An advocacy group for progressive Catholic religious nuns, brothers and priests in India has asked top Church bodies to oppose openly laws that try to divide citizens in the country. “The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) are divisive, discriminatory and draconian,” the Forum for Justice and Peace, known as Forum, stated February 24 at the end of their 14th national convention in Varanasi.
Around 50 members of the 500-strong group of priests and nuns working among grassroots groups met February 22-24 at VishwaJyotiGurukal to address the theme, ‘Prophetic Response to the Signs of the Times.” The group describes the citizenship laws as unconstitutional and “obviously part of a larger strategy” to establish a fascist state based on the ‘Hindutva’ ideology. It says the controversial laws have caused discontent forcing hundreds of thousands of women, men and youth to protest all over the country. The CAA, the group says, uses religion that goes against the ‘secular fabric’ of the country. The forum has resolved to collaborate with other groups to get the CAA revoked and ensure the non-implementation of NPR and NRC.
The group wants the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the Conference of Religious India, the national body of major superiors of the Catholic congregations, to issue public statements asking the federal government to immediately revoke CAA and stop the implementation of NRC and NPR.
For the full text of the statement, see http://mattersindia.com/2020/02/forum-asks-bishops-superiors-to-oppose-divisive-citizenship-laws/
(Extracted from mattersindia.com)
COMMENTS