In that letter, Pamplany defended Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, and the other bishops who make up its governing synod, from critics in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, the largest jurisdiction within the church.

A Catholic nun from southern India has won this year’s award for best reportage on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.
The Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) that gives the annual award says it chose Sister Robancy A. Helen for authentically and consistently being the voice of people’s rights, especially the poor Dalits who are susceptible to exploitation and injustice.

Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry says the recent protests against Pontifical Delegate Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil have deeply saddened the Church.
“The strength of the Church is unity,” asserted the cardinal on August 21, speaking after the opening of the third session of 31st Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church at Mount St. Thomas, the Oriental rite’s headquarters in Kakkanad, a suburb of Kochi, Kerala.

Joseph Anthony Gathia, an author, journalist, and children’s rights campaigner, has been chosen for the Swami Devanand Chakkungal award for Hindi Literature instituted by the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) and sponsored by the Indore province of the Divine Word congregation.

A Catholic nun, who survived gangrape, has gone back to a court to give evidence after a gap of nine years.
The nun, who cannot be named because of legal reasons, appeared before the district and sessions judge court in Cuttack on August 16 and 17 to give evidence against 18 accused in the case.
However, her evidence could not be recorded as the Odisha government had not yet appointed a lawyer for her.
The court is expected to fix another date for recording her statements after the government appoints the lawyer.
The nun was 25 when she was gang-raped on August 25, 2008, after a mob ransacked and attacked Divya Jyoti (Divine Light) Pastoral Centre, one of the torched church institutions, where she served as a social worker. She had taken her final vows only a few months before.
The violence began August 24, 2008, a day after the murder of Hindu religious leader Laxmanananda Saraswati, and lasted four more months. The mayhem claimed more than 100 lives and reduced 395 churches and other places of worship to ashes. Nearly 56,000 people ended up displaced and destitute.

Just four days after a mob of Islamist extremists burned down a Christian community in the Pakistani city of Jaran-wala, over 700 Catholics ga-thered to celebrate Mass out-side the decimated St. Paul Catholic Church on Aug. 20.
Despite the incredible de-vastation and widespread fears that another anti-Christian riot would break out, hundreds of Catholics turned to the Eu-charist following a mob attack that destroyed more than 30 churches and 800 homes.
“Most of the people were crying in the Mass,” one Chri-stian community leader told the Catholic relief group Aid to the Church in Need Interna-tional (ACN).
“It was a very painful time but a chance to share with one another their sense of loss and sadness,” said the Christian, who was not identified by ACN out of safety concerns.
What happened? On Aug. 16, a riot of hundreds of Mus-lims – reported by some as thousands – broke out in the Christian portion of Jaranwala in Pakistan’s northeastern Punjab province.
The anti-Christian mob had broken into a frenzy after two Christians, Rocky Masih and Raja Masih, were accused of profaning the Quran and insu-lting Islam. Disrespecting the Quran is a crime punishable by life in prison in Pakistan.
Before a formal police in-vestigation could begin, a crowd of Muslims, reportedly spurred on by an extremist group called “Tehreek-e-Labbaik” went on a rampage through the Christian district.

World Youth Day is a “unique experience” that allows people to get to know others from all over the world. Above all it favours relations between people of nations, often in conflict with each other.
This is the case for Indian and Pakistani Catholics, says Godfrey Malu, who hails from the Archdiocese of Bombay (Mumbai). So far, during his stay in Lisbon, he “met some young Pakistanis” who were “really happy to meet us”.
“We Indians and Pakistanis got together and took pictures,” he told AsiaNews, “showing that we are one body” of the Church. “Although we come from different nations (both nuclear powers), we are one,” he added. This enables us to “live a unique moment and reach out to one another.”
The young Catholics from Pakistan and India are but some of the million-strong sea of young people from around the world, meeting from 2 to 6 August in Lisbon, after heeding Pope Francis’s call to take part in the 37th World Youth Day.
Since his first meeting with Portuguese authorities, the pontiff has renewed his appeal for peace and the search for new ways of coming together and engaging in dialogue, even where walls and war keep people apart.

The head of the Catholic Church in India on August 23 joined the nation’s leaders to applaud the Indian Space Research Organization for the success of the country’s third lunar exploration mission.
On the same day, when Chandrayaan (moon craft)-3 successfully landed on the lunar surface, India created history as the first country to land on the moon’s South Pole.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indians and space scientists for the achievement. “India will remember this day forever,” Modi said after virtually witnessing the landing attempt from South Africa where he is attending the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Summit.
“I heartily congratulate ISRO, its scientists for this unprecedented feat. I may be in South Africa but my heart has always been with the Chandrayaan mission,” he added.
“No other country has been able to land on this side of the moon before; this will change all narratives and stories about the moon. We are witness to the new flight of new India. New history has been written,” the prime minister said.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, conveyed to the ISRO the “warmest congratulations” from the entire nation on the remarkable achievement of the successful landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the lunar surface.

Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil, pontifical delegate for Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, has met Pope Francis on his return to the Vatican after his 18-day stay in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
A press statement from the Media Commission of the Syro-Malabar Church says the Jesuit archbishop informed the Pope on August 23 about his visit to Kochi in Kerala and apprised him about the current situation in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
The August 24 press statement issued by commission secretary Vincentian Father Antony Vadakkekara says the delegate told the Pope that he had held discussions with the various groups in the archdiocese and provided necessary guidelines.
The Pope asked him to remain firm to implement the decisions taken by the Syro-Malabar Synod and approved by the pontiff, the statement adds.
Archbishop Vasil has also given a detailed report on the crises in the arch-diocese to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Oriental Congregation.
The delegate said that he would continue his efforts to implement in the archdiocese the synod mode of celebrating Mass where the priest faces the altar during the main part.
Archbishop Vasil came to Kochi in Kerala, the headquarters of the Syro-Mala-bar Church, on August 4 and stayed there until August 22.
On his arrival, he announced that the Pope had sent him to make sure that the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese adopt the uniform mode, decided by the Syro-Malabar Synod.
Most Catholics and priests in the archdiocese – the largest in the Oriental Catholic Rite – oppose the synod Mass and insist on celebrating Eucharist where the priest faces the congregation.
The archdiocese has celebrated Mass in this way for more than 50 years, following the teachings of the Vatican II. However, six of 328 parishes in the archdiocese defied the delegate’s order to celebrate Mass in the synod way on August 20. He had also threatened to excommunicate priests who defied the August 17 order.