Bishop from India's Manipur state urges Catholics to help amid 'terrible' violence

DUBLIN (OSV News) -- Archbishop Linus Neli of Imphal, India, has said the Christian community in conflict-torn Manipur state "really needs help" as they cope with the fallout of religious and ethnic violence.

Speaking to OSV News in Ireland, where he addressed congregations in Dublin and Belfast, Archbishop Neli said conditions "are very hard" in Manipur in northeastern India.

He was visiting Ireland as a guest of pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need for the so-called "Red Week," or "Week of Witness," which highlights the plight of Christians persecuted and discriminated against for their faith.

"Just before I came ... there was an escalation in violence -- the anger, hatred and resentment -- it is still at the peak of it," he explained.

"Last week over 10 people, including women and children, were abducted and killed in ethnic clashes" between the Kuki, a mostly Christian group, and Meitei, a Hindu-Sanamahi majority group. "In May 2023, ethnic clashes between these two communities resulted in the death of hundreds and displacement of more than 60,000 people still languishing in relief camps," the archbishop said.

Manipur has a population of about 3.3 million. The Meitei make up over 50% of the population, while around 43% are Kukis and Nagas, the predominant minority tribes.

Appealing for financial, moral and spiritual support for Christians in the northeast Indian state sitting east of Bangladesh and bordering Myanmar, the 67-year-old Archbishop Neli, who was appointed by Pope Francis in October 2023, said the needs are "increasing day by day."

The unrest, he said, was taking a toll in terms of the human suffering of the displaced.

"How many women give birth in the camps, with no privacy and no hygiene. Families living with only a curtain to separate them. Housing is one of the things we are trying to help with, as well as the education of children and psycho-social counseling."

"It is very difficult to stand alone," he said of the church's relief efforts. "We don't know who to approach, and we feel helpless and frustrated. The victims are suffering, they are tired. The church organizations are tired, they have been doing a lot. The demands are increasing and so we really need help."

ACN's latest publication, "Persecuted and Forgotten?" -- a report on Christians oppressed for the faith in the years 2022-2024 -- reveals how in a country like India, Christians as a minority, can be de facto second-class citizens vulnerable to discrimination and social exclusion. This can result in attacks on individuals and churches as well as hate speech and recourse to anti-conversion laws.

"Being a Christian in the context of a big populous country like India is about being a minority. It is not something to be feared. It doesn't frighten me. We can be a salt or a light to the world. Christianity has got so much love; it has the capacity to enlighten even an oppressed society," the archbishop said.

However, Archbishop Neli acknowledged that the legal rights of citizens who belong to minorities can be threatened. "The country's legal system has a tendency for legal persecution. How will we express our freedom of religion if that freedom is curtailed?" he said.

When the violence erupted in May 2023, a shocking video emerged of two Kuki women being paraded naked by Meitei men shortly after their village was razed. Terror against women in the region is a common weapon.

Back then, Archbishop Neli visited St. Paul's Church in Sangaiprou, which was vandalized. He prayed in the empty church by the tabernacle, which had been destroyed. He also visited St. Joseph Parish in Sugnu.

"It was terrible," he told OSV News. Two or three convents, the archbishop said, have since been abandoned because paramilitary forces are occupying them, while many presbyteries have been burnt down.

Over 300 Catholic and Protestant places of worship had been torched and destroyed.
Another challenge, Archbishop Neli told OSV News, is the prevalence of opium-growing and drugs. He said Manipur was "infested with these drugs."

As a member of an interfaith forum, he acknowledges that aspirations among the different religions and ethnic groups are very different. His hope is for a peaceful, lasting solution for all, one that is based on humanity. "Humanity is a keyword," Archbishop Neli said.