The Ram temple that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated this week is a mile-stone in assessing how his lea-dership is changing India’s con-cept of secularism and democracy with far-reaching implications for its religious minorities, particu-larly Muslims and Christians.
When Modi became prime minister for the first time, leading his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a landslide victory in the 2014 parliamentary elect-ions, he was just a chief minister of Gujarat state, one of 28 Indian states.
The victory was powered by the groundwork done for decades by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is an umbrella forum of Hindu organizations that work to make India a nation of Hindu hegemony.
Since 2014, Modi’s BJP and the RSS have been working with-out losing sight of their prime objective – making India a Hindu nation.
Many believed a second term for the BJP in 2019 after winning more seats in parliament would lead to changing certain features of India’s secular constitution in the push for a Hindu nation. But the Modi administration showed no rush to do that.
“As prime minister, he does not need to change the written constitution as his political oppo-nents keep saying. Looking at it carefully, you will realize Modi has effectively reshaped the coun-try with his governance strategies already,” according to Assam-based social scientist Ashutosh Talukdar.
Daily Archives: January 30, 2024
Mangaluru’s St Aloysius College becomes deemed university
Jesuit managed St. Aloysius College, Mangaluru has received the status of ‘Deemed to be Uni-versity,’, approved by the Univer-sity Grants Commission and the federal Ministry of Education.
“This status gives us several opportunities to further improve the education mission with exce-llence and commitment,” rector Jesuit Father Melwyn Pinto told Matters India.
“This is a unique opportunity to serve the cause of higher edu-cation, including designing sy-llabus, conducting examinations and issuing certificates indepe-ndently,” said the rector, adding they have further plans to expand the college campus and start new courses.
Established in 1880 the college has been a premier higher edu-cational institution in coastal Karnataka with several distinctive achievements. The college was elevated to the autonomous status in 2007 allowing it to make na-tional and global presence.
The UGC and the Ministry of Education granted the university status to the college after studying its proposal on various paramet-ers like physical and digital infra-structure, curricular design, re-search and innovation, graduate outcomes, student attainment le-vels, placements, vision and mi-ssion of the institution and its impact on society.
Earlier, the college was re-peatedly given accreditations by National Assessment and Accre-ditation Council (NAAC) and Na-tional Institutional Ranking Fra-mework (NIRF) and other distin-ctive rankings, Father D’Souza said.
Catholics request security after Hindu radicals assault churches in central India
In the wake of anti-Christian assaults by Hindu activists in central India, which featured the placement of saffron flags on the rooftops of four Protestant churches, local Catholic leaders are calling for increased security ahead of the installation of a new bishop for the local diocese.
The incidents occurred Jan. 21 following Sunday services in the four churches in the Jhabua district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. According to local media reports, the Hindu militants were celebrating the Jan. 22 consecration of a new temple to the Lord Ram in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state on a site believed to be the Hindu deity’s birthplace.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the consecration ceremony, has touted the massive new temple as the cornerstone of a Hindu nationalist renaissance in India.
According to local sources, activists energized on the eve of the consecration ceremony climbed on top of the four churches and prayer halls in Jhabua, shouting Jai Shri Ram (“Hail Lord Ram”), a frequent battle cry of Hindu nationalists, and planted saffron flags on the roofs.
Saffron is the color symbolically associated with Hindu identity in India, and some analysts have described the rise to power of right-wing Hindu nationalism under Modi as representing the “saffronization” of India’s democracy.
Three of the churches involved were Pentecostal prayer halls managed by the Shalom Church, while the fourth was part of the Church of South India, one of the country’s largest Protestant denominations. Visuals of the incident showed a group of youths standing on top of a prayer hall, one of them tying a saffron flag with Lord Ram’s image to the holy cross on the building.
Pastor Kidar Singh of the Church of South India told Crux that around 4:00 p.m. on Jan. 21, over 50 right-wing activists gathered near his house, waiving saffron flags and shouting slogans near the church compound.
“They were chanting slogans, such as Ek hi Rashtra, ek hi Ram (‘only one nation, only one Ram’),” he said.
Pilgrimage Street resonates early days of Christianity in Korea
The Sea Link Road in Gaehangjang of Incheon has earned fame as a “Historical and Cultural Pilgrimage Road” thanks to a series of century-old heritage sites related to the early days of Christianity in Korea.
