuguese by dating the Church to a distant past. The Church was here long before the Portuguese arrived. It was a mere coincidence that the Portuguese also called themselves Catholics. Guilt by association is groundless.
Lastly, it is quite within the ken of Catholic theology to claim that a land which has been honoured by the visit of an apostle has become the patrimony of the Catholic Church. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>India might have been a Hindu homeland from times immemorial. But since that auspicious moment when St. Thomas stepped on her soil, the Hindu claim stands cancelled.</span> The country has belonged to the Catholic Church from the first century onwards, no matter how long the Church takes to conquer it completely for Christ.
writes K Elst