Purging silence: Vatican expands abuse prevention to lay movements
Report says nearly half of child deaths in Africa due to hunger
Update: U.S. bishops join pope reacting to photos of drowned migrant father, child
Pope: Theology begins with sincere dialogue, not ‘conquering spirit’
Paris archbishop hits back in first post-fire Mass in Notre Dame
Vatican official praises Catholic media for coverage of sex abuse crisis
Franco Zeffirelli, enigmatic Catholic director of operas and film, dies
The BJP led NDA Government at the centre under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed in the last parliament session about ‘many achievements’ in the last four years rule. The claims such as eradication of corruption, controlling; black money, fee medical insurance for weaker sections, free cooking gas connection for “six crores houses in villages, built ten crores toiles, built more than three crores houses in rural areas, provide free electricity and water connection, more than thirty crores people belong to backward class and Dalits who had an opportunity to open bank accounts apart from other socio-economic and developmental programmes.Whereas the failures outweigh in many areas including some of the foretold promises by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi take ‘demonetization’ which was claimed that 90% of the black money in the country reached in the banks and thus all the black money converted into white money. Through ‘demonetization’ who was the actual beneficiary either black money holder or banks or the central government? Why the centre has committed to provide crores of rupees to the public sector banks for its functioning?At the time of coming to power at the centre Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured to the people that those Indians abroad who have black money in the foreign banks should be brought back to India, from that each person in the country will get rupees 15 lakhs in their bank accounts! But it has become hollow promise
Targeted violence and hate crimes against the Christian community in India continued unabated in 2018. The Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of the Evangelical Fellowship of India has recorded 325 incidents where Christians have been targeted using violence, intimidation or harassment. More than the numbers, what is disturbing is the sudden spurt of violence in a few districts of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous province, and in Tamil Nadu in the extreme south of the subcontinent.With general elections due in April-May 2019, attempts at religious polarization are at an all-time high. Hate speeches have acted as a catalyst in the dividing of people along religious, ethnic and even linguistic lines. The small Christian community, 2.3% of the 1.30 billion population, which seems to be targeted mainly on the excuse of the issue of conversion, is also a collateral victim of the hate crimes against the much larger Muslim community, which is about 15%.An analysis of the data of the report by released by EFIRLC shows that over 40% of the documented incidents (132), took place in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) making it the state where Christians were targeted the most. The state of Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of India and is home to almost 17% of the total population of the nation. Christians make up 0.18% of the total population of the state. We especially appeal to the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, to deal with stringently wit
The Article 26 of the Constitution of India reads as thus provides four sub-provisions of the Article 26 deal with four different variants of the same right to institutional management of the religious sect. The phrases ‘establish,’ ‘manage’ and ‘maintain’ are words that hold the rights of ownership and other associated bundle rights. If one has a right to establish and manage ‘its own’ affairs, then it follows that such management shall be devoid of external interference. By way of the Church Bill, the external interference is made from the government itself, thereby the very idea of a fundamental right being a negative right to be exercised against the State’s power to regulate and curb takes a hit. As the difference between negative and positive rights goes, the government is restrained from exercising its power in the first case, in the later the government is mandated to manifest its authority. Article 26 (a) and (b) must be considered as negative rights which bar the governmental power to interfere in the institutional management of religious sects.Similarly, (c) and (d) of Article 26 guarantee the right to own, acquire and administer religious institutionalized property.The only minimal scope of governmental regulation is mentioned at the end of Art.26 (d) wherein it is stated that administration of property shall be in accordance of law. Here, quite clearly, ‘law’ denotes the ordinary civil laws of the land like the Indian Contract Act, T
The framers of the Indian Constitution thought it wise to include provisions for the protection of religious minorities and thus Articles 25 to 30 were made a part of the fundamental rights. Religious freedom contained in those articles was guaranteed by the constitution. According to the report, the CPM-led Kerala Govt. wants to move a ‘Church Act bill’ to control the Christian institutions and their wealth from clergymen to the laymen in the Church. They say that there are allegations of corruption against the clerics in the Churches while dealing transaction of Church properties and admission in their educational institutions. Who are all raising these allegations since a long time? Those members who have contributed nothing for the Church. And others who belong to outside the Church may have jealous how those churches in Kerala doing major contribution in the field of education, health and charitable activities spending crores of rupees every year. Apart from this, some of them have seen the Church as business establishments who are unaware of what is happening to their surroundings! The churches in Kerala are functioning on Hierarchical level under the Bishops. All the clergymen and religious sisters and also the laity are bound to follow the church ‘Canon Law’ apart from the law of the land. If any of the clergymen including bishops involved in illegal activities or misappropriation of Church funds, the Church hierarchy can ‘take action against them according
It is to the French writer Andre Malraux that we owe the prescient remark, “The 21st century will either be religious, or it will not be at all” (as recorded in his book, Anti-Memoirs). Meanwhile, The Pew Forum informs us that 5.8 billion of the world’s 6.9 billion people continue to claim some religious affiliation.After the atheistic ideologies of fascism and communism burnt themselves out, people began looking forward with great hope to the return of benign religion as a public force. Alas, the reality has been sorely disappointing. What we see in the world today is the spread of a harsh and violent patriarchal religion, not a merciful and compassionate one.In Roman Catholicism, sadly, the violence has been internal, directed against its most vulnerable members — adolescents and women. And it is a particularly degrading kind of sexual violence, compounded with deceit.There is a rising groundswell of anger and disgust at the role the Church hierarchy has played in dealing with the child abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in Europe, the United States, Australia and Latin America.Lest we in India smugly cry “aha, but not here!” as reports of local clergy sexually assaulting nuns have grabbed headlines in this country, showing how sex crimes are indeed a global problem for the Church.The core of the issue, however, is not so much sex as clericalism — the sense of entitlement, the lack of accountability, and the arrogance of po
