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Land scam: Court stays registering criminal case against bishop

A court in Karnataka, south-ern India, has spared a Catholic Bishop from facing police inquiry into a land dispute. The Sessions Court in Chik-magalur’s September 1 order observed the accusation against Bishop Thomasappa Anthony Swamy of Chikmagalur and a priest was false. A group of priests and lay people had earlier accused the prelate and […]

Crisis deepens in India’s Eastern Church over liturgy

The liturgical dispute in India’s Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church has deepened after a section of priests opted not to follow a synod decision to have a uniform liturgical celebration in all 35 dioceses. Some 300 priests of Ernakulum-Angamaly Archdiocese, the seat of the church’s Major Arch-Bishop, Cardinal George Alencherry, met their archiepiscopal vicar, Archbishop Antony Kariyil, […]

Indian bishops launch handbook on ecumenism

A handbook on a better understanding of ecumenism has been released by Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, in India’s capital New Delhi. The book titled May They All Be One: Ecumenism in Catholic Perspective has been compiled by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) to help re-establish unity among all […]

Judge bats for cow as India’s national animal

The observations of a high court judge in calling for the cow to be declared India’s national animal have evoked mixed reactions from social activists. Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav of Allahabad High Court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh made the observations on September 1 while denying bail to Javed, a Muslim man accused […]

Pope: Afghanistan, as Christians we cannot remain indifferent

The Pope is calling for “intensified prayer and fasting” for Afghanistan, which he follows with “great concern”. “As Christians,” he said at the Angelus, “in historical moments like these we cannot remain indifferent.” Francis expressed his sympathy “for those who mourn for the victims of the suicide attacks,” asking that “we continue to assist those […]

Vicar of Arabia on the Synod of a migrant Church in a Muslim land

Bp Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of southern Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen) and Apostolic Administrator of the vacant seat of northern Arabia (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain) issued a pastoral letter ahead of the 2023 Synod. In it, he writes: “As a Church of migrants amidst a Muslim society, comprising the faithful […]

Philippine diocese gives cemetery space to non-Catholics

An archdiocese in the Philippines has begun allowing non-Catholics to be buried in Catholic cemeteries due to the scarcity of vacant burial lots brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Cebu province in the central Philippines has recorded 38,088 Covid cases including 1,193 deaths, according to the latest government figures. The island is also recording a […]

Vocations to priesthood and consecrated life

78 new priests were ordained, and about 250 men and women religious professed their perpetual vows during the summer of 2021: these vocations are good news and a sign of hope for the Church of Vietnam, in the midst of a difficult time for the nation, marked by the fourth wave of Covid-19. In the […]