A Mighty Fortress is Our God

The Lord 's faithful have sent us help and some have promised , so we set our carpenters at work to board up the insecure doors and fix new bolts. We are also getting a portion of the wall fortified. All this is very costly
but it is an unavoidable expense.

Violence against Christians has spread to the southern state of Karnataka.14 churches were descerated, ransacked and vandalized.

Here is a report from the Times of India newspaper

MANGALORE/CHIKMAGALUR/KOLAR: Even before the dust on the attacks on prayer halls on Sunday could settle, a fresh wave of attacks has been reported. Three incidents have been reported since Tuesday night even after the ruling BJP government threatened to act tough against those responsible for the attacks. Unidentified persons broke into a church in Ujire, 70 km from Mangalore, in Dakshina Kannada district and another at Gorigandi in Chikmagalur district and ransacked it, police said on Wednesday. In Kolar, a statue of Virgin Mary was damaged on Wednesday morning. At Ujjire, miscreants desecrated the St George Church belonging to Syro Malabar Catholic Rite under Diocese of Belthangady in the early hours. They gained entry by breaking the front door lock and burned the Bible, prayer books and destroyed holy icons. The miscreants threw away the tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament was kept. They also set the carpets inside the church afire. The incident came to light when the parish priest, and others came to the church for mass at 6 am. They informed Joseph Valiaparambil, vicar general of the bishop's house. Joseph in turn informed the authorities. Stating that the police inspector and tahsildar arrived and assessed the situation, Jospeh said the diocese strongly condemned the act. "We are not violent and do not believe in violence. We respect the administration and the law of the land. We respect all religions. The Christian community needs protection from these kinds of anti-social, anti-religious activities," Joseph said. In Chikmagalur district, one church was vandalised by miscreants at Gorigandi. The St Thomas church was attacked by three people who came on a motorcycle and broke open the door and damaged prayer mater ials. Balehonnur police have registered a complaint given by Fagin. This is the fifth attack on a church since September 14 in the district. In Kolar district, miscreants damaged the statue of Virgin Mary outside the St Mary's church in Kolar town in the wee hours of Wednesday. They hurled stones at the church breaking window panes. As the news spread, people Christians assembled near the church and expressed concern over the incident. Chief of the Roman Catholic church Fredrick urged the district administration to take action to nab the culprits

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In today 's Hindustan Times Newspaper I read the following report .The police also joined in to perpetrate violence on innocent Christian women

Mnay women

turned up to pour out tales of excesses by policemen of this coastal city to Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, here on Wednesday.
Sisters Selma, Denesia, Preethi and Rekha, all belonging to the Santa Cruz Convent next to Cordel Church at Kulashekar, showed their wounds to Vyas and told her how, on Monday, policemen had rushed into the convent and church wielding their canes and firing teargas shells.
“More than a hundred of us inside the convent were hurt. I was trembling with fear and managed to shout at one policeman not to touch my body. A few minutes later, another policeman hit me with a lathi ( a heavy wooden stick) as I was washing my face to wipe the effects of teargas shells. A little later, I found a boy in an unconscious state and bleeding in the head. We were scared to go out for treatment and sat trembling inside the convent for a long time,” Sister Selma, 61, said.
These women later mobbed Krishna Palemar, the district in-charge minister, and top district officers. Some of them met JD-S chief H.D. Deve Gowda, seeking his intervention.
Vyas said: “I was horrified when I met the nuns. The police action is awful and shameful. We want a separate inquiry against these officers. We want the government to answer why these policemen entered schools and churches and even got on to the roof to beat up women and children. We want peace to be restored and protection for these women. I have told the home minister (Dr V.S. Acharya) that he must taken action against these policemen and officers.”
Acharya admitted to cases of police excesses. “When policemen move in to take action against a mob, there are bound to be such cases. The good news is that the city has returned to normalcy on the third day itself. On Thursday, we will take a decision in the cabinet on who should head the inquiry into all these incidents.”

The Devil is going about as a roaring lion to seek whom he may devour.