Socrates was born in Athens but he considered himself “a citizen of the cosmos.” H.G.Wells believed borders eventually disappear, and geopolitical gurus have proclaimed the “end of geography.” The protagonists of globalization celebrate the advent of borderless world. “The future has a new home,” the website declares of a megacity being built in Saudi Arabia wirtes Ash Narain Roy

The coronavirus pandemic has shattered all such dreams and utopias by exposing our collective vulnerabilities. After all, the future has a way of arriving unannounced, and we’re too shocked to welcome it. Whenever the dream city does come up, this new home, brainchild of Prince Salman as-Saud, it will not be the future of humanity. We are nursing now a fear of the future, but we have a different future in mind: the future of the past.

The never ending caravans of migrants marching along well-laid tracks and highways carrying children and their belongings become the next defining moment in India’s development path. The humiliation of the poor and of innocents, the disdain for the marginalized, the utter callousness towards their plight manifest how little India has moved up the ladder of social inclusion, and how the othering of people —making them something other than ourselves— has only expanded the India/Bharat divide.

His own body was a site of resistance for Gandhi. Migrants’ bodies too are sites of resistance. They carry not just their belongings but their world on their bodies. They know there isn’t plenty to eat back home either but they know there will be no humiliation there and they will not be viewed with scorn.

The pandemic reminds us how, in Frank Furedi’s words, “Belonging to a community is the most precious asset that human beings possess.” With migrants trying desperately to leave, where are the leaders they elected to represent them?

Bishop George Palliparambil of Miao on May 12 hailed nurses as ‘real heroes’ in the global war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Salesian prelate was addressing the International Nurse’s Day celebrations held at Krick and Bourry Memorial Hospital, Injan in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang District.

“I really want to thank and congratulate all the nurses for the great sacrifice they make for humanity. I want to assure you and all the nurses across the world that you are always remembered in our prayers,” he told the nurses of the hospital that he founded in honour of two missionaries who were martyred in the north-eastern Indian State. The World Health Organization declared the year 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwifery in recognition of the contribution they make and the risk associated with nursing, in the context of Covid-19.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India on May 7 expressed shock and pain over the gas leak in Visakhapatnam, a port city in Andhra Pradesh State. “From the reports it is noted that many have died and scores are ill, and the accident has created mass panic in several areas,” says a press statement from the conference.

At least 11 people were dead and more than 1,000 fell ill on May 7 after gas leaked overnight from a chemical plant of a multinational firm near Visakhapatnam.

Lima Joshi, a Catholic lay-woman living in Vishakhapatnam, told Matters India over phone that people felt breathlessness when they came out of their houses. “Many fell on the ground unconscious,” she added. According to her, the gas spread over a 4-km radius of an LG Polymers factory. “People started running away from their homes. Many died on the spot and many are admitted in hospitals.”

Goa plans to take a leaf out of Hampi on conservation and upkeep of the coastal state’s 17th century Unesco-endorsed Old Goa Church complex, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on May 5.

Sawant’s assurance follow-ed a meeting of officials from the Archaeological Survey of India, state government agencies and representatives of the Goa’s Roman Catholic Church at the state secretariat, in order to streamline the processes for the maintenance of the Old Goa Church Complex, one of the most popular tourism sites in the state, as well as the most significant site of worship for Goa’s Catholic community.

“In future, a co-ordination committee under ASI officials, on the lines of Hampi, will be formed to decide on the maintenance of the Church complex. We will obtain the rules and regulations which are in place for maintenance of the Hampi (complex) too,” Sawant said.

Hampi is a popular tourist destination with a historical importance on account of its monuments and temples, most of which lie in ruins. The site, an erstwhile capital of Vijayanagar empire – which existed between 14th and 16th centuries – is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, just like the Old Goa Church complex, which is also a popular tourist site.

A teenage girl in Odisha uses art to spread the devotion to Mary during the nationwide lockdown time.

Meghanjali Majhi, a resident of Raikia village in Odisha’s Kandhamal district, has intensified her efforts especially during May, the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.

“I realized family Rosary and devotion to Mother Mary especially in May, are powerful weapons to fight the on-going pandemic,” the 13-year Catholic girl told Matters India.

The lockdown began on March 25 to contain the spread of Covid-19 that has killed hundreds of thousands all over the world.

Majhi says she found encouragement from Pope Francis’s letter inviting Catholics to “rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in May and contemplating the face of Christ with the heart of Mary, our Mother.”

The Odisha girl says the Rosary is “an important aid in my spiritual journey. I have a special devotion to Mother Mary but was helpless due to the lockdown.” Mary has been the mediator for her good health, study, and success in life, she added.

The lockdown has prevented her from going to the forest to collect fresh flowers for Mother.

She got the idea to use drawing to show her devotion to Mary after hearing the story of Saint Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463) from her parents.

Her parents had told her that the Italian Poor Clare nun, who was a mystic, served God through creative spirit, talents, and music-related faith.

Even her parents have been an inspiration for her to imbibe Marian devotion. She began the drawing on May 1 while praying Rosary in the family.

A court in Kerala has sentenced a former sacristan to life for killing the rector of a famous Christian pilgrim centre in the southern Indian State.

“The sacristan is sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life for the offence punishable under section 302 of IPC and has to pay a fine of (100, 000 rupees),” Ernakulam Principal Sessions and District Judge Kauser Edappagath said in the May 4 order. If the sacristan fails to pay the fine amount, he has to suffer simple imprisonment for one year, the court added. Johnny Vattaparampil, the sacristan of St Thomas Mount at Malayattoor in Ernakulam district, was convicted for stabbing to death Father Xavier Thelakkat, the shrine’s rector, on March 1, 2018.

It’s a tale of two Sundays, 163 years apart. Once again, a battle has forced one of the oldest churches in northern India to shut down for almost two months. The last time the British-built St John’s Church shut doors was in 1857 when the first war of Indian independence, or the Sepoy Mutiny, broke out. This time, the war against coronavirus has forced it to close.

It was the evening of Sunday on May 10, 1857, when the Revolt against the East India Company erupted in Sadar Bazar area of Meerut. Soon, it spread across northern India.

In all, 50 Europeans were killed on that day. Many of them were caught unawares as they were heading towards St John’s Church, located on the British side of the cantonment for Evening Sunday Church service.

All those Europeans stayed in the civilian side and had to cross the main city drain that divided British infantries from the rest.