A wave of anti-Christian violence in India: the Church of the martyrs calls for justice

In India, a bishop has asked the country's highest court to put an end to a wave of violence targeting Christians and to strengthen the constitutional protection due to them. More than eight hundred assaults have been recorded since 2025, tracing a pattern of persecution.

The Church has never been ignorant of what persecution is : she was born in the blood of her martyrs. The Lord had foretold it to His own : « The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. » And far from cursing this trial, He proclaimed it blessed : « Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. » Tradition also teaches that every unjust violence against one's neighbour, every blow struck at the innocent, gravely offends the fifth commandment, and that temporal authority receives the sword only to protect the weak, not to abandon them.

Measured against this rule, the news calls for both compassion and firmness. We judge neither a people nor a nation ; we name the acts : to strike, to burn, to scatter the faithful because they bear the name of Christ is an injustice that nothing excuses, and one that a State is bound to prevent. Our thought goes to these tried Christians, often poor and defenceless, who today pay the ancient price of fidelity. Let them know that their tears do not fall in vain : the Church has always held that the blood of confessors is a seed, and that no power shall prevail against her. Our own part remains prayer and the refusal of silence.

Sources. Gospel according to Saint John, XV, 20 ; Sermon on the Mount, according to Saint Matthew, V, 10 ; Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the fifth commandment, concerning the injustice done to one's neighbour.