Cardinal Dias Leaves Bombay for New Vatican Post
Jul 01, 2006
India has the potential to develop into a spiritual and economic powerhouse, according to the Holy See’s head of Evangelisation.
(The Universe, June 30, 2006) The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Ivan Dias, the former Archbishop of Bombay, bid farewell to the archdiocese in which he was born to take up his new post earlier this week at an event attended by 4,000 well wishers.
"Christ loves India and India needs Christ," said the Cardinal.
"I have a dream that India may have an abundance, not only of political parties, but also statesmen and women who are outstanding in moral integrity and are alert to combat the three evils - casteism, corruption and communalism."
The archbishop also took the opportunity to reiterate that the work of the Church in India, in the fields of education, social welfare and health, does not have, and never did have, the aim of proselytism.
He also noted that although Christians make up just 2.3% of the Indian population, the cardinal observed, "they attend to 20% of the whole of primary education in the country, 10% of health and literacy community programs, 25% of care for orphans and widows, and 30% of care for the disabled, lepers and AIDS sufferers."
"The vast majority of those who make use of these institutions" belong to religions other than Christianity," he noted.
Such institutions are "very appreciated by Hindus, Muslims" and members of other creeds or of no creed, "who admire Christians for their dedicated service to the suffering, the marginalized, the illiterate and the oppressed," the cardinal added.
Cardinal Dias Leaves Bombay for New Vatican Post