Families in the Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum in Kerala credit the home visits by nuns from multiple congregations with unknotting their problems and refreshing their Christian life. Nuns who have been part of the Home Mission program say it has revitalized their vocation as well. “I received lots of positive energy when people told me that our visits were a big blessing for them as they were waiting for someone trustworthy to pour out their heart,” says Missionary Sisters of the Queen of Apostles nun Felcy Mangalath, a member of the Home Mission. Sister Mangalath was among 25 nuns from 25 congregations working in the archdiocese who started visiting families in 2016. “People also told us that our visits have brought a new light to their homes and their neighborhood,” Sister Mangalath told Global Sisters Report. The Home Mission is an attempt by the Latin rite bishops of Kerala to implement Pope Francis’ 2016 call to strengthen and fortify families, says Father Suresh Pius, the director of the Basic Christian Community, a guide that helps diocesan ministries function, in Trivandrum Archdiocese. The mission continued until the end of 2019. The coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdowns forced its suspension. However, the nuns kept in touch with the families over the phone and through video calls for the past two years, said Holy Spirit Sister Sheeba Thottittekizakkathil, one of the coordinators of the m
“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.” -T.S. Eliot Even as we struggle to limp back to normalcy from the onslaught of Covid-19, we seem to be bringing home an infection of another more dangerous virus – a virus of hate, intolerance, dishonesty, greed and deception – cautioning us of a plight, one that we can ill afford, that led the great Swami Vivekananda to describe Kerala 125 years ago – a lunatic asylum. A septuagenarian, I feel sad to see our deliberate, persistent departure from Christ and His message. Yet, I would rather avoid any controversy, for truth is the first casualty in any controversy. Let’s fix the problem, instead of fixing the blame. Prisoner’s dilemma does not take us anywhere. Restoration of mutual trust, and respect for one another, is the need of the hour. As a Civil Servant, who has had the onerous tasks of controlling communal strife, I could see for myself the unimaginable frenzy and fury of this satanic evil, which originates from our thoughts, magnifies into words and hardens into deeds. Seeds of violence, once planted, develop deep roots and spread its lethal canopy preventing access to the bright sunshine of reason. That is precisely the prompt for this note. When dark clouds portend assaults on our cherished edifice of communal ami
Rome: One should think that Indian Christians are becoming aggressively anti-Muslim if we are to believe the media, particularly the social media. Whether it is the controversy on ‘love jihad,’ ‘benefits for minorities allegedly being swallowed by Muslims,’ or a movie made by a Muslim director with the name of Jesus and the latest controversy around a bishop’s reference to alleged ‘narcotic jihad,’ there is an evident attack on the Muslims. This trend is particularly dangerous because it is both spiritually and politically naïve, unwise and retrograde. Of course, one cannot forget that the Christian-Muslim animosity is nothing new. Who could ever forget the story of crusades? For that matter, it is not just between Muslims and Christians alone. Who would not know the destruction that the ongoing violence based on religion is wrecking on humanity? According to Pew research, ‘in 2018 more than a quarter of the world’s countries experienced a high incidence of hostilities motivated by religious hatred, mob violence related to religion, terrorism, and harassment of women for violating religious codes.’ In the same year religion-related armed conflict took the greatest toll on the populations in Syria (with millions killed or displaced), Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen (with hundreds of thousands killed or displaced), and India, Iraq, Libya, Philippines, and Sudan (with tens of thousands killed
This is an important event to mark one of the most horrific incidents of communal violence that has taken place in India in the recent past. They say that those who do not remember the past, are bound to repeat it. This is precisely why we must remember what happened in Kandhamal so that such incidents are never repeated. Kandhamal, in Odisha, among the poorest districts in India, was home to one of 21st century India’s most gruesome riots in December 2007 and August 2008. The trigger for the violence was ostensibly the killing of a Hindu religious leader, which, after hate propaganda by Hindu right-wing forces quickly descended into a spiral of attacks against Dalit and Adivasi Christians in the district. My association with Kandhamal lay primarily in heading the National People’s Tribunal. We brought out a report which unequivocally concluded that “the carnage in Kandhamal is an act of communalism directed mainly against the Christian community, a vast majority of whom are Dalit Christians and Adivasis; and against those who supported or worked with the community.” What exactly happened in Kandhamal? After Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati, a Hindu priest, was killed, a sense of “collective guilt” was imposed on Christians in the district, inhabited by tribals and Dalits. The two main communities are the “Kandhas” and the “Panas”, and neither community was left untouched. Scores of people were killed, h
The objective of Teams of Our Lady is to help couples discover the riches of the sacrament of marriage and to live out a married spirituality. The married life leads to family which consists of husband, wife and children. Naturally children form the essential part of the family. Without children the family is not complete. In the west, especially in U.S.A many are not interested to expand the family and in some cases, the so called family consists of husband and wife only. This is a selfish attitude. Family is the social group of society consisting of the man, woman and their offspring. Evidently children form an essential ingredient of the family. The children brighten the world. One can imagine a sky without stars, a villa without flowers, a necklace without pearls, but a house, a town or a world without children is something unimaginable. Children are the gift of God. They brighten the world like flowers in the flower bed. A home without children is like a nest without birds. Wordsworth had said that, ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’. A house without children is the sad kingdom of selfishness. There are many parents who have a dozen or even two dozen children. By God’s grace in most such cases the children get well placed in their life. It is not just because the grand parents have left behind large acres of yielding landed properties. The parents who have begotten these children sacrificed their