Rome, Italy, May 18, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Archbishop of Lahore and President of the Pakistani Bishops Conference, Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha, said recent elections in India are a “good omen for dialogue and peace”.
According to the Fides News Agency, the Archbishop said, “The Baratiya Janata Party was a nationalist party which promoted one religion only, where as Congress Party is open to all religious groups, be they Hindu, Muslim, Christian or other and it has a secular vision of India.”
“It brings with it a baggage of dialogue and respect for different cultural and religious identities of the minority groups. This is why we welcome and appreciate its contribution and hope it will intensify political and economic collaboration between India and Pakistan,” the Archbishop added.
Archbishop Saldanha said, “We have great hopes that this will enable our Church here in Pakistan to deepen relations with the Church in India from which we have much to learn in the field of social services, pastoral care for youth, pastoral work in the field of communications, and in general Christian formation and evangelization”.
“The people of India have shown that they will not give in to fundamentalism and that they believe in the values of democracy and freedom,” said the Archbishop.
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