Newsroom (08/02/2022 3:30 PM Gaudium Press) A group of radical Hindu militants destroyed the St. Anthony’s Holy Cross Center, a Catholic place of prayer and hospitality, built 40 years ago in Urandady Gudde-Panjimogaru, near the city from Magalore, in the state of Karnataka, in southern India.
The St. Anthony’s Holy Cross Center functioned as an asylum and reception center for disadvantaged families. About 30 local families expressed great distress and concern over this incident and found themselves homeless.
On February 5, 2022, members of the “Shri Sathya Kordabbu Seva Samiti” group razed the structure to the ground. Activists arrived with a bulldozer, demolishing the building that provided social services.
The demolition took place without any legal justification, despite the structure being the subject of a complaint by Hindu groups who considered it “illegal” and called for its demolition.
The city had issued a circular in recent days. No one had the right to enter the premises of the Center until a court decision, expected at a hearing scheduled for February 14.
Antony Prakash Lobo, chairman of the St. Anthony’s Holy Cross Center building committee, submitted a “First Information Report,” noting that “this illegal action creates discord in a peace-loving community. This act is against the law; it is a blatant abuse of power, in complete violation of the orders issued by the Court”, he remarked.
With files from Fides
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh
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