India: Bishops call for protection after priest's murder

The murder of a Catholic priest in India has stirred believers in the country to call for greater protection from the government.

Father Thomas Pandipally, 38, was found brutally tortured and murdered on the roadside in the town of Yellareddy on August 17. The Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) expressed "shock and anguish" and urged authorities to arrest the priest's killers.

KCBC deputy secretary Father Stephen Alathara said it is "most unfortunate" that Christian missionaries are being targeted in the country, noting that Pandipally was the latest victim in a series of violent attacks on missionaries.

Pandippally, a member of the Carmelite of Mary Immaculate order, was found murdered with multiple head injuries and more than 30 stabbings.

According to a Catholic source, the priest was killed as he made his way back home after attending a service in Yellareddy in Nizamabad district.

Terribly shaken by the incident, Christian leaders in Andhra Pradesh expressed dismay over the murder, which they suspect is the handiwork of Hindu extremists opposing Christian missionary activities and changes to the education system in the state.

According to the Rev Father Alex Thannippara, a provincial superior of the CMI order, the state has seen a number of brutal and unexplained murders of Christian workers in the past eight years. In the last eight months alone, there were 27 serious attacks against Christians in the state.

Earlier in the year, a mob of 500 people led by Hindu extremists prevented the Hyderabad archbishop from blessing a new HIV/Aids care centre. Two years ago, the school where the slain priest worked was also targeted by extremists.

KCBC called on the federal and state governments to protect missionaries who work for the marginalised and poor in the country.

"The Church in India is shocked and deeply saddened by this barbarous killing, the result of a growing climate of intolerance and violence against Christians in this country," the Archbishop Marampudi Joji of Hyderabad said.

The Archbishop called Pandipally a martyr.

"He sacrificed his life for the poor and marginalised," Joji said, according to AsiaNews. "But he did not die in vain, because his body and his blood enrich the Church in India, particularly the Church in Andhra Pradesh - the southeastern state where he died."

Pandipally, from Kerala, was actively involved in education and social services. He joined the Chanda mission of the CMI in 1987 and was ordained as a priest in 2002.

The Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches (AFPC) has strongly condemned Pandipally's killing and demanded that violent communal groups be banned. The APFC said they would take up the case with the Chief Minister of AP and the State Minorities Commission.