The Catholic Church in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has dismissed reports of a government school being used for mass conversion activities as “false, malafide and intended to sow hatred and division in society.”
The reports appeared in local print and electronic media last week, raising suspicions against the minority Christian community.
“There is no doubt that a group of people along with certain sections of media are running a campaign to tarnish the image of the Catholic Church in Jharkhand, which is unacceptable and condemnable,” Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi told.
He said that in the latest case from Sarangloya village in Khunti Diocese, the Church has documents to prove its case but the media did not even bother to contact church officials.
After news reports appeared, Bishop Mascarenhas and Bishop Binay Kandulna of Khunti, under whose ecclesiastical jurisdiction the village falls, visited the school accused of hosting conversions and met local people to ascertain facts.
The Roman Catholic Mission School was founded in 1936 by a few Catholics and later named St. Joseph’s School. Classes were held inside a small church building until 1962, when 24 local Catholic families came together and bought 35 acres of land after the British-era zamindari system run by landed aristocracy came to an end. The present school building was built on this land after the families requested the Church to teach their children.
“The families are the sole owners of the land and only they decide what they wish to have on their land. In the course of time they handed over this school under the care of fathers,” a Catholic Church press release said.
Jharkhand has 1.4 million Christians out of a total population of 33 million, mostly tribal people.

The Manipur High Court has ordered the release of a journalist detained under the National Security Act for a Facebook post criticizing the promotion of cow dung and urine as cure for Covid-19.
The high court July 23 agreed with the contention of journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem’s wife that his case was the same as that of Erendro Leichombam, the political activist who was freed by the Supreme Court five days ago on the ground of protection of personal liberty after he had spent 67 days in custody over a similar Facebook post.
Kishorchandra, associate editor of the news portal The Frontier Manipur, who was jailed May 17 walked out of Sajiwa jail around 4.10 pm. He told The Telegraph minutes later that he would continue to work for the “betterment of society” by creating awareness among the public against laws such as that on sedition and the NSA.
A BJP-led coalition government is in power in Manipur.
The division bench of Manipur High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Kh Nobin Singh di-rected Kishorchandra’s immediate release while acting on the “letter petition” emailed by the journalist’s wife, Elang-bam Ranjita, to the chief justice and “his puisne judges” on Thursday seeking her husband’s release.

Indian Jesuits in Afghanistan are not sure what is in store for them as the strife-torn nation slips into conflict as the United States winds down operations after almost 20 years of war.
“We will continue to accompany and give hope to the suffering people in whatever way is possible for us,” Father Jerome Sequeira, country head of the Jesuit mission in Afghanistan, told.
But with the Taliban making sweeping gains, fears of human rights and cultural abuses loom large.
Father Sequeira said “uncertainty and nervousness are very much palpable in the country” but we “are committed to our cause.” The Jesuits came to Afghanistan in 2004 to join hands with the Afghans in rebuilding the war-ravaged nation through education.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) stepped in to educate the youth, focusing on internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees from neighbouring countries and other vulnerable sections of the host society.
In collaboration with local staff, the Jesuits trained more than 300 budding young teachers and through them were educating more than 25,000 young boys and girls in four provinces.

Police in the eastern Indian state of Bihar are investigating a mob attack on a Catholic nun over alleged medical negligence at a hospital. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth congregation complained to police after the nun and a hospital staff member were attacked. Sister Philo Kottor, the congregation’s provincial for Patna province, told that a mob of about 50 people claimed Nazareth Hospital in Mokama was negligent in a treating a villager who died from gunshot injuries.

A diocese in Kerala has come up with a welfare scheme to help families with five or more children.
The initiative of Palai diocese’s Family Apostolate seeks to offer a monthly financial assistance of 1,500 rupees to couples who are married after the year 2000 and have five or more children.
Women deliver their fourth children onward are entitled for free delivery care at a hospital run by the Church. Children born as the fourth or subsequently in a family will get scholarships to study in Church-managed engineering college. The scheme, announced as part of the year of the family celebrations by the Syro Malabar Church, is now going viral in the social media and has evoked mixed reactions from the public.
Confirming its authenticity, Father Joseph Kuttiankal, director of the Family Apostolate, said the scheme was planned as an assistance to the large families, especially in the post Covid-19 scenario.

Philippine Catholic bishops congratulated the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, not only for her victory but for her show of faith and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Diaz’s triumph came in the women’s 55-kilogram weightlifting event on July 26. She also set an Olympic record after lifting a combined weight of 224 kilograms.
After completing her final lift in a very close competition, Diaz held her hands to her face, burst into tears and clutched at her Miraculous Medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary hanging from her neck.
“Thank you, Lord, thank you Lord,” she cried repeatedly after the winning lift.
Later on the podium at the medals ceremony, Diaz pointed heavenward after singing the Philippine national anthem, then made the Sign of the Cross before stepping down and shouting “Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!” (“Long live the Philippines!”)
Diaz’s inspirational victory and public display of her Catholic faith touched the hearts of church leaders and Filipino Catholics watching from home and quickly went viral on social media.
“We admire her devotion to the Blessed Mother as she carried in her victory her great faith in God,” said Archbishop Romulo Valles, president of the country’s bishops’ conference. “Hidilyn is a true weightlifter who draws her strength from her love for the country and her deep Catholic faith.”
Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila said Diaz has given inspiration to all Filipinos.

A special prayer service was held at the Mother of Sorrows Church in Udupi for the recovery of Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, who is under treatment at a private hospital here following a head injury Bishop Gerald Isaac Lobo of Udupi conducted the July 23 prayer service. The 80-year-old former federal minister was admitted to Yenepoya Speciality Hospital in Mangaluru on July 18 after he suffered a fall while doing yoga at his apartment in the city, family sources said.

More than 136 people have died in floods and landslides in Konkan, along the coast of the Indian states of Maharashtra and Goa. Due to strong monsoons, a landslide killed 49 people among tribal Katkari in the mission area of the Archdiocese of Mumbai in Raigad, one of the most affected districts.

A report by India’s Ministry of Education highlights the high dropout rate among students from Dalit and tribal backgrounds. The data released by former federal education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is contained in the Unified District Information on School Education (UDISE) 2019-20 report.

Girls who had access to the free lunches provided at government schools, had children with a higher height-to-age ratio than those who did not, says a new study on the inter-generational benefits of India’s midday meal scheme published in Nature Communications this week.
Using nationally representative data on cohorts of mothers and their children spanning 23 years, the paper showed that by 2016, the prevalence of stunting was significantly lower in areas where the mid scheme was implemented in 2005.