| CALCUTTA, India,
Oct 23 (Reuters) - Thousands of Christian tribesmen will gather in Calcutta next month to
tell hardline Hindu groups they were not lured or coerced by missionaries to adopt the
faith, Christian leaders said on Saturday. The
tribals, recently converted to Christianity, will hold a rally coinciding with protests
organised by Hindu zealots ahead of Pope John Paul's visit to New Delhi from November 5 to
8.
"Tribals will come to Calcutta on November 3 to say they
became Christians because they were convinced," Herod Mullick, general secretary of
Bangiya Christiya Pariseba, a Christian mass organisation in the West Bengal province,
told Reuters.
Hindu hardliners accuse Church leaders of using bribes and
trickery to convert ignorant destitutes.
"We are against 'Churchianity' trying to proselytise
ignorant, unsuspecting poor people through bribes, fraud and deceit," said B.P.
Singhal, advisor to the Samskriti Raksha Manch (Front for Protection of Culture).
The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Mohan Joshi, a central
committee member of the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad, as saying that missionary homes
founded by Nobel peace prize winner Mother Teresa were ``nothing but conversion centres.''
[...] |
