It pains to see His Beatitude Cardinal Mar George Alencherry facing such an ignominious situation and impending criminal lawsuit. He is a personal friend of mine since our Carmelgiri days in 1966-69. I hold him in high esteem and admire him for his many qualites that raised him to that position. I have personally met him in last December to convey my support and help. He only asked me to pray continually.I am deeply concerned for him. My worry is that he has landed with wrong advisors who are managing some game that he himself hardly comprehends. This is my fear. I don’t know. We need to look for the real beneficiaries if at all a mismanagement has taken place. This is the central issue that the Church has to focus on. To my mind, the over-exaggerated polarization of the Church members into “for” and “against” is created and whipped up only as a part of that game. The community of priests of Ernakulam are being unjustly demonised, and the auxiliary bishops are presented as villains. All this is apparently done by overzealous faithful who are drawn into this game without knowing what is going on. If we are part of the Church, we should speak the language of the Church, not the language of hooligans. The Church as a whole therefore should remain vigilant so that wolves who come clothed in sheep-skin may not misguide people and sow seeds of hatred and despair. Remember anything un-Christian and unholy cannot be justified in the name of faith or allegiance to the le
Kudos to Fr Valentine Pawkar, the present Parish Priest of St James Church, Agashi, Vasai, Mumbai, where St Gonsalo Garcia is the patron saint. He states, “Today’s Universal Church, stands on martyr’s blood. Tomorrow’s Church will stand on today’s martyrs.” How true! We live in difficult times of suffering and confusion when Christians are being persecuted and martyred. But are we preparing ourselves for this? One has to be chosen by God, one has to be graced, and one has to pray ardently to withstand the ordeal. No easy task, but with God’s grace nothing is impossible! If Gonsalo Garcia, Rani Maria, Graham Staines and others could stand for their faith, you and I can also be chosen by God for this purpose. If we are true disciples of Jesus the Master, then we are all invited, even challenged to become saints and to lay down our lives for the Kingdom. Am I willing to give my blood for Christ? Do I have the zeal, courage and strength for it? Do I love Jesus intimately to be able to overcome every fear?We nuns and priests are especially chosen and kept free from worry (1 Cor. 7:32-35). We need to give our undivided attention to the Lord. How are we doing it today? Perhaps we need to pray unceasingly for the grace to be always connected to the Master, so that we do not waver when the going is tough, are blessed with the right experiences and encounters, make the appropriate choices and act when the time is right. Is God inviting us to turn our focus in an unexp
“We have three million blind people waiting for sight. We need to reach out to millions of people with the message of eye donation to get them sight. This is the purpose of Million Eyes International Film Festival.” said Fr George Kannanthanam, Founder and Director of Project Vision at the launch of the Film Festival to the students of CMS College, Kottayam, Kerala.Film Director Jose Thomas launched the Million Eyes International Film Festival at CMS College, Kottayam on the 6th of February. The Film Festival conceived and organised by Project Vision, Bangalore along with Darsana Cultural Academy aims at reaching the message of eye donation to one million people through this festival. “We all have a social responsibility and film is a good form to communicate such social messages.”“We can give sight to 30 lakh blind people in India through eye donation,” said Fr George Kannanthanam, the founder of Project Vision. But despite such great possibilities, only less than 30,000 persons donated their eyes in India and less than 1000 in Kerala. Sibu George, the coordinator of Project Vision said that the theme of Million Eyes Film Festival was eye donation. The three minute duration film must inspire and motivate people to donate their eyes. It is a global competition. People from anywhere in the world can participate.The prize money for the Million Eye competition was Rs.100,000 for the first prize, Rs.50,000 for the second prize and Rs.25,000 for the third p
