Women in a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh marked the International Women’s Day by praying for the release of jailed Missionaries of Charity nun in Jharkhand State. “We know that Sister Concelia (Baxla) is inno-cent. She is in jail for false case by people with vested interests to show the Church in poor light,” said Likro Mossang, president of the Catholic Women of East Arunachal Pradesh. “We join with her and scores of other women who languish in jail because of false cases. This is our best way to celebrate our women’s day this year,” she told the gathering at Neotan village in Changlang district of the northeastern Indian state.
Bishop hospitalized after attack by parishioners
A Catholic bishop was reportedly hospitalized in Tamil Nadu, southern India, after a group of Catholics attacked him over a land dispute. Police in Marthandam in Kannyakumari district have registered a case against 58 people for attacking Bishop Jerome Dhas Varuvel of Kuzhithurai and a security guard, Tamil newspaper the Daily Thanti reported on March 11. The attack took place the previous day at the bishop’s residence in Unnamalaikadai near Marthandam some 45 km southeast of Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala State capital, which is the nearest major city.
Indian Catholics want Pope Francis to go beyond comments about abuse
Weeks after Pope Francis’ open admission of the issue of clergy abuse of nuns, reaction to his remarks remains muted among Catholics in India, where a progressive group of religious had raised the problem three years ago.
They urge the Pope not to stop with identifying the problem but to act firmly against abusers, especially in India, where a bishop has been accused of rape by a former superior general of a diocesan congregation.
“Pope Francis gives some hope, but nothing is percolating down,” lamented Holy Spirit Sr Julie George, one of the 75 signatories of a “letter of concern” the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace sent to all bishops and major superiors in India in February 2016.
The letter brought to light for the first time in India the prevalence of sexual violence against religious women by priests. It bemoaned that the problem went unaddressed, allowing its perpetrators to go unpunished. “This cannot be tolerated anymore,” asserted the forum, which said it was forced to write the letter as its analysis of current challenges to religious life revealed issues that needed urgent attention by church leaders.
However, the letter seems to have had little impact in the past three years. The forum and other groups such as Save Our Sisters Action Council allege that Indian church leaders have ignored the nun’s complaints against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar.
George, a lawyer, accuses the Indian bishops of ignoring the Pope’s call to show compassion to the victims of clergy abuse. “Instead, they side with the accused and even try to silence every voice of dissent against them,” she told Global Sisters Report.
The church leaders threaten those supporting the alleged rape victim with defamation suits and other tactics, George alleged, referring to a move by the Syro-Malabar Church mid-February to sue the officials of the Save Our Sisters Action Council who had organized a sit-in last September demanding Mulakkal’s arrest. Mulakkal has denied the accusations.
Fr Paul Thelakat, editor of Sathyadeepam (Light of Truth), a church weekly, agrees with the Pope that the recent scandals are God’s plan to cleanse the church.
“I am not afraid of this vulnerability bringing shame to our honour and respect. Look at the Bible. It tells stories of sin and salvation. Every scandal is converted to instance of God’s grace,” Thelakat told.
Parties urged to include Dalit reservation in manifesto
A national rally in New Delhi on March 12 urged political parties to include in their election manifestos the reservation for Dalit Christians and Muslims.
“We have to see that our rights are rightly accepted. We should not lose our fight,” said Archbishop George Antony-samy of Madras Mylapore while address-ing the rally.
The National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC) organized the rally with support from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and the National Council of Churches in India.
The rally started at 10 am from Janpath ended at Jantar Mantar, both close to the Indian parliament building.
Besides Archbishop Antonysamy, three bishops from Tamil Nadu joined the rally. Monsignor Susai Sebastian, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Delhi, and Danam, a retired civil service officer and NCDC president led the rally. Dhanam said the main purpose of the rally was to demand from the government Scheduled Caste status for Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin. These groups are as socially, economically, and politically weak as their counterparts in Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim religions. Yet they are discriminated on the basis of religion, Dhanam regretted..
The rally demanded deletion of paragraph 3 of the Constitution Scheduled Caste Order 1950 that made reservation on the basis of religion.
Dalit Christians and Muslims have appealed to national and regional political parties to include in their election manifesto a promise to grant the Scheduled Caste Status to them.
Idukki bishop asks priests stay away from the electioneering
Bishop John Nellikunnel of Idukki has written to his priests explicitly telling them not to take any position favouring any political party or ideology. The Bishop’s March 9 circular to priests assumes importance as Kerala’s more than 18% Christian population has significant sway in certain key pockets of central Kerala.
The state is scheduled to go to poll on April 23. The Idukki bishop has cautioned his priests from engaging in election meetings and taking sides in political debates lest their actions harm the community. “We are called to be shepherds with the smell of the sheep. As spiritual leaders of our people, we should not take any position favouring any sides. Our people do not want us to be actively involved in electoral politics in the present context. Our people are intelligent enough to decide in elections,” Bishop Nellikunnel wrote.
He also reminded the priest their duty before God to become symbols of charity and unity.
“Therefore I appeal to all of you to abstain from election-related propagandas, statements and meetings. By our words and activities, we should not give any scandals to the faithful and to the public.”
