MURINGOOR, India (UCAN) – Thousands of people including Hindus have backed a Catholic retreat center [run by the Vincentian Congregation] in southern India after a Hindu front demanded its closuretate accuse Divine Retreat Centre of several transgressions. The groups have also held street corner meetings to condemn the Catholic center’s alleged large-scale conversion of Hindus.
The Vincentian Congregation manages the center at Muringoor, a village in central Kerala, about 2,900 kilometers (about 1,800 miles) south of New Delhi. According to its director, Father George Panackal, it is the largest retreat center in the world.
It conducts weekly retreats in six Indian languages and English throughout the year, and has served more than 10 million people from all over the world since 1990.
Hindu radicals have opposed the Catholic center since its beginning, but they stepped up their opposition after March 10, when the Kerala High Court ordered an investigation into its activities. The Hindu groups have banded under Hindu Aikya Vedi (HAV, Hindu united front), which has the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian people’s party), the main federal opposition party.
“We have demanded (the center’s) closure,” HAV organizing secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan told UCA News April 11. He alleged the court ordered the probe after it found prima facie evidence against the center.
“Our investigations have revealed that the divine center is involved in large-scale religious conversions,” Rajasekharan added. Other allegations against the center, he added, include murder and money laundering. He said his front would continue the campaign against the retreat center until it folds up.
Father Panackal says the controversies have not affected the center’s credibility. Soon after the news of the probe spread, thousands of people visited the center to offer prayers, he said. People from various religions have “pledged their support to us,” the priest told UCA News. “I feel happy about it,” he added.
However, the HAV campaign and the court order have hurt people at the center, many of them Hindus. Santosh Kumar, who now preaches at the center, views the developments as attempts to damage the center’s reputation. “But we believe in God and his wisdom,” the 32-year-old Hindu told UCA News.
According to the “Vincentian Family Tree” by Sr. Betty Ann McNeill, DC. they are one of the institutes which adopted the Common Rules of Vincent de Paul.
Their spirit is to preach the gospel to the poor according to the spirit of St. Vincent de Paul.
