The Supreme Court of India has given temporary relief to priests and nuns who were asked to pay income tax for the salary they earn by working in government-funded educational institutions.

The top court on May 9 asked authorities to maintain the status quo of not collecting such taxes and agreed to hear an appeal against an order of the Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu State.

The Supreme Court was hearing a challenge filed by the Institute of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary to a March 20 order of the state court that said missionaries, Catholic priests and nuns should not be exempted from paying tax on government-assisted salaries. The top court posted the case for a final hearing on Aug.7.

“We are happy that we got temporary relief,” said Father L. Sahayaraj, deputy secretary of the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council. He said the Church in the state was determined to fight the case.

He told ucanews.com that Catholic priests and religious serving in government-aided educational institutions did not have any income because their salary is contributed to their convents or houses “so they cannot be asked pay income tax.”

The state court ordered an end to this exemption on the basis that they received their salaries in their individual capacity and that surrendering salaries could only be treated as “application” of their income.

Their choice of application did not merit tax exemption, the court order stated.

The case dates back to 2015 when Tamil Nadu’s income tax department instructed state-funded educational institutions to deduct tax from the salaries of priests, religious brothers and nuns, ending a long-standing convention exempting them.

A church in Tamil Nadu was destroyed in a suspicious arson attack, Matters India learnt on May 11. According to Shibu Thomas, founder of Persecution Relief, the incident occurred on April 24 at Thittacherry, Nagapattinam.

Member of the “Jesus with us” had gathered in the church for a fasting prayer meeting.

The meeting ended late in the evening and after everybody had left, pastor Sachin Paneerselvam, locked the sanctuary and left for his home, 12 km away.

A few hours after reaching, Paneerselvam and his family were getting ready for bed when he got a call from the local Naneelan station at 11 pm that the church building was on fire.

Thomas, who heads Persecution Relief, an ecumenical church group, said Paneerselvam wanted to rush to the church, to help put out the fire and salvage the contents. However, the police were adamant that he should not come to the spot as fire-fighters were battling the blaze. Police said that they would investigate the cause of the fire to ascertain.

Hundreds of Christians and Hindus attended a thanksgiving Mass for two sisters who became full-fledged Catholic nuns after suffering religious persecution as teenagers in Odisha’s Kandhamal district.

While Manjuta Pradhan professed final vows as a member of the Franciscan Sisters of St Joseph on April 27, her elder sister pronounced her vows in the Daughters of Charity two years ago.

However their village decided to honour both the sisters with a thanksgiving Mass on May 4 at Our Lady of Charity Church, Raikia, a major parish under the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese.

More than 2,500 people, including some Hindus who had persecuted the two nuns’ family, attended the Mass.

The two nuns hail from Badingnaju (village built on rock), a substation of Raikia.

Assistant parish priest Father T. Francis Kanhar who led the Mass said, the two nuns lived up to the name of their village by remaining like or rock in their faith. “During the 2008 communal violence, they underwent pain, agony, persecution as their Hindu neighbours chased them from their native place. But they remained very strong in their faith in Christ and that has brought them to this state. They have now become an inspiration to many Hindu neighbours. Nothing is impossible in the eyes of God,” the priest told the gathering.

The sisters agreed with their parish priest.

A choir comprising of different Naga tribes and Churches would represent India at the Asia Baptist Youth Conference in the Philippines. The Cantamus choir would represent Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) at the May 21 -24 conference in Baguio city of the Philippines.

In this connection, Cantamus choir would organize a concert to raise funds in collaboration with NBCC and music task force on May 12, at Jotsoma. The choir had performed on the occasion of the 55th Nagaland statehood day along with 400 children. It also represented NBCC at the All Mizoram Baptist Church Youth Triennial Convention attended by more than 900 youths recently.