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The tragedy in India is worsening. We owe the highest obligation because we share the Baptismal bond.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Catholic Online offers the opportunity for our readers to comment on many of our articles. There have been numerous responses to our continued coverage of the horrid persecution of Catholics and other Christians by militant, extremist Hindus in India. Here are just a few: “Please influence CNN and bring this news in public press and TV.” “Let's all ask our Pastors and Priests what we can do as a Catholic community to bring attention to these atrocities. I never see this mentioned in the NY Daily News, Post or WSJ.” “Where are the protests from our democratic form of government now when true social protest is desperately needed to save hundreds or thousands of innocents being slaughtered for teaching and speaking the truth? Why does this country not threaten economic sanctions or other means to bring the Indian government to its senses?” At Catholic Online, we will continue to call attention to the plight of our brothers and sisters in the land evangelized by the Apostle Thomas.We must!

(Proud to be Catholic? Show Your Support Right Now! Virtual Vigil of Prayer and Solidarity for the Persecuted Church in India. Please Sign the 'Catholic Action' Petition!)

On August 16, 2008 Fr. Thomas Pandippally, of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate, watered the ground with his blood, martyred at the hands of Hindu extremists in Orissa, India precisely because he was a Christian. It was only the beginning. Asia News reports that Anti-Christian violence is only getting worse. Since August 24, 2008, 59 Christians have been killed, 18,000 injured, 177 churches destroyed or damaged, 4,300 homes set on fire, and 13 schools and colleges destroyed. The "All India Christian Council" provides the following breakdown as the wave of persecution has now spread beyond Orissa: ORISSA 14 districts affected; 300 villages destroyed; 4,300 houses burnt; 50,000 homeless; 57 people murdered; 10 Fathers/Pastors/nuns injured; 2 women gang-raped; 18,000 men, women and children injured;149 churches as well as 13 schools and colleges destroyed.KARNATAKA,4 districts devastated; 19 churches attacked; 20 nuns and women injured. KERALA, 3 churches damaged.MADHYA PRADESH, 4 churches damaged. DELHI, 1 church destroyed; attempts made against 4 others. TAMAIL NADU, 1 church attacked.UTTAR PRADESH, Two people, an old priest and employee have been murdered.

We were among the first to call attention to the brutal kidnapping and subsequent murder of the beloved Chaldean Archbishop Rahho in Iraq. We relentlessly reported on the incident and called our readers and viewers to tirelessly pray for his safe return. We raised the questions as to why more was not done by governments throughout the world, including our own. The Lord called the Archbishop to the honor of martyrdom. Still concerned at the plight of our brethren in Iraq, we now call attention to the horrid pogrom of violent persecution unleashed against our brethren in India. We have launched a “Virtual Vigil of Prayer and Solidarity for the Persecuted Church in India” through which we hope to mobilize an international army of prayer warriors,storming the heavens for the intervention and protection of the Lord. We are raising an outcry, wherever we can, calling for all just governments to lead the much needed effort to insist that the Government of India intervene to stop this horror. PLEASE JOIN US!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of solidarity: “The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of "friendship" or "social charity," is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood. An error, today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origin and by the equality in rational nature of all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity." (CCC 1939) We Humans struggle with this obligation in solidarity and have for generations. The Book of Genesis provides an account of “the beginnings” of the created order and the origin of man and woman. It gives us some insights on why. The story of the fall of the human race recorded in the third chapter of that Book is an account of the wrong choice made by our first parents. They had been fashioned out of love, by Love and for love. They were also given the capacity to choose to love in return. Yet, they chose against Love. Their choice is what Western Christian theology has called the “original sin”.

The results of that choice are still being felt, not only individually but even in relationships between Nations. The fracturing of their solidarity with God led to a fracturing of their solidarity with one another in the family. ...