Thursday, April 21 2005 08:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief K S Sudarshan last night (Apr 20, 2005) made a scathing attack on the new Pope accusing him of "religious intolerance" and said such mindset leads to conflicts.

He also accused US President George Bush of funding missionaries in India.

Recalling the millennium peace summit of 2000 in New York where 1100 representatives from different faiths signed a document that there should be no bloodshed in the name of religions as they were different routes to one God, he said, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope Benedict XVI, held a press conference shortly thereafter at the Vatican and released a 36 page doctrine 'Dominus Jesus'.

"The doctrine objected to anyone trying to bring their religion at par with the Roman Catholic Church and described it as crossing limits of tolerance. It said non-Christians cannot get salvation as they don't consider Jesus Christ as the son of God and even non-Catholics would find it difficult to get salvation as they don't consider the Pope as their head," Sudarshan said at a function to mark the second anniversary of devotional television channel 'Sadhana'.

"Such mindset that we are superior to others leads to conflict (Sangharsh)," he said.