The Church in India has celebrated the 109th World Day of Migrants and Refugees in the national capital with more than 300 Burmese Catholic refugees and People who have fled the ethnic violence in Manipur.
The World Day of Migrants and Refugees is celebrated on the last Sunday of September. This year it fell on September 24.

Pope Francis joined those mourning the death of Cardinal Emeritus, Telesphore Placidus Toppo, who brought global recognition for India’s tribal Church.
On October 5, the Pope sent a telegram of condolences to Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi, saying he has learned with sadness of the death of Cardinal Toppo’s passing away.
In his message, the Pope says he commends the Cardinal Emeritus’ “noble soul to the infinite mercies of God, our Heavenly Father.”

The Medical Sisters of St Francis of Assisi celebrated their 50 years of presence in India on October 7 at their first Indian house at Pithora in Raipur archdiocese of Chhattisgarh.
Thanking for their presence and services, Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur, the main celebrant of their Golden Jubilee celebrations, remarked, “Pithora is your Bethlehem, your birthplace… We can see the church’s and the people’s development due to you presence… 50 years is not our accomplishment, but God’s… It is not accomplished, but accomplishing.”

Pope Francis on October 6 appointed Father Linus Neli as Archbishop of Imphal that covers the entire northeastern Indian state of Manipur.
The 66-year-old archbishop-elect is currently the judicial vicar of the archdiocese.

Authorities in Nepal have imposed a lockdown and heightened security in a south-western city bordering India amid escalating tensions between local Hindu and Muslim communities.
An indefinite curfew was declared on Oct. 3 in Nepalgunj, a sub-metropolis in Banke district, about 400 kilometres from the national capital Kathmandu, officials said.
People were urged not to leave their homes or gather in groups as security personnel including from the Nepal Army patrolled the streets. Nepalgunj has the largest Muslim population among Nepal’s cities and leaders of the community organized a protest at the office of the chief district officer on Oct. 1. The Hindus held a rally in response on the next day, defying authorities who refused them permission. This heightened tensions and led to a violent clash between groups that left 13 people including three security personnel injured.

As Pakistan grapples with the increasingly dire consequences of climate change, the suffering of the nation’s millions of poor people worsens due to glaring negligence from the state.
August was the second driest month in 63 years due to a staggering 66 % drop in average rainfall, the Pakistan Meteorological Department announced recently.
Between June and August last year, heavy rain and flooding left more than 1,700 dead and displaced abou
About 37 % of Pakistan’s more than 231 million people lived below the poverty line in 2021, according to the World Bank. The COVID-19 pandemic, a failing economy, staggering inflation and ongoing political upheavals have made millions of new poor.

The Hope Society, a Bengaluru based organization, has launched an initiative to build homes for the homeless each month with people’s participation.
The new movement on housing called ‘Project Shelter’ was initiated by Claretian Father George Kannanthanam on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
“Humanity is best made visible and practical when we help our needy citizens to have their basic needs,” said Justice Santhosh Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge and Lokayukta who inaugurated the project. He lauded people’s participation and volunteerism in the project.
Bishop Sebastian Edayanthrath of Mandya opened a new house and handed over the key to John Bhaskar, a person on wheelchair due to his disability, to mark the symbolic beginning of the Project Shelter.
Bishop Edayanthrath recalled that the Claretian priest has already constructed 1,500 houses for the homeless in his 30 years of service to the leprosy patients, drug dependents, disabled and the victims of disasters.
He said such programs can be implemented with the cooperation of generous people in society.
John Bhaskar said that he would never have been able to build a house without the support from Project Shelter.

Christian leaders in poll-bound India have condemned the desecration of a prayer hall on the outskirts of India’s financial hub Mumbai.
They have urged police to nab the perpetrators for ransacking and defacing a Protestant assembly hall in Thane, around 45 kilometres away from Mumbai in western Maharashtra state.
The Maharashtra police on Oct. 6 told reporters that a probe is on to arrest the “unidentified miscreants,” who allegedly vandalized the prayer hall in the Tulsidham area in Thane under the Bombay archdiocese.
Bombay, the name given by colonial Britain in the 17th century, was changed to Mumbai when a pro-Hindu party government headed Maharashtra in 1996.
Nobody has been arrested till now in the case, registered under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code, police admitted.
The attack on “a place of worship is disturbing,” Father Nigel Barett, spokesperson of the Bombay archdiocese, the largest diocese in the country, told UCA News.
What is more disturbing is that “such incidents occur when elections are around the corner” to polarize voters, Barett added.
A woman from the Protestant church lodged a police complaint on Oct. 5 after she found the assembly hall premises ransacked.

Around 2,000 people on Oct 12 attended the inaugural Eucharist of Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and Synod convention at Dumka, about 250 km northwest of Kolkata.
The congregation danced before the Eucharist to express their joy of meeting each other and to thank God for the opportunity to hold the convention. “To enlarge the Space of the Tent” is the theme of the convention as proposed by Pope Francis for the Rome Synod.
Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi, presided over the Eucharist concelebrated by eight bishops of Bengal and Jharkhand regions and about 100 priests. It is a time to thank the Almighty God for the blessings showered upon Jharkhand region and specially Dumka Diocese, said Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka, the host.
Bishop Vincent Aind of Bagdogra and Regional Chairperson of BEC in West Bengal and Sikkim inaugurated the convention by raising the flag of BEC and lighting the lamp along with representatives of youth, women, men, priests, religious Sisters and Bishops from various dioceses.
After inauguration, a tribute was offered to Cardinal Telesphore Toppo who died on Oct.4. He was the second bishop of Dumka.
About 600 participants from 20 dioceses are participating in the October 12-15 convention. The youth of Dumka conducted prayer and worship.

The Enforcement Directorate, better-known as ED, could arrest any citizen even without possessing any evidence of the alleged financial scam. It seemed to have the absolute right of arrest.
However, in a landmark judgment on October 3, the Supreme Court criticized the ED for ‘arbitrary exercise of power’ and said it must provide a written explanation of why it was making an arrest.
In its judgment in the case Pankaj Bansal versus Union of India, the apex court told the federal government categorically that there is no provision in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which entitles the ED to arrest a person merely on allegations of a financial corruption/ scam.
So long the ED’s standard approach has been to justify arrest under the excuse of the alleged scamster’s non-cooperation to summons/in the investigation. But the court said the denial of guilt by a person cannot be construed as non-cooperation.
Rather, the court asked the ED to pay attention to three provisions which are clearly stated in the law –the reason for arrest must be clearly recorded in writing by the arresting officer; the arrest document must be properly signed; and the copy of the arrest document must be given to the accused person before the arrest.
The court reiterated there would be no exception to these stipulations. It reminded the ED that an accused is not a criminal, and an attempt to prove a charge against an accused does not mean that the charge has been proved. Therefore, to ensure the constitutional rights of a citizen, it is imperative for a democratic government to document that a citizen is being arrested on a specific provable charge and not out of retaliation.