MUMBAI, India – Although not an official visit, the arrival of the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli trip to the Kandhamal district in India’s Orissa state has a real significance.

Officially, the nuncio was in Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha, on Jan. 31 to attend the opening of the 36th plenary assembly of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India taking place at Bhubaneswar.

However, Kandhamal is where an orgy of violence descended upon the impoverished Christian minority in August 2008.

A series of riots led by radical Hindus left roughly 100 people dead, thousands injured, 300 churches and 6,000 homes destroyed, and 50,000 people displaced, many forced to hide in nearby forests where more died of hunger and snakebites.

The mobs had been incensed by rumors that Christians had killed a local Hindu holy man. (It later emerged that the holy man had actually been assassinated by Maoist guerillas in the area.)

Celebrating Mass at Our Lady of Charity Parish in Raikia, the nuncio expressed his joy at the strength of faith of the congregation, children and adults.

“I am very happy to be here. You are like the first Christian community who stood firm in their faith,” Girelli said in his homily.

“You have become examples for millions of Christians how to persevere in suffering. I see the images of the First Christian community in you,” the nuncio said.

Father Madan Singh, the Director of the Jana Vikas – a grassroots organization based in Kandhamal – said Girelli’s visit was a “great hope” for the process to declare victims of the massacre as martyrs.

“I spoke to him. I met him at Raikia parish where he celebrated Holy Mass and he asked about the numbers of parishes and numbers of Catholics in Kandhamal. He was happy to hear that the archdiocese organized retreats for Catholics and catechists and priests before the Golden Jubilee of the archdiocese on February 6 at Daringbadi parish,” the priest told Crux.

The nuncio also attended a small reception hosted for the Nuncio at Vijay High School in Raikia.

“I am very happy to be here and I thank you for your kind welcome on behalf of all the community here present and the community of the school and I convey to you the greetings and the blessings of Pope Francis as I represent the Holy Father,” Girelli said.

“My coming to visit you – is also his desire to come and visit you and be with you and encourage you and exhort you for your faith in Jesus Christ,” he said.

“So, I am here with you today on behalf of Holy Father and we are going together to pray and to commit ourselves so that we can be a community of peace, harmony and love, because we are a people of love, because we love everybody,” the cardinal continued.

“So, this is the message that we learn from Jesus Christ because His message we want to put in practice in this place. My message to you is to exhort you to be disciples of Jesus, bringing peace, love, and harmony among all this community. Thank you so much for your welcome,” he said.

The nuncio also visited the Memorial of Martyrs at Tiangia, a Catholic village that saw the martyrdom of seven Christians during the 2008 violence.

“I am happy to be in your village and moved to pray in front of the martyrs’ memorial. Your village is a village of peace, harmony, faith and love,” Girelli said after paying homage to the victims.

In Oct. 2023, India was allowed “to initiate the process of beatification” for the 35 Catholic “martyrs of Kandhamal” by the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

One of these victims was a Catholic priest.

“The Nuncio was given a letter to be given to the Holy Father to include the name of Father Bernard Digal in the list of martyrs,” Father Mrutyunjaya Digal told Crux.

During his visit, the nuncio met with a few of the families affected by the massacre.

Girelli also visited Nandagiri, a village of 82 families, who were driven out of their original village during the violence.

Father Mrutyunjaya Digal, Secretary of the Archbishop John Darwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, was originally from the village of Beticola.

Beticola Parish is closed down, and Christians who couldn’t return to their villages were rehabilitated in Nandagiri.

“The nuncio told us that it’s the pope’s desire that he should be here with us. The nuncio spoke of universal solidarity with the suffering and displaced,” the priest told Crux.