Over 25 years ago a gang of four men took me at gunpoint from a basket-ball court to my school office. They introduced themselves as members of a proscribed organization and made me sit on a chair while they kicked my face.

That was the first attack I encountered on June 14, 1991, in my three decades of working as a Salesian missionary in the north-eastern Indian State of Manipur.

Since then I have been held at gunpoint several times, which is a story quite a few of my confreres working in the field of education can also tell.

Many escape because of sheer luck. At least five have been shot dead in the last 30 years in this this insurgent-infested region where peace seems ever elusive. During the first attack, my abductors wanted me to pay them 400,000 rupees (equivalent to about US$ 11,500 at the time) and give them a video camera and a gun.

As the priest-manager of Don Bosco School, in the State capital of Imphal, I was unable to meet their demands because I had none of those things. And this is something I made very clear to them.

Their reaction was swift and brutal. With a gun in hand, one of them hit me hard on my left cheek. The pain was severe. Later, medical examinations established that the strike had broken my eardrum. The four men then locked me up and made off with the 10,000 rupees (US$280) they found in my office. However, there are about 20 insurgent groups operating in the state and they appear to view Catholic schools as an easy target whenever they want to raise funds to support whatever they are fighting for, which could be for a separate statehood or the goal of establishing ethnic supremacy over other groups. They would spend their time blaming the Catholic schools for a range of imaginary crimes.

The leaders of various Churches in north-eastern India have expressed deep pain and anguish at the recent violent incidents that shattered peace in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya State.

Heads of the United Christian Forum and the North East Christian Council met on June 6 in Guwahati to review the situation and seek ways to restore peace and harmony in the city, known as the Scotland of the East.

They met amid attempts by certain section of the media and groups to project the incidents as clashes between Christians and Sikhs in Shillong.

Meghalaya is one of the three Christian-majority states in northeastern India.

The leaders are “concerned at the continued tension that prevails due to fear, mistrust and circulation of fake news,” says a press release issued by Allen Brooks, spokesperson of the Northeast unit of the United Christian Forum.

The Church leaders have requested their people to pray and work for peace. They also appealed to all concerned people to shun violence and “seek the path of dialogue” to find a lasting and peaceful solution to an age-old problem that triggered the latest violence.

The Church leaders also resolved to cooperate and support all efforts at peace building, Brooks told Matters India.

Meanwhile Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong too denied that the incidents had any communal color.

“The present disturbed situation in Shillong arose out of an incident that was initially resolved,” the Salesian prelate told Matters India on June 6.

The Indian Constitution is in danger, Goa’s Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao has said, adding that a “new trend” of mono-culturalism, which demands uniformity in what and how one eats, dresses, lives and even worships, is putting human rights at risk. In the latest annual pastoral letter to Catholics in Goa, Ferrao also exhorted agencies of the Church in Goa to actively participate in social movements and urged lay Catholics to play an active part in politics.

“At the time of elections, the candidates confuse the minds of many people by making false promises. And the people, on their part, often sell their precious vote for selfish, petty gain. “Today, our Constitution is in danger, (it is a) reason why most of the people live in insecurity,” Ferrao said in his pastoral letter for 2018-19 which was formally released but circulated later. “In this context, particularly as the general elections are fast approaching, we must strive to know our Constitution better and work harder to protect it.”

In the letter, which comes two weeks after Delhi Archbishop Anil Couto warned about an emerging threat to India’s “democratic and secular fabric” Ferrao also alleged that human rights were being trampled in the name of development and mono-culturalism.

“In recent times, we see a new trend emerging in our country, which demands uniformity in what and how we hear, dress, live and even worship: a kind of mono-culturalism. Human rights are under attack and democracy appears to be in peril.

“The various minorities fear for their safety. In short, respect for law is frankly on the decline in this country,” said Ferrao, who is the spiritual and religious leader of Catholics in Goa who account for 26 per cent of the state’s population of 1.5 million.

“People are being uprooted from their land and homes in the name of development. Pope Francis says that ‘the first victim of development is the poor person.’ It is easier to trample upon the rights of the poor, because those who will raise their voice for them are very few.”

A man was arrested June 2 for abandoning his newborn baby in a church in Kerala.

Police said they traced the parents of the two-day old baby based on CCTV footage that went viral on social media platforms.

The baby’s father will be charged under various sections of IPC and Juvenile Justice Act, police said. CCTV footage aired by television channels and circulated on social media showed a couple leaving the child at one of the temporary erected confessionals in the premises of St George Forane Church in Edapally, a suburb of Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.

The church’s security staff noticed the child at around 8:30 pm on June 1 and immediately alerted the police.

The recently renovated church draws thousands of visitors and devotees daily.

Police traced the child’s parents to Wadakancherry in Trichur district, some 90 km north of Edapally.

In the CCTV footage, the couple along with another child of around 3 years old, was seen walking into the church premises around 8:15 pm with the baby wrapped in an orange sheet. The father kissed the baby on its forehead before carefully placing the infant on the ground.