New York: January 23, 2009. (PCP report) Most Reverend Raphael Cheenath, SVD, the Catholic archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, will address the Indian community in New York tri-state area on Sunday, Feb 1, 2009, in an effort brief the community and coordinate efforts to bring lasting peace and harmony to Orissa, India. As part of a tour that includes Washington, DC and Chicago, the archbishop will reveal plans for restoring peace in Orissa, India's poorest state. Last autumn, violence rocked the region as religious extremists took revenge for the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. "Communists claimed responsibility for the assassination, but radical Hindu groups used the occasion to carry out their hidden agenda," said Rev. Richard Vaz, SVD, who served as Orissa's regional director of Caritas and worked with Archbishop Cheenath for many years. "They are pursuing Hindutva, which aims to create a Hindu nation that excludes minorities, such as Muslims and Christians. In effect, they are trying to eradicate Christians." During the riots, more than 70 people were killed. As many as 50,000 fled into the forests for shelter. Mobs destroyed thousands of homes, leaving the victims to seek shelter in refugee camps. According to National Catholic Reporter's John Allen, "India is a rising power, but it also faces a rapidly growing metastasizing form of Hindu extremism. If things break the wrong way, the Indian subcontinent could become the new Middle East—a perpetually destabilized region whose animosities seed conflict around the world, radicalizing a global Hindu Diaspora." Archbishop Cheenath will speak about the current situation in a public meeting on Sunday at 5 p.m. on Feb 1, at American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, 79-43 Bell Blvd, Bayside, New York 11364. He will celebrate Mass beginning at 4 p.m. The church is located at the corner of Union Turnpike & Bell Blvd. The public meeting is sponsored by Indian Christian Forum, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations in North America (FIACONA), Federation of India Catholic Associations of North America (FICAA), St. Thomas Ecumenical New York, National Association for Asian Indian Christians in USA (NAAIC), Syro-Malabar Catholic Congress of North America (SMCC), Pentecostal Inter-church council of America, Bergenfield Christian Fellowship, NJ, Ecumenical Christian Fellowship of New Jersey (ECFNJ), Gujarat Christian Federation of America (GCFA) and Cry for India, Philadelphia.