Fr John Purakkattuputhenpura was among several young professionals who are being ordained Catholic priests this year as the Church in India struggles with clergy abuse and other scandals.
These young men have ignored negative reports about priesthood to leave their lucrative and promising careers. All that mattered to them was their inner call, says Father John, who joined the seminary while working as a software engineer (iOS developer).
He was among the 12 deacons who are being ordained priests this year for the diocese of Palai.
Bishop Joseph Kallarangattu of Palai ordained John January 14 in his native parish St Thomas Church, Cheenkallel under the Syro-Malabar diocese.
Sr Lissy Maruthanakuzhy, a special correspondent of Matters India, spoke to Father John. “My course was Electronics and Instrumentation which had a lot of job opportunities in India and overseas. Many of my colleagues are now working abroad. Unexpectedly during campus selection, I was the only one selected. Again it was May 16. God kept his promise. I believed God was giving me the opportunity to reflect and prepare myself for my future.” “ As long as a human being is in need of God, Catholic priesthood is relevant. Jesus said, “Do this in memory of me.” Only a priest can do it. A priest is the heart, and mind of Jesus in the world. People love priests. What they hate are the actions that do not go along with the priesthood.”
Man lynched by villagers over blasphemy allegation, say Pakistani police
A mob lynched a man because he had allegedly burnt pages of Muslim holy book the Quran in central Pakistan, and dozens of people have been arrested, police and officials said on February 13.
Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered action against the mob and any police who acted an onlookers to the killing.
“The lynching will be dealt with full severity of the law. We have zero tolerance for anyone taking the law into their own hands,” he said in a statement.
A government spokesman said more than 60 people suspected of involvement in the lynching have been arrested, adding that more suspects were being identified through social media videos shot by the villagers in Tulamba, Khanewal district.
The mob gathered at a mosque on Saturday night after the son of its prayer leader announced that he had spotted the man burning pages of the holy book, police official Munawar Hussain told Reuters.
People stand beside the body of a man who, according to police, was lynched by a mob, in Tulamba Village, central Pakistan, on February 13, 2022.
Police arrived to find the man unconscious and tied to a tree, Hussain said, adding that the mob also attacked the police.
“The villagers armed with batons, axes and iron rods killed him and hanged his body from a tree,” Hussain said.
He said that evidence so far gathered by police suggested the dead man, identified as Muhammad Mushtaq, was in his 50s and appeared to have had mental disabilities.
China rewrites Bible with Communist principles: Christian watchdog
A US watchdog has said the Chinese government is currently rewriting the Bible to align it with Communist principles and values. Speaking to Faith Wire, spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Todd Nettleton said the new translation would “really support the Communist Party.”
“This is a project that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced in 2019. At the time, they said it would be about a 10-year process … to release a new translation of the Bible.
“He explained that the Chinese government’s goal is for people to understand their ultimate goal is to be a “good communist.”
In a recent Facebook post, VOM shared an example of several verses in John 8 changed according to the Chinese government. As the biblical story goes, Jesus forgives an adulterous woman despite the Pharisees’ calls to stone her to death. However, in the CCP’s translation, Jesus ends up stoning the woman, admitting he is also a sinner.
John 8:7-11, according to the CCP reads: “Jesus once said to the angry crowd who was trying to stone a woman, who had sinned, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her.’ When his words came to their ears, they stopped moving forward. When everyone went out, Jesus stoned the woman himself, and said, ‘I am also a sinner.’”
Two Catholic priests arrested by Myanmar junta
Myanmar’s military regime has arrested two Catholic priests who were on their way to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Shan state.
Father John Paul Lwel and Father John Bosco, who belong to the St. Therese Little Way Missionary Institute, were arrested by junta soldiers and the Pa-O National Army, an ethnic armed group, at a checkpoint on February 21, said local church sources. Senior clergy from Pekhon Diocese confirmed that the two religious priests have been arrested but said the reason for their arrest was not yet known.
Church officials are trying to contact authorities for the release of the clergy. Two car drivers and a young student were also arrested with the priests.
The arrest of the clergy came even as fighting between the military and people’s defense forces (PDFs) intensified in Mobye township in Pekhon Diocese, where junta forces have deployed airstrikes, armored vehicles and heavy weapons. Thousands of people including Christians have been displaced due to the ongoing fighting.
Pekhon Diocese covers southern Shan state and is one of the worst-affected areas along with Loikaw Diocese in Kayah state due to the escalating conflict between the military and the combined rebel forces of the Karenni Army and newly emerged PDFs since May 2021.
Filipino Catholics believe in ‘live-in’ before marriage: Survey
Filipino Catholics see nothing wrong with couples living together without receiving the sacrament of marriage, showed the result of an online survey done by Church-run Radio Veritas 846.
“This nationwide survey reveals that 40 percent would agree that couples should get married first before living together,” results of the Veritas Truth Survey (VTS) noted.
“On the other hand, 45 per-cent believe that being married is not necessary before living together,” it added.
The remaining 15 percent were undecided over the question “Should couples get married first before living together; and not engage in a common-law partner-ship arrangement?”
Result of the survey also showed that among elderly respondents with ages 61 and older, 61 percent said couples should get married before living together; 33 percent said that being married is not necessary before living together; and six percent were undecided.
