Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mangalore (Agenzia Fides) – Responding to evil with good...it is in this spirit that the Catholic community of the Church of the Miracles, a parish in Mangalore in the state of Karnataka (India Southwestern), has launched a campaign to offer free medical treatment in favor of the population (with a large Hindu majority) in the territory, taking special care of the sick from among the poorest and most in need, without any discrimination of caste, race, language, religion, social status.
The parish has been the target of a hate campaign carried out by Hindu extremist groups in 2008, which severely affected the state of Orissa as well as the state of Karnataka, where they were 24 attacks on churches and Christian institutions.
In Karnataka, the anti-Christian violence continues to occur: according to information released to Fides, on February 14 of this year, vandals broke windows and damaged property in the Grotto to the Child Jesus at a Catholic church run by the Carmelites, in the District of Udupi, just north of Mangalore.
According to local Fides sources, the Church of the Miracles in 2010 celebrates its 100th anniversary of foundation and, on the occasion, decided to mobilize doctors, nurses, and volunteers to carry out a humanitarian operation, made possible with the help and the availability of the Lions Club of Mangalore. The goal is to make an act of charity that, as the parish priest Fr. Walter D'Mello said, “reveals the true face of the Catholic Church: to make the message of Christ's universal love present." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 17/2/2010)
