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Eucharistic procession

Staying awake with the Lord “ Pray that you will not fall into temptation” Lk. 22:40

I had to choose four women for washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday service, said Fr. Prosanna Singh, Parish Priest of Papingia in Kandhamal district as no men came for the Holy week services. Only 20 people including four Missionaries of Charity sisters attended the Maundy Thursday service at Papingia where about 100 Christian houses, the Church, hostel, presbytery and a convent were looted and destroyed on Dec. 25, A trusting child in prayer

The Christian men are afraid to come out in open fear of attack by the Hindu fanatics or preventive arrest by the Police, said Fr. Singh who spent nearly five days in the jungles in Dec and again in Aug Though Central Reserve Police (CRP) are posted in front of the presbytery at Papingia in Peringa block, fear still stalks the area. The priest and four Sisters of the Mother Teresa Congregation live in the repaired presbytery. The church, hostel and convent are still not even cleared of the debris let alone repair even after 16 months of attack.

How can our men find security today when the Church was demolished on Dec. 25th 2007 by a few fanatics in front of the police who were mute spectators. Six parishes out of 15 in Kandhamal district which were attacked during the riots had anticipated their holy week services timings to afternoon so that people could return home before it is dark.

Nine Months after the bloody riots targeting Christians in the area threats, intimidation and social boycott to force the returning Christians forsake their faith is continuing unabated in many villages in Kandhamal while scores of reluctant refugees had been dumped back near their villages by the government officials in their eagerness to shut down the relief camps. Saffron flags flutter atop houses on both sides of the roads linking this village to Raikia and Baliguda blocks in Kandhamal district.

In one tent with a dimensions of about 25x15 feet live an average of 11 families of whom several were women in one of the camps where we spent an hour speaking to the inmates. Among them one tent (tent number 11) had 23 families as inmates. There was hardly space for anyone to move or stretch, what to speak of privacy for women to change. Those women live in the full view of the male inmates, including their own brothers on the one hand and strangers on the other.

Outside these tents, there are less than 10 toilets for the thousands living in the camp with hardly 5 of them in usable condition. I tried to walk towards these toilets but could not approach them for such was the intolerable mess in the toileting area strewn with human refuse all over. These conditions violate every conceivable human right and dignity of the people kept in these camps relating to residence, health, and equality and therefore to life itself, what to talk of theloss of opportunities to other rights like education of the children?

Women come out to meet me while men meet the priests. Their sanitary requirements at a personal level, including of women who have not attained menopause have not been factored in by those who designed or are running these camps.