ROME (UCAN) -- The Vatican has strongly condemned the violence against Catholics and Church institutions in Orissa state, eastern India, and expressed solidarity with the affected dioceses and Religious congregations.

At the same time, a senior Vatican cardinal has called on the international community to pressure India's government to ensure that the Indian Constitution's provisions for religious freedom are fully respected.

The condemnation of the violence in which at least 10 people have been reported killed, and churches and other Church institutions burned, came in a statement the Holy See Press office issued on Aug. 26.

Vatican Radio, which carried the statement the same day, reported that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India had counted 32 incidents of violence against Christians in Orissa "over the past two days."

The statement said: "The Holy See, while expressing solidarity with the local Churches and religious congregations involved, expresses reprehension for those acts that offend human dignity and the freedom of people, and compromise peaceful civil coexistence."

It concluded with an appeal "to everyone with a sense of responsibility, to put an end to oppression so that a climate of mutual dialogue and respect can be re-established."

Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, went further in remarks to Italy's leading daily, Il Corriere della Sera, the previous day, and to the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, on Aug. 26.

The cardinal, one of the Holy See's most experienced diplomats, served 1990-2003 as secretary for relations with states, considered the Vatican's "foreign minister." His reputation for choosing his words with precision and care added even greater weight to his forthright comments.

"One cannot but condemn all this," the cardinal told Il Corriere della Sera soon after the news broke. "It is a sin against God and against humanity. There is no possible justification for it. Certainly one cannot invoke religion (to justify) crimes of this kind."

Hindu fanatics began attacking Christians in Orissa after blaming them for the killing of a well-known Hindu religious leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, and five of his associates on Aug. 23. Maoists reportedly claimed responsibility for the killings. An earlier wave of anti-Christian violence swept through some of the same areas of Orissa last Christmas.

L'Osservatore Romano reported that the cardinal had appealed to the international community to put pressure on the Indian government, "because the main reason for the attack on Catholics" is their charitable work.

In remarks carried on the front page of the paper's Aug. 27 edition, published the evening before, Cardinal Tauran asserted that "it cannot be denied that Catholics are being targeted by fanatics" and "this happens because we are building schools and orphanages."

"They accuse us of proselytism, because once in a while someone converts (to Catholicism)," he elaborated. "But we are only asking the possibility to carry out our duty as Christians: to help the one who is poor, the one who is in grave need," he continued.

"The fanatics who attack us are those who want an India with only one religion: Hinduism. Clearly we cannot accept this," he stated.

"We will respond to violence," the Vatican official continued. "We will do so with charity, by combating discrimination, educating children, by giving them a future."

Cardinal Tauran visited India in July 2007, shortly after Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to head the Vatican office for dialogue with other world religions.

"I met with two groups of Hindu religious leaders, and they never spoke of particular problems," he told L'Osservatore. But he acknowledged "the question is complex" and cited the laws several Indian states have enacted to restrict conversions.

"We have a great need to get to know each other better," the cardinal stated, revealing plans to "organize a meeting next year in India to analyze relations between Hinduism and the Catholic Church." A main issue to be discussed, he said, is how to foster relations when "there is no one Hindu interlocutor."

Cardinal Tauran concluded by telling the Vatican daily, "I am very proud of the Catholics in India, who are determined to continue living in the midst of their fellow citizens and to give testimony to the love of Christ for the poor, even at the price of their own life."

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