Priest’s blood on Indian govt hands, says Irish Jesuit

The head of Irish Jesuits International has said that the Indian government “literally killed” an elderly missionary priest whose death was announced on Monday.

Fr Stan Swamy SJ died while awaiting bail in an Indian prison where he was being held on charges of sedition, believed by many to be politically-motivated claims from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Fr John Guiney SJ, who met Fr Stan while on a missionary trip to India, said the Indian priest “died a martyr for justice”.

The 84-year-old priest-activist worked on behalf of marginalised communities.

“You just hope this will give inspiration and courage to his companions and to others who follow him to continue the fight,” Fr Guiney told The Irish Catholic.

Fr Guiney said prime minister Modi has Fr Stan’s “blood on his hands”.

“I just hope this will make the struggle more resolute,” he continued. “The regime literally killed him, what he was put through was so inexplicable. This is a man of 84 who had Parkinson’s. In many ways they made a martyr of him.”

Fr Stan had difficulty in even sipping water from a glass and depended on co-prisoners for his other basic needs, Vatican News said, while he also had hearing impairment and other age-related ailments.

It is Fr Guiney’s hope that Fr Stan’s death will spark greater resistance to what he described as the “oppressive” ultra-nationalist government of Mr Modi.

“Our hope is that this will strengthen the resistance against that form of oppression,” Fr Guiney continued. “There are many others in jail with him [Fr Stan]. It’s an indication of how oppressive the Modi regime is becoming against minorities and against anyone who speaks out against this particular government.”

“Out of the blood of martyrs comes the seeds of liberation”, Fr Guiney added, paraphrasing a quote from Tertullian.

He said that Fr Stan sowed such seeds “not just by his death, but by his life. He has been an advocate for the poor and indigenous all his life”.

Many Church leaders in India spoke up after Fr Stan’s death, including Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay.

Cardinal Gracias said in a statement that Fr Stan’s arrest was “painful” and that his case did not even come up for hearing. “We were eagerly waiting for the case to be taken up and the truth to come out,” the cardinal said.

Fr Guiney had previously told this paper that Fr Stan and 15 others were arrested for “purportedly” being part of a Maoist movement seeking to “violently overthrow the government”.

India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), tasked with fighting terrorism and sedition under the controversial Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), arrested Fr Stan on October 8, 2020, and he had been awaiting a hearing since then, Vatican News reported.