NEW DELHI, India, APRIL 20, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Telesphore Toppo summarized the major concerns of India's Christian community in a meeting he had with the prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
Cardinal Toppo, the president of Catholic bishops' conference of India, called today's meeting cordial and positive.
The 67-year-old cardinal asked the prime minister to set up a committee to study the socioeconomic profile of the Christian community in India in the light of a recent report which said that Christians were the most unemployed.
The cardinal also drew attention to the distress of farmers across the country, where grinding poverty has led to suicides.
Pointing out the ongoing atrocities directed at Christians in different states and the enactment of the so-called Freedom of Religion Bills banning conversions, Cardinal Toppo told Singh that such laws were against universal human rights and the freedom of conscience.
Cardinal Toppo also discussed issues of migration, equal rights and the need for an adoption law.
Code: ZE07042010
Date: 2007-04-20