JOIN USTwo key Vatican officials who were to address the 27th National Assembly of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) in Bengaluru have been denied visa at the last minute, CCBI president Cardinal Oswald Gracias told the 140 bishops from across the country attending the assembly.
Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, president of Pontifical Mission Societies and Adjunct Secretary to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, were the key resource persons for the February 3-9 conference on ‘Liturgy and Life’ being held at St John’s Academy of Health Sciences, Koramangala, Bengaluru.
The CCBI is now planning to hold the session in asbentia with video conferencing. Though both Vatican officials had applied for visa in mid-December, the application was kept pending till the last minute and rejected.
Sources say even after the Vatican’s secretary of state office intervened, the visa application was kept pending. Now, more such cases are emerging of other church officials facing a similar situation and have been kept on tenterhooks for visa to enter the country to meet the congregation members on routine visits, according to Fr Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary General, CCBI.
The Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on the issue, although government sources pointed out that the visas were issued by New Delhi’s concerned missions abroad on the basis of recommendations from the Ministry of Home Affairs on case-to-case basis. A senior Home Ministry official dealing with visa issues did not respond to a text message seeking reaction from him.