All year round, pilgrims and tourists from home and abroad flock to the street to visit the monuments, including the site where the first Catholic missionary nuns arrived in 1885, Korea’s first Anglican cathedral and the Methodist Church, and Incheon’s first Catholic cathedral known as Dapdong Cathedral.
During the Christian Unity Octave from Jan. 18-25, when Christians across the globe pray for the unity of all Christians, many people throng to the street to visit the churches and other historical Christian sites.
A monument dedicated to four missionary nuns (two French and two Chinese) from the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres congregation stands in front of Incheon Central Police Station.
The nuns arrived in Incheon on July 22, 1888, five years after the opening of Jemulpo Port. Their arrival marked a new beginning for Catholic religious life when Korea was under the rule of the long-reigning Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).
The site is home to a bronze sculpture by famed Korean sculptor Joseph Choi Jong-tae depicting the missionary nuns disembarking from a ship. A prayer: “For the greater glory of God” is also engraved on it, recalling a note from the travel diary of one of the pioneering nuns, Sister Zacharias.
Some 200 meters from the nuns’ monument stands the Korean Christianity 100th Anniversary Memorial Tower, which commemorates the missionary spirit of the Protestant missionaries who first set foot in Incheon in 1885.
The church was rebuilt in 1985, on the 100th anniversary of its founding.
At the entrance to the church are busts of Appenzeller, the second pastor, George H. Jones, and Reverend Kim Ki-beom, the first pastor not only in the Korean Methodist Church but also in the Korean Protestant Church. A restored building of the Jemulpo Wesleyan Chapel, Incheon’s first Western-style Protestant chapel, is also located next to the church.
Myanmar soldiers flee to India after rebel gains
Nearly 300 Myanmar soldiers crossed the border into India to flee an advance by armed insurgents fighting the country’s junta, an Indian paramilitary officer told AFP on January 20 .
Clashes have rocked parts of Myanmar near the Indian border since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a 2021 military coup.
This week, the group said it had taken over the major town of Paletwa and six military bases along the border of India’s Mizoram state, where the soldiers had crossed on Wednesday.
A total of 276 troops carrying their arms and ammunition arrived at Bondukbangsora village, an officer from the Assam Rifles paramilitary force, who declined to give a name, told AFP.
“We have given them shelter at our camp,” he said, adding that the arriving soldiers were “given all the support they require”.
The officer said that his unit was collecting biometric data from the soldiers and had sought approval from the defence ministry in New Delhi to return them to Myanmar.
Hundreds of other Myanmar troops have fled to India to escape fighting since the ceasefire ended in November, according to local media reports.
Two Myanmar military aircraft arrived in Aizawl, the Mizoram state capital, to collect and repatriate soldiers who retreated from the conflict.
In October, an alliance of the AA and two other ethnic minority armed groups launched a joint offensive across Myanmar’s northern Shan state, capturing towns and seizing vital trade hubs on the China border.
Church takes stand against charter change in Philippines
The Church and progressive groups in the Philippines are up in arms against a plan to change the country’s 1987 constitution through a people’s initiative.
The people’s initiative pro-vision in the Catholic-majority nation’s constitution states that amendments can be directly proposed by people “through at least 12% of the total number of registered voters.” Every legislative district must have “at least 3% of the registered voters” as signa-tories. “I do not favour the charter change… whether it is a people’s initiative or by the constituent assembly. A charter change is not the answer to inflation, unemployment, housing crisis, and corruption in the country,” said lawyer Aaron Pedrosa, leader of the Sanlakas, a multi-sectoral organization, on Jan. 18.
The Philippines got the current constitution a year after Ferdinand E. Marcos, the father of current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was deposed as president.
Presidential election: Ash Wednesday rite postponed to Thursday
So that the faithful can experience the important moment of the elections with full attention and with a conscience enlightened by faith and the search for the common good and charity, and on the other hand, to ensure that the baptized experience the beginning of Lent in fullness, without distraction and polarization, in a true spirit of penance, with fasting and prayer, Bishop Siprianus Hormat of Ruteng, a diocese on the island of Flores, the Catholic heart of Indonesia, has decided to postpone the celebration of the imposition of the sacred ashes, which follows liturgical calendar scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2024, to Thursday, February 15, 2024.
