From: floriano (floriano.lobo@gmail.com)
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 4:13:16 AM
To: A. Veronica Fernandes (averonicaf806@hotmail.com)
---Original Message ---From: Robin Viegas Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 10:27 PM
Subject: Orissa: 'They ordered me to have sex with a nun' - Fr Thomas ChellenSaturday, August 30, 2008FR.
THOMAS CHELLEN DESCRIBES THE ORISSA MOB ORDEAL.
Fr. Thomas Chellen, director of the pastoral center that was destroyed with a bomb, had a narrow escape after a Hindu mob nearly set him on fire. Currently undergoing treatment at a Catholic hospital in Orissa's capital Bhubaneswar, Fr. Chellen had this horrifying experience to share with Catholic News Service:'They had poured kerosene on my head, and one held a matchbox in his hands to light the fire. But thanks to divine providence, in the end, they did not do that. Otherwise, I would not have been there to tell this horror,' the 55-year-old priest, director of the pastoral center at Konjamendi in the Indian state of Orissa, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from his hospital bed Aug. 28.
When a Hindu mob of 500 people broke into the pastoral center around noon Aug. 24, Father Chellen said he fled through the backyard with another priest and a nun.'It was heartbreaking for us to watch from a distance the entire complex go up in smoke,' said Father Chellen, who had supervised the construction of the center that opened in 2001 and could accommodate 200 people.'They vandalized everything and set it on fire. It has been reduced to ashes,' he added. As the three watched from a distance, some other priests told them to flee.'We fled to the jungles and came in the night to take shelter in the house of a Hindu friend and spent the night there,' Father Chellen said, adding that the second priest left them to join other priests.The following morning, he said, the Hindu family moved the priest and nun to an adjacent vacant house and locked it to give the impression that no one was inside. However, the Hindu mobs overheard the priest speaking on his cell phone, broke into the room and dragged him and the nun outside.'They began our crucifixion parade,' said Father Chellen. The gang of about 50 armed Hindus 'beat us up and led us like culprits along the road' to the burned pastoral center.'There they tore my shirt and started pulling off the clothes of the nun. When I protested, they beat me hard with iron rods. Later, they took the sister inside (and) raped her while they went on kicking and teasing me, forcing (me) to say vulgar words,' said the priest who has cuts, bruises and swollen tissue all over his body and stitches on his face.
'Later both of us, half-naked, were taken to the street, and they ordered me to have sex with the nun in public, saying nuns and priests do it. As I refused, they went on beating me and dragged us to the nearby government office. Sadly, a dozen policemen were watching all this,' he said. Angry at his plea to the police for help, the mob beat the bleeding priest again.Later, a government official and members of the mob took the priest and the nun to the police station, where Father Chellen said he was kicked in the face.'The four-hour ordeal ended when a senior police officer arrived in the evening,' said Father Chellen.The priest said one of the most hurtful things about the incident was that some local Hindus whom he knew were watching the events and ignored his requests for help.
MORE ORISSA STORIES AND NEWS:
http://orissaburning.blogspot.com/COMMENTS. This is a new generation POLITICAL thinking which has come to fore in the year 2000 (in Goa), over the funeral pyre, so to speak, of 'RELIGION-POLITIC MIX' . As a political party, founded by those who staunchly and vociferously believe that Politic and Religion 'MUST NOT MIX'; that the State has the over-riding obligation to maintain peace and order between feuding religious and/or other entities, and that it must come down with a heavy hand, swiftly if necessary, to whatever extent to achieve those ends.
As a political party, we have always refrained from commenting over religious issues; over religious activism; as long as these remain peaceful and orderly and compartmentalised. This political entity believes that Governance is politics and nothing but politics; and as such it must be above board when it comes to any act or acts of commission or ommission, by any one, for that matter, which go against the 'charter of human freedom'.What is happenning in Orissa is an act of vandalised governance where RELIGION OF HATE is influencing POLITICS, where politics is being nurtured by 'religion of hate'.This great country, our INDIA, of the equally great or greatest 'Mahatma Gandhi', took a turn for the worst after its Indendence in 1947 and after his very murder by the murderers and rapists of today, when the custodians of this vast and diverse nation, who are responsible for the well-being of millions, sat immobilised and impotent to act and to arrest the seeminly ' harmless' sentiments of patriotism mixed with religion of hate that showed its head and was allowed to move freely and wantonly behind the seemingly legitimate acts of just one singular person, a leader called LAL KRISHNA ADVANI, who was given a 'carte blanche' to not only compromise the CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED SECULAR FABRIC OF THIS COUNTRY, but to decimate it through the demolition of the BABRI MASJID, only to fullfill his life-time nurtured dream of becoming the Prime Minister of India, one day. And he has, wittingly or unwittingly, managed to manipulate the intelligence of the people of this country towards the fulfillment of that life's dream by first taking the seat as India's Dy. Prime Minister and the Home Minister and now gunning for the top seat itself.
God forbid, if that ever happens, this nation will have to get it's independence the second time over.What happened in Godhra in particular, and Gujarat in general, was the eye opener of things to come. What happened to the Australian Missionary and his teenage sons was an eye opener of things to come, the main accused charge-sheeted with their tripple murders having been subsequently allowed to contest democratic elections, notwithstanding. BUT what is happening in Orissa today is not an eye opener any more. This is the proof that a heavy lid is over the eyes, keeping the eyes firmly shut over all this injustice murder and mayhem. This lid must come off, if necessary by force, more so from 'without' rather than from ' within'. But this force cannot, and will not, be forthcoming from a pliant' man' who is presently sitting on the throne of India's Prime Minister, nor from the pliant' woman' who is the Head of the State, the President of India. Being pliant runs into the bloodstream of our front-running leadership, as we have seen through the non-action by the Ex-President of India, Mr. K.R. Narayanan during the Babri Masjid issue, and by Ex-President Abdul Kalam during the Godhra Genocide. For God's sake, why does a nation like India feeds and supports its vast men-machine, the army, and its para-millitary forces, if not to come to the rescue of the very citizens who pinch their stomachs to feed and support this grandeur?? What is holding back such 'orders' from the leaders of our nation?When I say 'force from without' I do not mean the Pope.
The Pope, being the head of Christianity or Catholicism (if you please) is naturally concerned over these most degenerating and inhuman events taking place in Orissa. It is but natural that any leader of a community must object. What I mean by 'force from without' is the entire world of humanity, all self-respecting countries of the world, who are friendly or even inimical towards India, to join forces and come down heavily on the 'pliant' 'calculating' and 'impotent' leadership of this nation called INDIA, and bring them to their knees , ONCE AND FOR ALL, by demanding swift action against this lawlessness which is resulting in unnessesary tragedy all in the name of some GOD Who is yet to be sighted, if necessary through a threat of being black-listed.
What is happening in ORISSA is not the internal matters of India any more. This is the prime obligation of the COMMITY OF NATIONS, and as such, act they must, FAST and NOW. IF THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN, THE WORLD CAN WRITE-OFF THIS COUNTRY CALLED INDIA, THE SO CALLED LARGEST DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD.
Floriano LoboFoundding President/General Secretary & Spokesperson,GOA SU-RAJ PARTYTel: (0832) 2470223Mobile: 9890470896 (note):
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