ListenMUMBAI, India – Two Catholic priests were seized by unknown parties and beaten in western India in the early morning hours of Wednesday, in what many observers see as part of a growing pattern of harassment and assault against Christians in the country. They looted the church and then attacked the two priests in residence, Father Dean Thomas Soreng, the pastor, and Father Emmanuel Baghwar, his young associate. Nevertheless, it’s an explanation that doesn’t sit well with local Catholic leaders. Tete suggested that resentment of the church’s social works in India may have been behind the assault. “The Educational and Social apostolate of the Catholic Church is opposed by those who want to keep people crushed, oppressed and dominated.”The schools, hospitals and social service centers the Catholic Church operates in India, Tete noted, don’t serve only Christians.