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Nearly a hundred Christians could be canonised as saints by Pope Francis for refusing to convert to Hinduism at the point of death.
More than 90 Catholics were slaughtered in mob violence in Kandhamal, the eastern Odisha province. The believers were gang-raped, tortured, burned with acid and fire, disemboweled and murdered by Hindu ultranationalists for refusing to renounce their faith during a seven-week pogrom in 2008.
Namrata, was one of dozens of Indian Christian villagers who were injured in the porgoms in 2008, which saw more than 90 Catholics butchered by Hindu nationalists in the eastern Odisha province
As a result of the pogrom, 55,000 Christians fled. Some 5,600 homes and 395 churches in 415 villages were plundered and set on fire, scores of people were killed and left with permanent physical injuries due to torture. Protestants also died in the name of faith but they wont’s be canonised by the Pope.
The victims were tortured, raped, burned with acid, castrated and disemboweled before they died, refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Hinduism
Oswald Gracias, an Indian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Bombay, had ordered authorities to collect evidence of atrocities against Christians who refused to convert to Hinduism. He will personally ask Pope Francis to start the process of canonisation.
A church in the village of Raikia, Kandhamal, is pictured in the wake of the attacks in 2008
The cardinal said: “The Church is sensitive to modern day martyrs. The roles of the witnesses of the martyrs are quite important. It is a tedious work and needs proper and timely documentation. I am willing to speak personally about Kandhamal violence and its martyrs to Pope Francis.”
A Indian Christian villager looks over her home in Orissa’s Kandhamal district in 2008
Last month, Pope Francis recognized Mother Teresa’s second ‘miracle’ she performed curing a Brazilian man of multiple brain tumours. The Catholic nun is famous for her work among the poor in Kolkata, India, She is expected to be made a saint on September in 2016 as part of the pope’s Jubilee Year of Mercy.
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