Vatican’s Gallagher meets India’s Jaishankar amid rising anti-Christian violence. UCF urges Vatican to address attacks, misuse of anti-conversion laws in talks.
Newsroom (18/07/2025, Gaudium Press ) Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, met with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi on July 17, amid growing calls to address the escalating violence against Christians in India as a key point in bilateral discussions.
Gallagher, on a week-long visit to India, held talks with Jaishankar on the third day of his trip, following engagements with church officials and participation in ecclesiastical functions. In a social media post, Jaishankar described the meeting as “a good conversation about the importance of faith, and the need for dialogue and diplomacy to address conflicts.” Neither the Vatican nor the Indian government released official statements detailing the specific issues discussed, and church officials in India declined to elaborate on the “conflicts” referenced by Jaishankar.
However, the United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical Christian group, submitted a memorandum to Gallagher during his visit, urging the Vatican to raise the issue of increasing attacks by Hindu groups against Christians in bilateral dialogues with Indian authorities. The memorandum, presented by Archbishop Anil Joseph Couto of Delhi at the Vatican Nunciature in New Delhi on July 17, called for the Vatican to condemn the “rising incidents of violence and systemic discrimination against Christians in India.”
The UCF memorandum specifically highlighted the misuse of anti-conversion laws in several Indian states, which it claims are disproportionately used to target religious minorities, particularly Christians. It urged the Vatican to engage not only with India’s federal government but also with state governments that “aggressively enforce” these laws. The group further requested Vatican-led initiatives to ensure judicial transparency in trials under anti-conversion laws and to establish monitoring and fact-finding missions to assess the ground realities in states experiencing recurrent violence.
“Anti-Christian violence has been consistently increasing,” said A. C. Michael, convenor of the UCF, in an interview with UCA News. The forum’s data recorded 834 incidents of violence against Christians in 2024, up from 734 in 2023. Michael attributed the surge in attacks to false allegations of fraudulent conversions, particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh, where anti-conversion laws are strictly enforced.
Currently, 11 of India’s 28 states have anti-conversion laws that criminalize conversions involving force, fraud, or allurement. Michael noted that these terms are “ambiguous and frequently exploited,” with even routine missionary activities, such as prayer services, being misconstrued as coercive or alluring.
Christian leaders point to a broader trend of increasing hostility since 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a landslide victory. They argue that the BJP and its affiliated Hindu nationalist groups have interpreted their political dominance as a mandate to advance a vision of Hindu hegemony, marginalizing religious minorities, including Christians and Muslims.
“The primary reason for these attacks has been false allegations of fraudulent conversions,” Michael said, emphasizing that the vague wording of anti-conversion laws enables their misuse against Christian communities.
The UCF memorandum underscored the Vatican’s role as “vital to safeguarding the rights of religious minorities and upholding human dignity” in India. It called for stronger diplomatic efforts to address the systemic challenges faced by Christians, particularly in states with heightened anti-Christian sentiment.
As Gallagher’s visit continues, the Vatican’s response to these concerns remains under scrutiny, with Christian communities in India hoping for a robust stance against the rising tide of violence and discrimination.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from UCAN News
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