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How fortunate! We have a God who has loved and welcomed us first. This Jesus who embodies the hospitality of love went to the extent of willingly shedding every drop of his blood for us along the way to Calvary. When the soldiers pierced His side with a lance there gushed forth living waters opening a safe entry point into His heart. With the completion of the Father’s Will, in his Death, Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, Jesus cleared the way for the coming of the Paraclete-the third person of the Triune God-God’s Holy Spirit.We are a Eucharistic people, women and men of the Gospel with all that it demands from us of love, forgiveness and justice and of solidarity with those who are poor and rejected by the world. At every Eucharistic celebration we are blessed by the grace of Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This spruces up our weak and faltering heart to open up and to dare to step into the heart of God because of the assurance that God loves us unconditionally just as we are! It is He who takes the initiative to first come out to meet us, whether we are ready or not. Just as a flower needs gentle care and warmth, so too we need the assurance of God’s love and care if we are to gradually open our hearts with growing transparency before God and with ourselves. In Deuteronomy 7:7-9 God had already promised to be this for us from the beginning of time.With this aim in mind, God sent His only Son, the hospitable Christ to heal
The RSS Guru M.S. Golwalkar wrote: “the foreign races (Muslims and Christians) in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture... or may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation.”Golwalkar flayed the Indian Constitution and opposed the federal system of the government. He blamed Dr Ambedkar for not introducing anything “Bharatiya” in the constitution and called, him a ‘stooge’ of the British.The RSS opposed the Gandhian Policy of non-violence and the assassination of Gandhiji was a matter of rejoice for the RSS cadres. For the RSS “all Indians are Hindus.” The leading principles of the RSS are: “the stress on militarism, the doctrine of racial, cultural superiority, ultra nationalism infused with religious idealism, the exclusion of religious and ethnic minorities from the nation concept.” Those who oppose the RSS Hindutva ideology will be considered as ‘anti-Hindu and anti-national.’ lt was banned in 1948 by the Home Ministry under Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for inciting hatred against the minorities, stockpiling weapons and so on.The RSS wants to establish a Hindu nation based on Hindutva ideology in a country which is multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural and if the RSS succeeds in achieving its aims, the long cherished secular and democratic fabric o
In mid-November 2001, the young founders of a small, now defunct, IT start-up in Bengaluru called Premier Infotech invited me to their office. They wanted to tell me about a wonderful e-governance initiative launched by the new chief minister of Gujarat. “Mr Modi is a dynamic chief minister, very tech-savvy. He wants us to complete the project in two months. We are running against time. Gujarat officials are working day and night – some of them are up with us until 2-3 am through the week,” the young fellows told me breathlessly. Those days, e-governance, smart cards, etc., were all the rage. Modi had become chief minister in October 2001, and immediately started the smart card project. All details of all individuals in one database with the government, and all services to citizens delivered efficiently. That was the dream that Gujarat had been sold.Three months later, there was the Godhra train burning incident in which 54 karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive. That was on February 27, 2002. The bodies were allowed to be paraded through the streets of Ahmedabad. The next day, the Gujarat riots and massacre started, and it went on for days, in places months together. Both media and official enquiry reports said gangs of rioters went around with lists of people and houses to be targeted. A cross-mark was put on the doors of Muslim households, and a day later they were attacked. People were pulled out of their homes, raped, butchered on the streets or whol
The RSS Guru M.S. Golwalkar wrote: “the foreign races (Muslims and Christians) in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture... or may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation.”Golwalkar flayed the Indian Constitution and opposed the federal system of the government. He blamed Dr Ambedkar for not introducing anything “Bharatiya” in the constitution and called, him a ‘stooge’ of the British.The RSS opposed the Gandhian Policy of non-violence and the assassination of Gandhiji was a matter of rejoice for the RSS cadres. For the RSS “all Indians are Hindus.” The leading principles of the RSS are: “the stress on militarism, the doctrine of racial, cultural superiority, ultra nationalism infused with religious idealism, the exclusion of religious and ethnic minorities from the nation concept.” Those who oppose the RSS Hindutva ideology will be considered as ‘anti-Hindu and anti-national.’ lt was banned in 1948 by the Home Ministry under Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for inciting hatred against the minorities, stockpiling weapons and so on.The RSS wants to establish a Hindu nation based on Hindutva ideology in a country which is multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural and if the RSS succeeds in achieving its aims, the long cherished secular and democratic fabric o
We are grateful to you for taking action on our previous submissions regarding the removal of Franco Mulakkal (FM) from the episcopacy of Jalandhar Diocese (JD), and subsequently for preventing the transfer of the five nun witnesses in the alleged rape case.The latest stink bomb to emerge from the same diocese is the 16 Crore Rupees (CR) cash haul from Antony Madessery (AM), a priest of that diocese a few days ago. This has again grabbed national headlines and brought shame and disgrace on the Catholic Community in India. Permit me a recap of the events.THE INCIDENT: On 29th March AM was caught by the Punjab Police with over 16 CR in cash. He claims that he had earlier deposited 14 CR in a bank, so the total amount involved is over 30 CR. By any standards this is a huge sum of money.THE JUSTIFICATION: AM claims that he is legally and canonically permitted to do what he is doing, just like the Ambanis, the country’s richest family. Bp Agnelo Gracias, the Apostolic Administrator, states that Sahodhaya, the firm through which AM operates, together with three other priests, has got the permission of the diocese.THE OBFUSCATION: AM has tried to obfuscate the main issue of his doing cash business amounting to 30 CR or more by claiming that the police “misappropriated” 6 CR of the cash seizure. He has also disputed the circumstances/ location from where the cash was seized. Significantly, he has not denied the amount of cash involved, which he claims is legitim
