Daily Archives: September 9, 2019

National

Church leader upset with acquittals in India lynching case

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A Catholic bishop in western India says he is pained by a court’s decision to acquit six people accused of beating to death, a Muslim man two years ago in a cow protection case. The court in Alwar district of Rajasthan on Aug. 14 gave “the benefit of doubt” in setting free the six, who were accused of being part of a cow vigilante mob that beat 55-year-old Pehlu Khan on a public road on April 1, 2017. Khan died in a hospital.

“The verdict is shocking and it pained me greatly,” said Bishop Pius Thomas D’Souza of Ajmer. “It is very sad as it comes when video footage was available of the mob lynching incident.” State Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told media that the government will appeal against the order in a higher court.

The order was pronounced in the presence of the six accused, who were released on bail at different stages of the trial. Three other accused minors are facing proceedings before Alwar’s Juvenile Justice Board.

From The States

Kerala: Church slams PM Modi’s family planning remark

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement during his Independence Day speech that “family planning is a form of patriotism” seems to have irked Kerala’s Catholic Church.

Pro-Life Committee under the Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Council has issued a communique expressing their opposition to PM Modi’s statement. “Not only do they (small households) contribute to the welfare of their family, but also to the good of the nation. People who have played this huge role need to be honoured, and by setting them as examples, we need to inspire the segment of society still not thinking on these lines. We need to worry about population explosion,” the PM had said in his Independence Day speech from Red Fort. KCBC Family Commission secretary Father Paul Madassery in the communique said that the committee observed that the PM’s statement was made with ulterior motives ahead of a case on abortion law coming up for consideration of the Supreme Court by the end of this month.

From The States

Interfaith dialogue meet in Kolkata voices concern

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The residence of Catholic archbishop in Kolkata hosted an Inter-Faith dialogue meeting on August 18 where people cutting across religious voiced concern over changing pattern of leadership in India.

Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta welcomed members of different religious to the brain storming discussion towards evolving a strategy to build peace and harmony in society. The meet that gathered some veteran leaders already engaged in interfaith dialogue took place because of the initiative Satnam Singh Ahluwalia and Imran Zaki, representing Sikhism and Islam. Both said they uphold their belief in the religion of humanity.

International

Huge decline in religious studies in British Schools

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Religious studies has shown a large decline at GCSE, with less than half of secondary schools now offering the subject.

According to a new report conducted by academics at Liver-pool Hope University and backed by Culham St Gabriel’s, a trust that supports excellence in religious education, the numbers of schools participating in GCSE Religious Studies declined over-all across all categories from 2017 to 2018, though Catholic schools had proportionately the smallest decline at 3.1%. Among schools without a religious character, the decline was 18.1%. At the same time, the number of pupils in England and Wales taking GCSE religious studies fell for the third year in a row, down 1.6% against 2018 to 237,862.

International

Lay Catholics Must Be More Attentive to Financial Abuse

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Sexual abuse isn’t the only scandal confronting the Catholic Church. There is a growing recognition that financial abuse is more prevalent than most Catholics think. Look no further than the case of the disgraced former bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia: Bishop Michael Joseph Bransfield.

Once a little-known leader in the Church, Bishop Bransfield burst into the spotlight last year. A close associate of the disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Bransfield suddenly resigned in a cloud of suspicion. The Vatican ordered an investigation into allegations of abuse and misuse of funds. It found that Bransfield lived like a king, not a bishop – in one of the nation’s poorest dioceses, no less. Bransfield’s tastes were extravagant and his expenditures obscene. They included $4.6 million on a complete home renovation following a small fire in a bathroom; $2.4 million on travel, including luxury hotels and chartered jets; $1,000 a month on alcohol; and daily flower deliveries totaling $182,000, to name a few examples. Whenever anyone raised objections, Bransfield’s response was simple and usually the same: “I own this.”

National

Tamil Nadu party seeks enumeration of Dalit Christians, Muslims

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With pre-testing for Census 2021 currently underway, a political party in Tamil Nadu has called for the enumeration of Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin in the Scheduled Caste list.

D. Ravikumar of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK, Liberation Panthers Party) has reiterated its demand that Dalit persons belonging to Christian or Muslim faiths be extended reservation in government institutions for education and employment. Not extending reservation to Dalits of all faiths is tantamount to denying their Constitutional rights to practice a religion of their choice, the party said.

VCK chief and Chidambaram MP Thol Thirumavalavan says the caste structure of this religion, which discriminates on the basis of birth, has touched all religions and ruined them. “Thus, which-ever religion one practices, the oppressed are subject to discrimination. Despite people in power being aware of this, they display inequality by not including Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Caste list. This has to change,” he said in a statement.

Party’s general secretary and Villupuram MP D. Ravikumar said the case regarding this demand has been languishing in the Supreme Court for nearly two decades. “The Ranganath Mishra Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the National Minority Commission have all given a favourable recommendation in this regard. But the UPA didn’t implement it,” he pointed out.