Bangalore (AsiaNews) - Thousands of Christians from various denominations marched yesterday in the streets of Bangalore to express solidarity with their persecuted brothers and sisters in Iraq, Syria and Africa.
"We must make our voices heard," said Mgr Bernard Moras, the local archbishop, because "Silence in the face of holocaust, brutal torture and murder is to be complicit in these acts of violence against humanity."
Participants in the 'Sunday of solidarity' began their march from St Joseph's Indian High School, included Catholics, Anglicans (Church of South India), Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Syriac Orthodox, Evangelicals and other denominations.
A delegation of bishops and Christian religious leaders submitted a memorandum to the governor of Karnataka, asking for "a strong denunciation by India of the Holocaust of Iraqi Christians."
According to unofficial estimates, about 170,000 people have been killed so far; however, not all kidnappings, torture, explosions, executions and forced conversions of Christians have been reported in the international media.
Christian religious leaders also appealed to other Indian religious communities - Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis - that they condemn the persecution and killing of Christians in Iraq, Syria and other countries of the world.