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Attacks on Christians: Supreme Court urged to appoint monitoring agency

A Catholic archbishop and two groups have urged the Supreme Court of India to appoint an agency to monitor attacks against Christians in the country. The request came from Arch-bishop Peter Macho of Bangalore, the National Solidarity Forum and the Evangelical Fellow-ship of India, who had earlier filed a petition in the apex court alleging […]

Vatican hosts meeting with European Hindus 

About fifty-five parti-cipants representing the Christian and Hindu religious traditions in Europe gathered in Rome for a meeting on the theme “Hindus and Christians in Europe: Building together a ‘fraternity-based new humanism’”. The meeting, which was the first of its kind, took place yesterday and was organised by the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in collaboration […]

Indian missionary serving Africa appointed bishop of Odisha’s Balasore

Pope Francis has appointed an Indian prelate serving Ethiopia in East Africa as the new bishop of Balasore diocese in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. The Vatican on May 10 announced the appointment of Monsignor Varghese Thottamkara, a member of the Congregation of the Missions. The 64-year-old prelate is currently serving as the vicar […]

World Bank: one in two people in rural Sri Lanka live below the poverty line

Sri Lanka has lost half a million jobs in industry and services. With the rising cost of living, this has doubled the national poverty level to 25 %, this according to the World Bank’s latest report titled, “Sri Lanka Development Update 2022”. One of the consequences has been the growth in regional disparities. While poverty […]

Asian nations among worst religious freedom violators

China, Myanmar, North Korea, India, and Pakistan were listed among the worst offenders against religious freedom or belief last year, according to an annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The commission’s report, released on May 1, documented “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of the right to freedom of religion or […]

Nearly half of world’s child brides are in South Asia

South Asia faces the daunting task of eliminating child marriages as the region is home to nearly half of the world’s child brides, says a report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). South Asian countries account for 290 million or 45 % of the total of 640 million child brides globally, according to the […]