Catholic community

Bengaluru

Christ’s statue

Mahima Betta

Christian burial ground

Response from Archdiocese



Archdiocese Bishop

Fringe outfits complained about misuse of land; Archdiocese condemns removalTheand the Archdiocese ofstrongly condemned the removal ofby district authorities, including the police at the behest of a few groups of fringe elements, from theon Tuesday. Mahima Betta is aat the St Joseph’s church in Doddasagarahalli village.“It will not bring credit to the Government and to the local authorities to unnecessarily interfere in religious tenets and practices of Christians by yielding to the pressure of some groups,” stated a response from the Bishop’s office on Wednesday.According to sources from the Doddasagarahalli village, there were several social media posts doing rounds recently stating conversions were taking place at the St Joseph’s church in Doddasagarahalli. A couple of fringe outfits took a note of the posts and confronted the church authorities last week. “They alleged that we were dirtying the hillock by offering prayers there. The hillock is a part of the church’s burial ground and is part of the church property,” said the chief priest.As allegations by members of the fringe outfits piled up, a peace meeting was called upon by the district authorities on February 27. The meeting was presided by the Tahasildar, a police inspector (PI) and the police sub-inspector (PSI). At the meeting, the local villagers confirmed that no conversions were taking place and the presence of Christians and them praying was absolutely no problem with them. Despite the support from the locals, some non-locals at the peace meet, kept disturbing the meeting and the communal harmony, the chief priest added.The meeting concluded with the district authorities demanding that the church authorities remove of the Christ’s statue from the hillock.No heed was paid to the requests from the St. Joseph’s church members, who pleaded that the matter be discussed after Easter, when the month of Lent is over.On Tuesday, amid tight police security, the district authorities brought a crane and removed the Christ’s statue from the Mahima Betta hillock, bringing it downhill and left the place.“The Christians in Bengaluru consider the forceful removal of statute of Christ, at the legally allotted burial ground at Doddasagarahalli, unacceptable and strongly condemn the high-handed action of the local authorities. They want the statue to be reinstalled immediately,” the release from Arch Bishop’s office stated.“If there is an instance of forceful conversion, let the government investigate and take action, but the government should not play to the tunes of fringe elements,” response fromoffice