The Archdiocese of Bombay has asked its priests to follow the directives of the municipal commissioner and cremate Covid-19 victims rather than bury them.

“In a video message to priests, Cardinal Oswald Gracias suggested in view of the extraordinary circumstances they would respect the call of the municipal commissioner and cremate any novel coronavirus victims,” Father Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bombay, informed the Times of India.

Early this week, municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi had issued a directive under the Epidemic Act, 1897, stating all victims of Covid-19 would be cremated and, if a family insisted on a burial, then it would have to be done outside the city.

The circular was, however, immediately withdrawn after Minority Affairs minister Nawab Malik objected to it. An amended circular issued a few hours later said burial would be allowed if the burial grounds were large enough so as not to create the possibility of the virus spreading in the neighbouring areas. Father Barrett said in view of the amended circular, a family would be granted a burial if they insisted as long as they followed WHO guidelines.

Meanwhile, former Congress minister Naseem Khan, in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, noted the anger in the Muslim community over a Covid-19 victim not being allowed burial at Malwani on April 1. He said the government must earmark a portion in all kabrastans across the state for victims of the pandemic.

Christian charities in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state have been forced to abandon their food distribution among the poor after the state tightened up social distancing norms to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The state government imposed a curfew in capital Bhopal on April 6, stopping all social workers, including church groups, from distributing free food to the poor and daily wage workers.

Thousands of daily wage earners, street dwellers and migrants lost their income to buy food after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown until April 15, shutting down all public activities and transport.

Christian charities helped Bhopal’s poor with food. “But now we are forced to stay at our homes as we cannot go out to distribute the food,” said Sister Lizy Thomas. The curfew came after a sudden spike in positive cases in Bhopal, where at least 12 people tested positive for Covid-19 on April 7, taking the city’s count to 74, the state’s chief medical officer Sudhir Dehariya told media.

I complete 50 years as a priest today, April 14. I started off my priestly life celebrating with glow at least three Masses in as many places on Sundays.

But my life’s main mission is living and sharing life with Indigenous Adivasi People. I accompany them in their struggles against forcible unjust displacement, deprival of their rights over their natural resources, and denial of their due share in the rich dug out literally from beneath their feet. And to add insult to injury, when they stood up to protest against injustice meted out to them, they were thrown into jails in umpteen numbers.

Started asking myself what ‘priesthood’ would mean in this heart-rending reality.

Was reminded of what an eminent liberation theologian said: “What is offered in most of our churches and by most of our priests is the ritual of the Mass, but it is not the sacrifice of Jesus.”

What would his sacrifice mean if not his whole life was a life that brought him to his death, killed by the powers that be for he stood up against oppression of the poor and the weak?

I then decided to take on the oppressive but mighty State, filed a case on behalf of the thousands of under-trial prisoners, most of whom, everybody knows, are innocent. It was then the State decided to put me out of the way. Multiple cases filed against me, cases as serious as ‘sedition,’ not a small solace to remind oneself that Jesus was also accused of ‘sedition’ and paid the supreme sacrifice of his life.

Arrest-warrant was issued on me; I was declared an ‘absconder,’ my work-cum-living premise raided three times (August 2018 – October 2019), and all my personal belongings (computer to mattress and pillow) confiscated. I now have only three things I can call my own: my body, my mind, my conscience. If I was not a Jesuit, would be literally on the street. Life is now with uncertainties, like a swinging pendulum. In one case, ‘arrest warrant’ is still live; can be activated anytime but for the change in political regime.

In the second case, I can be ‘promoted’ from being a ‘suspect’ to ‘accused’ and thrown behind bars. But one thing certain, I feel privileged to walking the Way of the Cross with Jesus and our people being crucified. Earnestly hoping that I will share his death, a death that brought life, a new life, the life of the Resurrection.