http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=zenit&id=25781

PHULBANI, India, MAY 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The prelates of India are hoping that a visit from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will bring justice more quickly to persecuted Christians in Orissa. Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandez of Gandhinagar, secretary of the India episcopal conference, spoke with AsiaNews about the visit next month, saying he hopes it will "speed up the path to justice for the Christians of Kandhamal."

The commission prepares an annual report on the status of religious freedom in nations around the world. While in India, they plan to focus on the state of Orissa in the east, the site of heightened persecution against Christians, and the state of Gujarat in the west, where Muslim faithful were persecuted in 2002. Both situations involved Hindu extremists.