Beaten Indian nun better appreciates the sacrifices of her forefathers

MANGALORE, India (UCAN) -- Sister Selma says the beating she endured at the hands of policemen has helped her appreciate the persecution her forefathers suffered for their Catholic faith.Pictured left: Bethany Sister Selma in a hospital in Mangalore, India, on Sept. 18, after police beat her for protecting a church from attacks by Hindu fanatics.

The Bethany nun and eight other members of her congregation were among some 40 women injured on Sept. 15 when policemen baton-charged Catholics at two separate gatherings in Mangalore, Karnataka state. The Catholic men and women were protecting their churches from attack by Hindu fanatics while protesting earlier attacks on other churches in this southern Indian state.

During the past month, Hindu militants in Karnataka have vandalized churches and prayer halls, destroyed bibles, prayer books, crosses and crucifixes, and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. Hindu radical groups accuse Christians of converting Hindus through force and allurement.

Most churches damaged were in Mangalore, 2,290 kilometers south of New Delhi. Mangalore is the heart of a Catholic community that plays a major role in the Church in India, with nearly one-third of the bishops in India's 160 dioceses coming from the region. These Catholics are the descendants of people who withstood persecution under Tipu Sultan (1750-1799), a Muslim ruler.

"Our Catholic community grew up amid persecutions, crises and captivity," Sister Selma told UCA News on Sept. 17 as she tried to rise from her hospital bed. The nun, who is in her 50s, sustained back and leg injuries.

Sister Selma says the Hindu attacks and police crackdown on Catholics have "helped us to recall the sufferings of our forefathers for faith" some 200 years ago. She admitted, however, "Our suffering is nothing compared to what they had undergone."

Historians say Tipu Sultan forced some 60,000 Catholics in 1784 to walk 300 kilometers from Mangalore to his capital, Srirangapatanam, with their hands tied. The sultan, who conquered the Mangalore region after fighting the British in 1784, suspected local Christians to be "friends of the British" and ordered their arrest and the destruction of churches. The exiles' captivity ended when the sultan died in 1799, but only about 15,000 returned to Mangalore. Others reportedly died or converted to Islam under duress.

"We are their descendants, the proud sons and daughters of those who did not give up their faith, even under the hardest persecutions," Sister Selma said, asserting that Hindu radicals and police cannot demoralize them.

The nun's niece Lucy and Lucy's husband, Anil Fernandes, who came to bring Sister Selma dinner, said the attacks have strengthened their faith too. "For 200 or more years, we never experienced any threat, never got beaten up," Fernandes said. Now the present crisis has made them realize what it means to "stand up for the faith."

Sister Selma wonders why the government failed to act against the fanatics who "hurt our religious sentiments" and "police who beat us up without reason."

Sister Violet D'Souza from the Maids of the Poor congregation, who was also beaten by the police, asserted "nothing can shake" the faith of Mangalore Catholics. Women in the community enjoy equal status with men and so will suffer for their faith just as men do, she told UCA News.

Clara D'Cunha, a mother of two, likewise said she is "prepared to face any challenge or persecution" to defend her Catholic faith. The 34-year-old Mangalore resident affirmed her people would continue to maintain their good relations with Hindu neighbors despite the attacks.

The injured women told representatives of the National Women's Commission who visited Mangalore on Sept. 17 how police brutally attacked them within the premises of churches.

Girija Vyas, commission chairperson, later told a press conference in the city that the police action was "utterly shameful and unbecoming of a civilized society."