As Pope Francis began his tour to Myanmar and Bangladesh, Catholics in neighboring India regret missing a chance to meet him in their homeland, nostalgi-cally recalling past papal visits.

Catholic groups began discussing plans to host the pontiff after the Vatican early this year confirmed a papal visit to the region. Nobody then expected a papal itinerary would not include India, a nation of 19 million Catholics.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Indian Catholic Bishops’ Confer-ence, said the Indian Catholic Church was expecting to receive Pope Francis.

“But it did not happen,” he lamented.

In August, the Vatican announced that the Nov. 27-Dec. 2 journey would only include Myanmar and Bangladesh, whereas the original plan had been to visit India and Bangladesh.

The lack of an official invitation for Pope Francis to visit India is widely seen as being the result of political consi-derations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The government is run by the rightwing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Observers say the BJP feared that Modi hosting Pope Francis would have alienated majority-Hindu voters ahead of scheduled 2019 national elections.

However, Cardinal George Alencherry of Ernakulam-Angamaly, said the outcome had disappointed the entire Indian church. Cardinal Alencherry joined in the papal Mass in Bangladesh.

A wide cross-section of people ucanews.com spoke to in India said a papal visit would have uplifted Christians now facing violence and threats from hardline Hindu groups, especially in northern India.

One of those who are unhappy about Pope Francis now not visiting India is Johana Xalxo, an Oraon ethnic minority women and a school principal in the capital, New Delhi.

Nagaland chief minister TR Zeliang on Nov 18 inaugurated the St Joseph University at Ikishe village in Dimapur district.

The availability of quality higher education in the State is awfully inadequate and every year thousands of Naga youth are going outside the State in pursuit of higher and technical education, while there is practically no reverse inflow of students to Nagaland from other states. This situation leads to many undesirable situations such as huge drain on the State’s economy, and at times in unfortunate ethnic and racial issues faced by the northeast region in some metro cities, Zeliang said.

A Catholic school in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh has courted contro-versy for barring Muslim girl students from wearing head-scarf on campus.

The principal of Anand Bhawan School, Archana Thomas, told a Class VII girl to remove the headscarf from the next day if she wants to study in the school. The school administration also sent a notice to parents of the student and asked them to “abide by the school’s dress code, or else, get their ward admitted in some Islamic School.”

When the girl still wore the scarf to school the next day, the principal allegedly removed the scarf forcefully and scolded her. Speaking to News18, the girl said that her father had taken prior permission for the headscarf. “Principal Ma’am denied the permission. Next day, when I wore the scarf, she called me and snatched away my scarf. My cousin, too, was denied permission and was scolded for wearing the headscarf to school,” said the seventh grader.

The girl’s father, Moha-mmad Raza Rizvi, questioned the logic of the school’s rules and asked if Sikhs can wear a turban, they why can’t Musli-ms wear a headscarf to school.

“As per our faith, females need to cover their head. I requested the principal to give permission. She said she would hold a meeting in October, but eventually she denied the permission, saying that it flouted the dress code. I want to understand how come Sikhs are allowed to wear pagdi (turban), which is also not a part of the dress code?” Rizvi asked.

Eminent gynaecologist and former medical superintendent and head of the gynaecology department of the Little Lourdes Mission Hospital, Kidangoor in Kottayam district, died on Nov 16. She was 65.

Dr Sister Mary Marcellus was undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Ernakulam after suffering critical injuries in an accident.

Sr Marcellus who belongs to Sisters of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (SVM) Congregation, was the first nun to join a government run medical college in Kerala. Her motto in life was ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ Sr Marcellus was laid to rest at Kidangoor on Nov 18.

About 10,000 people participated in the beatification ceremony of Sister Rani Maria Vattalil, the Franciscan Poor Clare assassinated in 1995 when she was stabbed 54 times in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Her assassin Samunder Singh, who later regretted the cruel gesture and was forgiven by the Blessed’s family was also among participants. He told Matters India: “I’m so happy that ‘Didi’ (older sister) has been recognized as a martyr.”

The ceremony took place on November 4 in the courtyard of Indore’s St Paul Higher Secondary School and was chaired by Card. Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Card. Baselios Cleemis, President of the Indian Bishops’ Conference, Card. George Alencherry, Head of the Syro-Malabar Church, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, President of the Latin Rite Conference concelebrated the Mass. The rite began at 10.00 am (local time) with the reading of the papal announcement of beatification. On November 5, the Apostolic Nuncio Msgr Giambattista Diquattro presided at a Mass in Suffrage on the grave of sister Rani Maria, at the Sacred Heart Church in Udainagar. Even Pope Francis during the Angelus recalled the Indian nun. “Sally Vattalil – said the pontiff – gave testimony to Christ in love and mildness, and joins the long line of martyrs of our time. Her sacrifice is a seed of faith and peace, especially in Indian land. She was so good that they called her ‘the smiling sister.”

A Catholic bishop has sought protection for the Christian community in the central Indian Madhya Pradesh State after Hindu nationalists marched through the streets waving burning torches and denouncing missionaries.

The marchers on Nov. 10 accused Sagar district authorities of not acting upon complaints they filed against missionaries for violating a law that restricts religious conversions.

They issued an ultimatum that if the administration failed to act within a fortnight they would start an indefinite strike in front of a Catholic Church run orphanage in the diocese.