The Archbishop of West-minster and four British imams will meet with Pope Francis in a long planned trip that the Cardinal says will help build interfaith relations following the Westminster terrorist attack which left five dead and around 50 injured. They are due to have a papal audience on 5 April, exactly two weeks after Islamic extremist Khalid Masood, drove a car into pedestrians crossing Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing a police officer outside the Houses of Parliament.
Grave Concerns Over ‘Integrity and Mission of the Indian Church’ Following Kerala Abuse Scandal Cover-Up
Members of the Indian Women Theologians Forum (IWTF), the Conference of Religious India (CRI) Women’s Section, and “other individuals who are deeply concerned about the integrity and mission of the Indian Church” have written to Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India in the context of a recent scandal involving a parish priest in Kerala who sexually abused a girl, leading to her pregnancy. The case is being brought to court.
“The episode highlights an issue that is unique to the ecclesial context, one which women have been struggling to bring to the attention of the bishops for the past four years, namely, that the violation of the fiduciary trust inherent in the priest-parishioner relationship has an additional dimension of damage, because we are taught to believe that the priest is ‘another Christ’,” the letter says.
Christha Purana’ and ‘Goenchem Savasarikikan’ released
Educationist and writer Suresh Amonkar’s two Konkani books—‘Christha Purana’ and ‘Goenchem Savasarikikan’ were released recently by art and culture secretary, Daulat Hawaldar.
The dignitaries present included Goa University vice-chancellor Varun Sahni, Fr Francis de Britto of Shirlai (Vasai) Church, writer and environ-mentalist, director of Art and Culture Department Prasad Lolayekar and Kiran Budkule, former HoD of English department, Goa University at Insti-tute Menezes Braganza, Panaji. The book ‘Christha Purana’ was originally written by Fr Thomas Stephen S J around 400 years ago in Romi Marathi and it has now been translated in Devnagri Konkani by Amonkar.
HC orders FIR in activist Catholic priest’s death case
The Bombay High Court bench in Panaji on April 11 directed the Crime Branch of Goa Police to file an FIR in connection with the mysterious death of a former Roman Catholic priest Bismarque Dias.
The Crime Branch has also been asked to submit a status report of the investigation every three months to the court. Dias, who was protesting against rampant and reportedly illegal real estate development near his village of St Estevam, 15 km from Panaji, was found dead in a water body near the Mandovi river in November 2015.
Eye donation stressed at Delhi’s traditional Way of Cross
Archbishop Anil J Couto of Delhi on April 9 led more than 1,200 people in a traditional Way of the Cross that links the old and new sections of the national capital. The ritual commemorates Jesus carrying the cross from the Palace of Pilot to Calvary where He was crucified on Good Friday.
The archdiocese started the Way of the Cross on Palm Sunday in the Year of Faith that the Universal Church observed from October 11, 2012 to November 23, 2013.
“Since then, we have continued it with tremendous impact on the bystanders,” Father Stanley Kozhichira, editor of The Voice of Delhi, the archdiocesan monthly magazine, told Matters India.
This year the Way of the Cross on Palm Sunday began at 3 pm from St Mary’s Church in Old Delhi and ended at Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi, a distance of 9 kilometers. It passed through crowded streets of Chandni Chauwk and Khari Baoli in Old Delhi and Civic Centre, Connaught Place and Gole Dakhkhana, the iconic circular post office, in New Delhi.
Archbishop Moras to flag-off inter-denomination ‘Salvation Run’
The Salvation Run, an all Bengaluru inter-church sporting initiative conceptualized for Christian believers, will be held on April 8 when participants will run five kilometres and walk three. The event will be flagged-off at 6 am by Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bengaluru, along with leaders from the community and well known Sports celebrities at the St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Frazer town.
Over 1000 participants for the event including religious heads from all denominations and churches have already registered. The event has been conceptualized with a motive to get together Christian believers from all denominations and empower their lives through the sport of running, disciplining oneself with a healthy lifestyle and a purposeful living.
Sport occupies a legitimate place in the created world and thus helps in expressing emotions, integrity, character and values by taking ownership to understand and respect one another and help in developing the welfare and eco system of the society emphasizing on health and wellness, promoting a sporting culture bringing hope among children, youth and the community at large.
Rector’s murder: SC notice to Karnataka police
The Supreme Court on Mar 31 issued notice to the Karnataka police and others on a plea by Bengaluru’s St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary against Karnataka High Court’s order quashing a criminal case against five accused in the sensational murder of Fr K.J. Thomas in 2013. Fr Thomas was the rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Institute in Malleswaram. A bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao also sought response from the accused, who were Kannada Christian activists, and named in the supplementary charge sheet filed more than two years after the incident. It was alleged that the father was killed on April 1, 2013 following a rivalry between him and Kannada Christian activists, who wanted primacy for Kannada Christians in the Catholic Churches in Karnataka.
Religions join forces to end slavery in Indonesia
Indonesian Catholic, Muslim, and Protestant groups have pledged unity to fight against slavery and human trafficking in Indonesia’s maritime and fishing sector.
They signed a joint declaration recently to end slavery at the vice president’s office. The joint commitment is “our effort to show that we want to work together with the government to end the problem,” said Father Paulus Christian Siswantoko, executive secretary of the Indonesian bishops’ Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant People.
Islamic State damaged 12,000 Christian homes in Iraq’s Nineveh region
The Islamic State damaged more than 12,000 Christian homes in the Nineveh Plain region, and completely destroyed nearly 700 of them, Aid to the Church in Need reports. In a survey of Iraqis who fled from the Nineveh region during the Islamic State’s offensive in the summer of 2014, Aid to the Church in Need found that 40% planned to return to their homes now that their region has been liberated, and another 46% were considering that option. That result shows a jump in confidence; last November, when the fate of the Nineveh region was still uncertain, only 3% said that they planned to return.
Malta archbishop open to contraceptive use by married couples?
Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta seemed to indicate a willingness to accept the use of contraception, in comments on a proposal to introduce the “morning-after pill” in Malta.
“What we are saying is that if you have to use a contraceptive, make sure it is not one that kills life,” the archbishop said in a television interview. Archbishop Scicluna went on to propose that anyone who was prescribed the “morning-after pill” should be fully informed of its effect. Still he declined to condemn the pill. “But it is not my role to identify which brand of pill is good and which isn’t, because the role of the archbishop is not to replace science,” he said. Speaking more generally about contraception, the archbishop said: “One must remember that the Church always placed the argument in the context of marriage, and it holds on to the tenet of sex belonging within the marriage.”