National

UN urged to stop anti-Christian violence in India, Pakistan

A Catholic bishops’ body has appealed the United Nations (UN) to intervene and stop the targeted attacks against Christians in India and neighbouring Pakistan. “Christians are increasingly becoming the target of riots and mob attacks in India and Pakistan,” said an Aug. 19 statement from the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) based in the southern […]

Despite papal ultimatum, resistance continues in India’s Syro-Malabar Church

Despite a dramatic threat by a papal delegate to excommunicate priests who failed to comply with orders about how to celebrate Mass from the governing synod of India’s Syro-Malabar Church, the deadline came and went Sunday with only a handful of parishes celebrating Mass in the prescribed fashion and one rebel priest actually suing the […]

Hindu nationals demand arrest of Catholic priest in India for saying king was not a god

A Catholic priest in the Indian state of Goa was granted “anticipatory bail” Aug. 8 after police registered a criminal case against him for allegedly “hurting Hindu sentiments” in remarks he made about a Hindu king during a Sunday Mass in July. Hindu groups had staged demonstrations in front of the police station calling for […]

Indian pastor attacked for alleged religious conversion

A Protestant pastor in a northern Indian state has been attacked for allegedly conducting religious conversions. Pastor Shyju Joseph was conducting Sunday worship on Aug. 6 at his place in Bihar state’s Nawada district. Members of the Bajrang Dal (brigade of Lord Hanuman), a Hindu nationalist organisation, disrupted the service after accusing him of converting […]

Rahul Gandhi’s reinstatement restores faith in judiciary: Christians

The return of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to the Indian Parliament 135 days after his disqualification has reassured people’s faith in the Indian judiciary, say some Christian intellectuals. Gandhi, who represented Kerala’s Wayanad constituency in the Lok Sabha, was reinstated August 7 after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case. Gandhi […]

Vatican delegate faces rejection in Indian Church

Catholics, including priests, in an archdiocese in southern India say they will not cooperate with a Pontifical Delegate who arrived to help find a solution to the decades-old liturgy dispute in their eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church. A five-member delegation of some 400 priests in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese on Aug. 8 met Pontifical Delegate Archbishop Cyril Vasil of […]

Suspended “reformist” priest to continue mission to cleanse church

Unholy horror of churches burnt in Indian ethnic violence

Charred walls, collapsed tin roofs and smashed windows in a burned Kuki community church illustrate how deadly ethnic violence has led to brutal sectarian attacks in India’s troubled Manipur state. At least 120 people have been killed since May in armed clashes between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki in the […]