For adult (40-60 years old) respondents, 48 percent said couples should be married first before living together; 29 percent said that being married is not necessary before living together, and 23 percent were undecided.
As for young adult (21-39 years old) respondents, 21 per-cent said couples should be married first before living together; 58 percent said that being married is not necessary before living together, and 21 percent were undecided.
Finally, for teen (13-20 years old) respondents, 34 percent said that couples should be married first before living together; 51 percent said that being married is not necessary before living together, and 15 percent were undecided.
Vatican envoy lauds Vietnamese volunteers’ care for Covid patients
The pontifical representative to Vietnam has complimented religious volunteers in a northern diocese on their joining frontline forces in taking care of Covid-19 patients. On Feb. 20, Singapore-based Archbishop Marek Zalewski, the non-resident representative of the Holy See to Vietnam, and Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang of Ho Chi Minh City met 400 priests and religious who voluntarily served at field hospitals for Covid-19 patients in the city.
New Zealand passes law banning conversion therapy
New Zealand’s parlia-ment on February 15 near- unanimously passed a legislation that bans practices intended to forcibly change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, known as conversion therapy.
The bill, which was introduced by the government last year, passed with 112 votes in favour and eight votes opposed.
“This is a great day for New Zealand’s rainbow communities,” Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi said.
“Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand.” The government has said practices such as conversion therapy do not work, are widely discredited and cause harm.
The legislation also lays out what is not con-version practice and protects the right to express opinion, belief, religious belief or principle which is not intended to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The government said it had received nearly 107,000 public submissions on the bill, the highest number of public submissions ever received on any legislation. Under the legislation, it will be an offense to perform conversion practices on a child or young person aged under 18, or on someone with impaired decision-making capacity. Such offenses would be subject to up to three years imprisonment.
Bishops, mayors say Europe can’t ignore Mediterranean region
Due to acute knee pain, Pope Francis will be skipping this Sunday’s foray into the Italian city of Florence, where he was scheduled to close a summit that brought together bishops and mayors of the Mediterranean to discuss migration.
The announcement, made by the Vatican’s press office, came minutes before a previously scheduled press conference in Florence with a handful of those taking part in the February 23-27 symposium titled “Mediterranean, border of peace.”
“I could hear a two-folded pain from him: For his knee, but also for having to miss this encounter,” said Cardinal Gualiero Basetti, president of the Italian bishops’ conference that is organizing the summit.
Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, archbishop of Florence, urged those who have tickets to still take part in the celebration: “This will be a sign of our affection for the Holy Father. It was with him that we wanted to pray and we will pray with him, albeit with a contact of the heart and not with the gaze that sees him physically close to us. But he is no less close to us, with his person and his concern for the Mediterranean, especially in this moment of great crisis.”
Spanish Cardinal Cristobal Lopez, Archbishop of Rabat, Morocco, said that people often find it easy “to speak about our rights, yet it is difficult for us to speak about our duties. We speak about having a right to an education, but we do not fulfil the duty to provide that education.”
The church he leads is incredibly small: There are estimated 50,000 Catholics in Morocco; most of whom are foreigners coming from Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. “We are a church made of foreigners, but we do not want to be a foreign church.” Having said this, he identified five duties that arose so far during the summit and are applicable both in the community he leads and in the rest of the region.
Putin’s spiritual destiny, Religious war?
Threatened by an uprising of his treacherous generals, the Christian Emperor Basil II, based in the glorious city of Byzantium, reached out to his enemies, the pagans over in the land of the Rus. Basil II was a clever deal maker. If Vladimir of the Rus would help him put down the revolt, he would give him the hand of his sister in marriage. This was a status changer for Vladimir: the marriage of a pagan to an imperial princess was unprecedented. But first Vladimir would have to convert to Christianity.
Returning to Kyev in triumph, Vladimir proceeded to summon the whole city to the banks of the river Dnieper for a mass baptism. The year is 988. This is the founding, iconic act of Russian Orthodox Christianity. It was from here that Christianity would spread out and merge with the Russian love of the mother-land, to create a powerful brew of nationalism and spirituality. In the mythology of 988, it was as if the whole of the Russian people had been baptised. Vladimir was declared a saint. When the Byzantine empire fell, the Russians saw themselves as its natural successor. They were a “third Rome”.
At the heart of this post-Soviet revival of Christianity is another Vladimir. Vladimir Putin. Many people don’t appreciate the extent to which the invasion of Ukraine is a spiritual quest for him. The Baptism of Rus is the founding event of the formation of the Russian religious psyche, the Russian Orthodox church traces its origins back here. That’s why Putin is not so much interested in a few Russian-leaning districts to the east of Ukraine. His goal, terrifyingly, is Kyev itself.
Pope calls for day of prayer, fasting for peace in Ukraine
As the threat of war loomed over the world, Pope Francis called on people to pray and fast for peace in Ukraine on Ash Wednesday.
Before concluding his general audience on Feb. 23, the pope called on believers and non-believers to combat the “diabolical insistence, the diabolical senselessness of violence” with prayer and fasting.
“I invite everyone to make March 2, Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting for peace,” he said. “I encourage believers in a special way to devote themselves intensely to prayer and fasting on that day. May the Queen of Peace protect the world from the folly of war.”
In his appeal, the pope said he, like many around the world, felt “anguish and concern” after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The pope said that due to the “alarming” developments in the region, “once again, the peace of all is threatened by partisan interests.”