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Indian appointed to Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue

Pope Francis has appointed Divine Word Father Sebastian Maria Michael, a noted sociologist and writer, as a consulter of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue. Father Michael is the director of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue of the Arch-diocese of Bombay. He is a professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai, and […]

Indian court quashes state acquisition of Church land

A court has set aside India’s only communist government’s order to acquire more than 2,000 acres of land belonging to a Christian denomination for a proposed airport in Kerala State. The Kerala high court, the top court in the southern Indian state, on Oct. 16 quashed a notification issued by the state government to initiate […]

Rome appoints apostolic visitor for Kerala congregation

The Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches has appointed an apostolic visitor for the Kerala-based Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (MCBS). An October 13 letter from the Apostolic Nunciature in Delhi to MCBS superior general Father Joseph Maleparampil said Rome has appointed Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Father Paul Achandy as the apostolic visiror to […]

UN rights chief urges India to safeguard human rights

 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on October 20 appealed to the Indian government to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs, and their ability to carry out their crucial work on behalf of the many groups they represent. Bachelet expressed regret at the tightening of space for human rights NGOs […]

Christians angry over blocking of church construction in India

A Christian group in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is mulling a protest after the state government prevented construct-ion of a church because it says it was illegal. Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) has asked the state govern-ment run by the pro-Hindu Bha-ratiya Janata Party (BJP) to qui-ckly resolve the issue in Buddhist-majority Tawang town. […]

Bishops in Kerala on hunger strike for Catholic education

Several bishops in Kerala held a day-long hunger strike October 20 to protest the state govern-ment’s withholding of funds from Catholic schools. The hunger strike was held October 20 in front of the Kerala state secretariat. The prelates participating were Bishops Jo-shuah Kizhakkeveettil of the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of Mavelikara, chair of the Kerala bishops’ education […]

Father Stan Swamy’s bail plea rejected

A special court of the National Investigation Agency on October 23 rejected the bail plea of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy a tribal rights activist arrested for his alleged involvement in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence in Maharashtra. The 83-year-old, who is under judicial custody, had sought bail on health grounds. He is now lodged in […]

Ranchi archbishop leads human chain to demand Jesuit’s release

Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi on October 16 joined priests, nuns and lay people to form a 5-kilometer human chain to denounce the arrest of an octogenarian Jesuit priest for alleged Maoist links. Many of the more than 1,000 protestors, who lined up in the Jharkhand State capital of Ranchi lit candles, terming it a […]