A more than five decades old Catholic Church, presby-tery, and boarding school were burned down, while a convent was taken over by suspected outlaws in riot-hit Manipur state in northeastern India at the weekend, Church officials said. The fresh wave of violence erupted on June 4 as the federal government appointed a three-member judicial commission to probe ethnic violence in the state that has claimed 98 lives so far and displaced over 45,000 people.
“We were informed that St. Joseph Church, its presbytery, and a school boarding attached to the parish were set on fire and the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) convent in the parish is currently under the control of outlaws whose identity is not yet established,” a senior diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Imphal, who did not want to be named, told on June 5.
St. Joseph Parish at Sugnu, a small township at the southern tip of the Kakching district inhabited by the Meitei and Kuki communities, is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the archdiocese.
Hundreds of houses belonging to Christians in the township were burned down a couple of days before.
“We cannot go to the affected locality to get a ground report due to restrictions, but credible sources informed us about the arson and other developments,” the priest said.
He said the parish has more than 4,000 members from 35 villages in its vicinity, where Christians have abandoned their houses and fled to safer places including relief camps.

A state court in south-western India has ruled that lay Catholics may sue their local diocese over its refusal to offer Mass and other forms of prayer and worship in the local language of Konkani.
The High Court in the state of Karnataka decreed May 26 that civil courts have jurisdiction to hear the case, in which the plaintiffs are demanding that at least one Mass on Sun-day and other feast days be offered in Konkani, a language spoken by roughly two million people along India’s western coast.
Konkani is one of 22 languages recognized in the Indian constitution, and is the official language of the state of Goa. The lawsuit is being brought by four lay Catholics in the city of Chikkamagaluru, loca-ted in Karnataka, against the Diocese of Chikkamagaluru.
The diocese had opposed the suit, arguing that such matters should be governed by the Catholic church’s own internal Code of Canon Law. It insisted that the plaintiffs have not been barred from worship, but that they cannot insist on praying in any particular language and that the use of a language in worship is a ritual question rather than a matter of civil rights.
The high court, however, determined that civil courts in India have the authority to hear complaints alleging violations of the fundamental rights secured by Articles 25 and 26 of the Indian constitution.
The Karnataka High Court found, however, that the issue of conducting prayers in the Konkani language in a church under the control of the Diocese of Chikkamagaluru cannot be regarded simply as a matter of ritual, that the archdiocese is bound by the law of the land, and therefore that the civil justice system may hear the case.
“The Church desires that all should know the Good News of Jesus. If we need to reach the non-Christians with this Good News, we have to use the local language. Only then will everyone understand the teachings. The church should become a ‘local Church,’ in the sense that whichever state we are in, the state language should take prominence.”

The head of India’s Catholic religious has urged her more than 130,000 people to get out of their comfort zones and play their prophetic role as the country faces burning and critical issues.
“I am writing this letter to share with you my concern at the many serious happenings in different parts of the country,” writes Apostolic Carmel Sister Mary Nirmalini to the men and women members of 399 religious congregations that make up the Conference of Religious India (CRI).
The CRI president’s June 1 letter lists the burning issues as the ongoing targeted violence in Manipur on the Christians and other tribals; the continual attacks on Church personnel and institutions in various parts of India; the denigration of the Muslims; the mainstreaming of hate speeches; and the pathetic plight of our protesting women wrestlers.
“In the face of these growing hostilities, the question I have been asking myself is: Can I remain silent? What would Jesus have done if he was physically present in the India of today?” she writes. Christ, she continues, would have definitely taken “a visible and vocal stand against these acts of violence and injustices.”

Some rightwing Hindu groups have threatened to close two churches of the archdiocese of Delhi that covers the national capital and parts of Haryana state.
The latest incident happened June 4 at St Joseph Vaz Catholic Mission Church, Kherki Daula in Gurugram (Gurgaon) district, Shashi Dharan, the archdiocesan public relations officer, told Matters India.
Just after the 10 am English service, a group of 20-25 people came to the church wearing saffron scarves and carrying tridents and swords on bikes and cars and threatened the priest and two Catholics who were talking to him. They gave the priest two weeks’ time to close the church.
They also said they will not allow the church in the village. They claimed they were from Hindu Sena (army).
Shashi Dharan said one person from the crowd slapped Father Amalraj, who later com-plained of a hearing problem.
The PRO said a five-member team led by vicar general Father Vincent D’Souza went to Kherki Daula in Gurugram district of Haryana after its parish priest Father Amalraj alerted the archbishop’s house about troubles from Hindu radicals.

A newly professed nun, who was jailed along with four others for alleged con-version charges, were on June 13 granted bail by a court in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
Sister Vibha Kerketta was arrested June 6 and jailed the next day along with her mother and three others after her family organized a Mass in their home to thank God for her profession in the Daughters of St Anne, a Ranchi-based congregation.
The family lived at Schoolpara lane of Balachhapar village in Jashpur district, Chhattisgarh.
A group of Hindu fundamentalists, who barged into the house, accused her mother and others for conducting a healing session and insulting other religions.
A magistrate sent the nun and the other four to jail and set the bail hearing for June 13. The Sessions Court of Jashpur accepted their bail application on furnishing 15,000 rupees by each of them, Jesuit Father Fulgence Lakra, a lawyer, told Matters India.
They were released in the evening and Sister Lily Grace Topno, superior general of the congregation, thanked God as well as the Church authorities and their well wishers for the good news.
Sister Kerketta had taken her first vows on December 8, 2022, and went home after six months. Her family organized the Mass to follow a local tradition to welcome a new priest or nun with a religious function. Some 60 people had attended Sister Kerketta’s function that started at 6 pm.

The oldest church in northeastern India has been entangled in a factional feud for more than eight months.
On June 4, the Christ Church in Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam state, witnessed unruly scenes when one group shut the doors obstructing another group from the church building.
Video clips circulated on social media showed two women arguing with others while blocking them from the church.
Samuel Sangma, former secretary of the church and leader of a function, described the incident as “unprece-dented” and “most reprehensible.”

A bishop in India’s national capital New Delhi has appealed for the safety and security of the Christian com-munity and its places of worship after two incidents of attacks on Catholic priests in the northern state of Haryana.
The June 5 letter referred to two separate incidents. On June 4, Father Joseph Amalraj was manhandled by a mob of 20-25 people after Sunday Mass at St. Joseph Vaz Catholic Mi-ssion Church in Kherki Daula village in Gurugram, formerly Gurgaon.

The special synod meeting of the Syro-Malabar Church began June 12 with Cardinal George Alencherry bemoaning the persecution of Christians in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur.
The synod is being held at the behest of the Vatican at Mount St. Thomas, the Syro-Malabar Church’s headquarters in Kakkanad, a Kochi suburb.