Particularly in the churches of the mission stations in more remote areas, the rites can also be carried out on the first Sunday of Lent, February 19. The main reason for this decision is political: the presidential elections will take place on February 14th, which will attract the attention of all Indonesian citizens and could overshadow the important spiritual moment that the Church has planned for the beginning of Lent. In a pastoral letter read to the community, Bishop Hormat reminded the faithful that “the celebration of Ash Wednesday will take place on Thursday, February 15, from morning to evening.
Christians in Asia face increasing persecution: report
One in every seven Christians in the world faces high levels of persecution for their faith and two out of every five Christians in Asia are persecuted, says a report from US-based Christian rights group, Open Doors.
The attacks on Christians are becoming “dangerously violent” with churches, and Ch-ristian institutions targeted while Christians face digital surveillance and tens of thousands are displaced across the globe, says Open Doors’ World Watch List released on Jan. 17.
The report lists the top 50 nations where Christians face severe forms of persecution. It listed North Korea as the “most dangerous place in the world for Christians.”
“Being discovered as a follower of Jesus is effectively a death sentence” in North Korea, Open Doors said.
North Korea strengthened its border with China making it hard for Christians to flee the nation and for external support to reach them.
The North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un has put maximum pressure “in all spheres of life for Christians,” the report said.
The report pointed out that 4,998 Christians were murdered, 14,766 churches and Christian properties were attacked, and 295,120 Chri-stians were displaced in 2023 across the countries that it analyzed.
The report said Yemen (rank 4), Pakistan (7), Iran (9), Afghanistan (10), India (11), Syria (12), Saudi Arabia (13) and China (19) are among the top Asian countries for Christian persecution.
The report particularly highlighted the plight of Christians in India’s Manipur state that saw ethnic violence and extensive deaths over giving scheduled tribe status to the local Meitei ethnic community.
Violence erupted on May 3, 2023, after the All-Tribal Students Union of Manipur was publicly protesting the decision by the Manipur High Court to consider giving scheduled tribe status to the Hindu-majority Meitei commu-nity. Around 70,000 ethnic Kuki Christians and Meitei Christians have been forcibly displaced, are living in terrible conditions, and are afraid to return home, the report said.
How the Vatican secured the release of jailed Nicaraguan bishop
It’s being called a successful negotiation between the Holy See and the regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The government in the Central American nation this past January 14 announced that it had released Bishop Rolando Alvarez from prison and exiled him to Rome. It also freed another bishop, 15 priests, and two seminarians and sent them to the Italian capital, as well.
Bishop Alvarez, a prominent figure in the Nicaraguan Church and one of last voices opposition to the Ortega dictatorship that was still in the country, had been under house arrest since August 2022. After refusing to board a plane bound for the United States with 222 political prisoners he was sentenced to twenty-six years in prison in February 2023. The following July, the defiant bishop again declined the possibility of negotiated exile with the Vatican, and in October, he was not among the twelve priests expelled to Rome after an “agreement” between the Holy See and Mana-gua. But on January 14, nearly a year after his sentencing.
‘Slum priests’ slam new libertarian government in Pope’s native Argentina
A group of 60 “slum priests” in Pope Francis’s native country released a January 19 statement denouncing what they described as deteriorating living conditions for millions of impoverished Argentines, driven by rising food prices and decreasing earnings.
Though he’s only been in office for a little over a month, new Argentine President Javier Milei nervetheless came in for criticism by the “slum priests,” who asse-rted that his minimalist concept-ion of the role of the government in society is contributing to the crisis.
“We declare in the letter that the current situation hasn’t begun with this administration. Drugs, poverty, hunger, and unemploy-ment are not something new in the poor neighborhoods,” Father Pablo Viola, who works in a poor parish of Córdoba, told.
“What’s new is that we believe that such issues can become even more complicated if the current administration really reduces the presence of the state in the slums,” Viola said.
Viola said the new admini-stration’s libertarian ideology prevents it from seeing “the complexity of the interests of different social segments and the hardships faced by the middle-class and the poor.”
He also claimed that Milei’s program is at odds with Catholic teaching, not to mention Pope Francis’s own vision.