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Nuns protest drama depicting them as lesbians, priests’ sexual partners

Catholic nuns in Kerala continue to demand a ban on a controversial play two months after it was staged at an international theater festival in the southern Indian state. The play allegedly depicts them as lesbians and sexual partners of priests. The play – “Kakkukali” – in Mala-yalam, Kerala’s local language, was staged Feb 5-14 […]

Christian Olympian Kom appeals against sectarian violence in Manipur

On May 4  sectarian violence broke out in the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. For the past two days, majority ethnic Meitei, who are predominantly Hindu, have clashed with members of the Mostly Christian Kuki tribal group. For local boxing champion Mary Kom, “The situation in Manipur makes me unhappy. [. . .] “Since last night […]

Giving women synod vote ‘should open Asian churches’

A papal decision allowing women to vote in the concluding discussions of the Synod on Synodality compels Asia’s national churches to widen the participation of lay people, particularly women, in Church activities, say leading Asian theologians. A Vatican statement on April 26 said Pope Francis has “approved the extension of participation in the synodal assembly […]

Church leaders discuss ways to combat human trafficking

The Commission for Migrants of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of India on May 1 drew plans to combat the issues of forced labor and human trafficking in its Agra region comprising 10 dioceses. Some 30 delegates from these dioceses attended a workshop at Gyandeep Bhawan Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, to celebrate the International […]

Catholic orphanage raided, priests arrested in India

An orphanage serving differently abled children for the past 150 years was raided by government agencies in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The officers of the state units of National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and Child Welfare Committee desecrated a church, beat up priests, destroyed computers and ransacked a […]

Hindu fundamentalists oppose Catholic children’s summer camp

More than a hundred Hindu activists forcefully entered a Catholic school in Chhattisgarh to oppose a summer catechetical camp held there for Catholic children. The intruders, who entered the Vishwadeep School campus around noon on May 7, alleged the program was meant to convert “Hindu” children. The school in Durg, 40 km west of Raipur, […]

75 years later, Missionaries of Charity acquire Mother Teresa’s first house

Seventy-five years after Mother Teresa launched her full-time service to the poor in a shelter in the distressed Entally neighborhood of Kolkata, the order she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, has announced that it finally secured ownership of the property. Although the young Mother Teresa arrived in Kolkata as a Sisters of Loreto missionary in […]

Manipur clashes, a grave tragedy, says Archbishop Menamparampil

Order has been restored in Manipur following a large-scale intervention by India’s military; however, the wounds caused by the recent clashes between the mainly Hindu Meiteis ethnic majority and the mostly Christian tribal communities are deep, this according to Msgr Thomas Menamparampil, Archbishop Emeritus of Guwahati, a leading Catholic figure in north-eastern India. In the […]