India prelate demands ‘stringent action’ after video insults pope, nuns

MUMBAI :  A Catholic archbishop in western India has written to civil authorities to demand “immediate and stringent action” against a right-wing Hindu group deemed responsible for a viral video insulting the pope, priests and nuns, and to demand greater protection for the state’s Christian minority.

In the video, which was recorded March 19 and quickly became popular on social media platforms, an unidentified speaker from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (“World Hindu Council”) organization can be heard asserting that when Catholic nuns take vows, they become “married” to the pope. The speaker then asks the crowd who’s committing adultery, the pope or the Hindu Lord Krishna, with the crowd shouting “pope!”

“It is said that one who commit adultery has no right to live on earth,” the speaker says. “How long will you tolerate this?”

“That’s why all Fathers, Brothers, Mother, Nun, Sister, Pope … So, second agenda is to remove Christians,” the speaker says, apparently in reference to a nearby Catholic pilgrimage center called Unteshwari Mata Mandir in Kadi village.

“The Christian community in the State of Gujarat is feeling extremely insecure due to the ever growing cases of attacks, violence, physical intimidation and vitriolic hate speeches against our community and its personnel by a number of communal outfits and anti-social elements,” he wrote.