DEONIYA, Nepal (UCAN) -- Christians are not allowed to hold Church services publicly in the remote Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, according to the bishop whose diocesan territory includes the tiny nation.

Not even Christmas Mass is allowed and priests are denied permits to enter the country, says Bishop Stephen Lepcha of Darjeeling.

The Indian bishop, an ethnic Lepcha, spoke to UCA News in late December in Deonia, eastern Nepal, where he went to ordain a Lepcha Jesuit priest. Bishop Lepcha is based in Darjeeling, near India's border with Nepal, 1,450 kilometers east of New Delhi.

The bishop explained that Buddhism is Bhutan's state religion and any sort of proselytizing by other religions is prohibited. Migrant Christians from India and Nepal working there as doctors, engineers, skilled laborers and teachers "enjoyed freedom to hold Church services in public" until a few years ago, he said. But "with the advent of the third millennium, all public Church services have been banned, and any breach of that ban invites incarceration."

Now, he added, even Indian priests cannot officially obtain an entry permit.

"Earlier I could go and celebrate Eucharist in public. But for the past three years they will not allow me even to enter the country," the bishop said. In principle, Indian citizens are to be granted permits to enter Bhutan on request. "But that is not the case with me. The Bhutanese immigration officials recognize me and deny me an entry permit," Bishop Lepcha said.

The Darjeeling native, whose Lepcha people are fair-skinned with Oriental features frequently described as Mongoloid, noted that some priests from other parts of India with different facial features can obtain entry permits to Bhutan as tourists.

He explained that Bhutanese officials fear priests with Mongoloid features could easily mix with indigenous Bhutanese communities and convert them to Christianity. Bishop Lepcha, ordained bishop in 1997, denounced this as paranoia and insisted that the Catholic Church has no such intentions.

Officially, Bhutanese authorities claim to have no objection to having private Eucharist inside houses. But such claims are "simply eyewash," the bishop said. "How can our Christian brethren have private or in-house Masses if authorities don't allow priests to enter the kingdom?" he asked.

Nonetheless, he said some Catholics in Thimpu, Bhutan's capital, get the chance to join a private Christmas Mass. "We have at least one priest who can enter Bhutan whenever he wishes, without facing the vicissitudes of obtaining an entry permit," he remarked.

For the past three years that priest has gone to Thimpu every Christmas and celebrated the Eucharist in private with some Catholics as guests.

"I feel fortunate," the bishop said, "that at least once a year the Gospel is recited and Holy Communion is shared even in this forbidden land."

Jesuit Father Kinley Tshering, the first native Bhutanese Catholic priest, who is related to the ruling royal family, belongs to the Darjeeling Jesuit province. He converted to Christianity while in college during the 1970s.

Father Tshering joined the Jesuits in 1986 and visits Thimpu each Christmas. There he holds a private Mass in his family house with some non-Bhutanese Catholics. His birthday happens to fall on Dec. 24.

"I do have the privilege to travel to Thimpu during Christmas and celebrate Mass in my house privately. Even my family members who are Buddhists join me. They know that I am a Catholic priest and respect my faith and rituals," the Jesuit told UCA News in Deonia, about 285 kilometers southeast of Kathmandu. He was there to attend the ordination of his confrere.

He explained that his trip to Thimpu had nothing to do with celebrating Christmas, which he said he could enjoy much better in India than in Bhutan, where there are no public Christmas celebrations.

"I simply go to Thimpu to celebrate my own birthday with my family. It is good and great that Christmas partially coincides with my birthday. If there is any divine arrangement in this coincidence, only Jesus knows."

Bishop Lepcha believes there is a divine arrangement. "Our Lord knew that priests from outside would one day be denied entry to Bhutan, and that there would be none to celebrate the Eucharist even during Christmas. So He chose Father Tshering for this mission," he said.

The bishop called the current Bhutanese policy of not allowing Catholic priests to enter Bhutan to cater to the spiritual needs of a few dozen non-Bhutanese Christians "preposterous." He went on to say, "It actually exposes Bhutan's ungratefulness to the Catholic priests who have built up the very edifice of modern education in the kingdom."

According to the prelate, some Protestant pastors have engaged in "vigorous evangelization" in Bhutan and even reportedly converted some Bhutanese citizens. The government became alarmed and resorted to stringent measures to bridle evangelization. "But our innocent priests, who don't intend to travel to Bhutan for evangelical ventures, have become victims," Bishop Lepcha said.

Pastor Deepak Shrestha of Brethren in Christ Church, based in Nepal, told UCA News on Dec. 23 that some of his Church's evangelists who are of Nepalese origin were active in evangelization in Bhutan. "But they do so discreetly to avoid a police trap. I know a few Pentecostal evangelists have landed in Bhutanese jails because they openly began preaching and castigating Buddhism."

He added, though, that most Protestant evangelists in Bhutan, who come from India and Nepal, focus on Nepalese-origin Bhutanese living in southern Bhutan, most of whom are Hindus, with whom they have linguistic and cultural affinity. According to the Nepalese pastor, it is possible that some pro-Hindu organizations could have lobbied the pro-Hindu Indian federal government to pressure the Bhutanese authorities to get tough on the issue.

Although Bhutan's official state religion is Buddhism, it allows full freedom to Hindus to practice Hinduism and celebrate their festivals in public. Neighboring India and Nepal are both predominantly Hindu.

Pastor Shrestha pointed out that many Buddhist pilgrimage sites are in India and Nepal, and Bhutan "can't dare alienate" its predominantly Hindu neighbors.

"Besides, Hindus do not at all propagate their faith. So the Bhutanese rulers don't see any threat to Buddhism which is the bedrock of the very existence of the current regime in Bhutan -- a mix of Tibetan ethnic and theocratic hierarchy," the Protestant leader added.

However, Indian Jesuit Father Varkey Perekkatt, a field director for Jesuit Refugee Service, sees another reason for Bhutanese officials to single out Christians. He told UCA News that the denial of entry permits to Catholic priests in recent years could be attributed to "our vigorous advocacy for the prompt repatriation of Bhutanese refugees who have been in Nepal since 1990."

Jesuit Refugee Service helps educate 42,000 children of Bhutanese refugees of ethnic Nepalese origin now living in camps in Nepal. About 15,000 ethnic Nepalese families, 100,000 people, fled Bhutan in the early 1990s, claiming they had been persecuted or expelled due to their ethnicity. Bhutan claims most of these people are Nepali citizens, but many of them say Bhutanese officials confiscated their Bhutanese identity documents.

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