Tamil Nadu bishops seek poll date change
The Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council has sought change in the poll date for the southern Indian state. The state’s 39 parliamentary and 18 assembly seats will go to poll on April 18, which coincides with Maundy Thursday, an important observance for Christians across denominations.
On March 11, Abp. Antony Pappusamy of Madurai and president of the council, requested the Election Commission of India (ECI) to change the polling date. The letter stated that polling date on Maundy Thursday would not be conducive for the Christians as it was in the middle of the Holy Week observance (April 14 to 21).
The archbishop said that Christians working as government school teachers and officials engaged in election duty will not be able to attend Mass on Maunday Thursday when Christians observe the commemoration of the final meal – Last Supper – that He had with His disciples a day before His crucifixion and death on the cross. The council cited another concern that many schools run by dioceses are located inside the campus of churches and many across the state are polling stations.
Toxic bootleg liquor destroys lives in India’s northeast
When Sunil Kiro enjoyed some moonshine to unwind after a hard day’s work at a tea estate in India’s northeastern Assam State, he had no idea he would never be able to see again.
He was among an estimated 500 victims of a tragedy that swept the region on Feb. 20 when 160 people died and others were left per-manently blind, or with other serious health issues such as damaged kidneys or livers, as a result of locally brewed alcohol that proved toxic to their systems.
“Now I am surrounded by darkness. I have to identify people from their voice,” said the 38-year-old, who lives in Jorhat district under Dibrugarh Diocese. The deaths in Assam occurred few days back after 100 people died from drinking illegal liquor made with house-hold disinfectants and anti-freeze in two other Indian states.
There are about six million people working the tea gardens of Assam, making up 17% of the state’s 31 million population, according to Catholic leaders in the region.
French missionaries remembered on Tibetan National Uprising Day
Two French missionaries were remembered at the 60th Tibetan National Uprising Day commemoration in Miao town in Arunachal Pradesh.
“Tibet and Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh have an age-old connection,” said Likro Mossang, women president of Miao Diocese in east Arunachal Pradesh.
“French missionaries Nicolas Krick and Augustine Bourry were killed on their way to Tibet in 1854. They sowed the first seeds of Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh 165 years ago before they were killed on August 2 the same year at the Tibet-Arunachal border region by a Mishmi Tribe chieftain.”
Tibetans all over the world gather together every year on March 10 to pay homage to the thousands of heroes who laid their lives, resisting brutal suppression of the Chinese Communist occupation forces in 1959.
“Although Fathers Krick and Bourry could not enter Tibet, my presence with you as a guest on the 60th Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day is like fulfilling their dream,” Mossang said addressing some 500 Tibetan women from the Miao Tibetan Settlement. With 500 families of more than 3,000 people Miao has the largest Tibetan settlement in north-eastern India.
Remember our faults when correcting others: Pope
To be effective teachers of the faith, Catholics must be cognizant of their own sins and shortcomings when giving correction and guide to others, Pope Francis said on March 3.
“So many times, we all know, it is easier or more convenient to discern and condemn the defects and sins of others, without being able to see our own with just as much clarity,” the Pope said before the Angelus on 3rd March. People want to hide their own defects and even themselves, he said. “The temptation is to be indulgent with one’s self … and hard with others.”
This teaching is illustrated in Scripture, Francis said, when Jesus says: “how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?’”
He explained that it is good to give counsel to a neighbour, but to do so while imagining one’s self to be faultless is wrong.
“If I believe I do not have [defects], I cannot condemn or correct others,” the Pope said. “We all have flaws: everyone.” To correct others with credibility, and “with humility, witnessing to charity,” requires looking inside one’s self and acknowledging personal sin and failure.
The line about the splinter and the beam, and others from the day’s Gospel, are short parables Jesus tells in order to teach His followers “not to be presumptuous and hypocritical,” Pope Francis said.
Further illustrating the point, Jesus asks His disciples: “Can a blind person guide a blind person?”
The Pope explained that “Jesus wants to point out to His disciples the way to go in order to live wisely. He wants to underline that a guide cannot be blind, but must see well, that is, he must possess wisdom, to guide wisely, otherwise he risks causing damage to people who rely on him.”
This is especially true, He continued, for those who have educational and leadership responsibilities, like priests, politicians, teachers, and parents. These people need the gift of wisdom in order to be good guides and to discern “the right path on which to lead people,” he said.
Anti-Catholic climate worsens in France
French monitoring groups have cited an increase in attacks on churches and religious sites, with a record 47 documented in February, despite appeals for better protection from the country’s Catholic bishops.
The groups’ report said 15 vandalism attacks had been registered nationwide during the month, along with 15 robberies, 10 acts of profanation and one torching incident. It added that the worst had occurred at the gothic cathedral of Saint-Denis, near Paris, the historic burial place of French monarchs, which assailants had entered by smashing a historic stained-glass window, before wrecking the organ and choir-stalls.
The report follows growing concern over anti-clerical incidents in France, where Catholics nominally make up around 54% of the population of 67 million, according to surveys, but with only a small proportion attending Mass.
In February, Archbishop Roland Minnerath of Dijon held a Mass of reparation at his city’s Notre Dame Church, two days after its tabernacle was forced open and consecrated hosts scattered.