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Westminster Interfaith Newsletter
Issue 65 – February 2010
On religious freedom and conversion
The archbishop of Mumbai, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, at an Indian Mission Congress, attended by 1500 participants from 160 dioceses, emphasized the basic "human right" to freedom of religion and conversion. He noted that some government authorities wish to introduce anti-conversion laws, but he stressed that "forced conversions," often blamed on Christians, "are meaningless" for the Catholic Church.
Not only do the Vatican Council documents speak "clearly" against them, he said, but also, "for Christians, conversion is primarily a transformation of the heart." For this reason, "the Church imposes a long period of catechumenate to test the sincerity of those seeking baptism."
"No civil authority has the right to enter the shrine, which is the conscience of every single person, let alone to decide what a conscience should say. No government can come into my soul and stop my conscience saying 'you cannot change your religion.'"
While extending a message of solidarity with the "brothers and sisters of other religions", he encouraged Catholics in India “to do what Jesus told us to, living out the Beatitudes, loving and serving everyone and making the world a better place". Our aim, he said, was to become "more and more like Christ" . . . “to be messengers of Jesus, we ourselves become its message with our lives." He added that the Church is not a political party, which seeks "power and prestige, or to increase the number of the faithful to exert more influence."
The cardinal concluded by expressing solidarity with those Christians who suffered violent attacks last year in Orissa. "We find true inspiration in the events of your martyrdom," he said. He called on the authorities "not to forget your constitutional duty to protect minorities: Christians, Muslims and even Hindus, where they are minority."
This event was a follow-up of the 2006 Asian Mission Congress in Thailand, where participants agreed to hold similar conferences at national, regional and diocesan levels.
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