No Govt-sanctioned churches, rules CBCI

New Delhi, Oct 11: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India CBCI today quot;unequivocallyquot; rejected any concept of Government-san...

New Delhi, Oct 11: The Catholic Bishops8217; Conference of India CBCI today quot;unequivocallyquot; rejected any concept of Government-sanctioned churches in India saying quot;it would be a flagrant violation of the Constitution.quot;

Reacting to RSS chief K S Sudershan8217;s call for quot;swadeshi churchesquot;, CBCI said quot;in calling upon the government to involve itself in Indian church8217; and send home8217; all those he does not consider to be Indians, Sudershan has challenged not only Constitutional guarantee of freedom of faith, but sought to interfere directly in the internal structures of several religions, including Christianity.quot;

quot;Christianity in India is twenty centuries old. No one has the right to question the patriotism of India Christians,quot; CBCI Secretary General Oswald Gracias said in a statement.

quot;Such statements, which have been repeated over a period of time, threaten peace and national solidarity by attempting to create unneccessary division between people and sowing seeds of division between communities,quot; he said.

quot;No single authority dictates the political or cultural preferences of the people of any country or region,quot; Gracias said.

In his Dussehra address in Nagpur recently, Sudarshan demanded expulsion of foreign Christian missionaries from India.

Meanwhile, the National Council of Churches in India NCCI too said there were no foreign churches or foreign missionaries affiliated to NCCI.

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NCCI said 13 million Christian members of NCCI were 8220;staunch Indian citizens and true nationals8221;.

In a joint statement here, NCCI president Rev Bishop Vinod Peter and General Secretary Rev IPE Joseph said that 8220;NCCI is an apex organisation of 29 member churches of non-Catholics with 11 regional councils, 14 all-India organisations and 7 related agencies, none of which is headed by a foreigner8221;.

Reiterating that Indian churches did not have foreign dominance, they said 8220;the Indian church is truly Indian and some of the churches exist since the first century8221;.

NCCI said Indian churches are part of the global churches just as the Indian community is part of the global community.

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Denying the RSS accusation that Baptist churches in the North-East region were resorting to terror tactics and 8220;forcibly prohibiting8221; Hindus from practising their culture and traditions, the council asked the RSS chief to verify the historical and theological facts.

8220;Indian churches have contributed to nation-building through their services in the field of education, health, tribal and dalit empowerment, gender justice, child rights, ecological justice, human rights, poverty eradication and empowerment of the marginalised in society8221;, it said.

Bishop Peter, who is the moderator of Churches of North India CNI and Rev Joseph invited Sudarshan to join forces to deal with humanitarian issues of poverty, justice and human rights.