The Conference of Religious Women, India (CRWI), has released its strategic plan for 2024-2029 with a stress on networking and partnerships. Sister Jane Wakahiu, head of Catholic Sisters Initiative under Hilton Foundation, released the document at Bengaluru on March 19 in the presence of Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini, head of India’s more than 130,000 women and men religious. Releasing the document, Sister Wakahiu, a member of the institute of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis, Kenya, referred to it as “roadmap to Christian ministries by the women religious in India, characterized by inter congregational collaborations. “This plan is a testament to our commitment to human dignity, social justice and environmental stewardship”, said Sister Nirmalini, adding the strategic plan would harness partnerships, dialogue and innovation to manifest the goals. “Through this plan, we will leverage inter-congregational collaborations, research, and outreach to empower the marginalized, and drive systemic change,” she added.
She said the plan’s priorities include the empowerment and well-being of the Catholic nuns by setting up a grievance cell, supporting their holistic development through training and counselling, addressing current challenges like old age care, and decreasing vocations. The plan aims to unify women’s congregations across India, continue their ministries of teaching, healing and missionary journey in a collaborative spirit, and affirm women’s rightful place in the Church by promoting equality, participation and gender justice.
The plan also underlines the need to promote inter religious harmony and inter cultural collaboration, and promoting a livable ecosystem. In the next five years, CRWI will strengthen nuns’ skills, knowledge, and leadership abilities to enhance ministries, and support the health and mental well-being of religious sisters, and deepen the national network of sisters. Equipping and empowering women religious, fostering leadership through dialogue with major superiors, and implementing innovative programs for holistic development of sisters and their congregation also will be considered as top priorities in the coming five years.
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Indian Bishop Calls Out Fake News About ‘Reconversions’
A Catholic bishop has refuted a media report about indigenous Christians in his northeast Indian diocese reverting to their indigen-ous faith. “It appears to be a ploy to sensationalize religious con-version and target Christians,” said Bishop Paul Mattekatt of Diphu diocese in Assam state.
The news of about 150 men and women participating in “rituals symbolizing their reversion to Barithe Dharma, their original religious practice,” appeared in the Organizer on March 20.
The weekly mouthpiece of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent outfit of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the rituals were held on March 18 in Diphu, the headquarters of Karbi Anglong district.
The event was hailed as a “new chapter in the ongoing ghar wapsi [homecoming] movement in the state” of Assam. Ghar wapsi is the name given to a nationwide campaign run by the RSS through its affiliate organizations to convert tribal Christians to Hinduism or indigenous faith.
However, Bishop Mattekatt said he had personally verified the authenticity of the report and found no conversion or reconversion of indigenous Christians in his diocese.
“This kind of false news is to create confusion and mistrust among ordinary people who do not understand the reality of such claims,” the prelate said. He said it is wrong to presume that tribal Christians are shallow when it comes to their faith practices. “It is true our people are poor. That doesn’t mean that their faith is shallow and they easily give it up,” the prelate said.
“Until recently they made claims of reconversion of Christians to Hinduism, but now they say return to ‘ancestral roots’ when it comes to indigenous people,” he pointed out.
The RSS and its affiliate organizations claim the indigenous faith systems as part of Hinduism.
Brooks said the Hindu groups will continue to target Christians and their institutions in one way or another.
“The malicious campaigns will continue because the government in power is not taking action against the perpetrators” he added.
Kochi Cultural Society Honours Long Serving Catholic Priest Editor
The cultural and literary society in Kochi, Kerala, came together on March 13 to bid farewell to Father Paul Thelakat who stepped down as the longest serving editor of the leading Catholic weekly in the southern Indian state. Father Thelakat “has achieved immortality through words, writing and philosophical thinking. He is an honest writer who contemplates life’s reality,” said M. K. Sanu, a literary figure in Kerala who has maintained long years of association with the priest, while inaugurated the meeting. The 97-year-old writer, popularly known as Sanumaster, described Father Thelakat as a humble priest who always felt disturbed while contemplating the events in society and the Church. He also said Father Thelakat has contributed immensely to the culture and literature of Kerala, besides theology during his 37 years of service as the editor of “Sathyadeepam” (Light of Truth) weekly published by the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
Sebastian Paul, a former Member of Parliament and a veteran journalist who chaired the meeting, said Father Thelakat’s absence will be felt keenly in the cultural evenings of Kochi. An autobiography of Father Thelakat titled “Kathavasesham” (The Story After) was released on the occasion. Noted poetess Vijayalakshmi released the book presenting a copy to Johny Lukose, a veteran journalist. The poet spoke with great emotion about the enlightenment she received through Father Thelakat, her spiritual guide. Lukose, who wrote the preface of the book, noted that Father Thelakat’s philosophical life created in minds the urge to seek truth and justice in a revolutionary way.
Archbishop Ivanios, Newman Of The East, Advances In Sainthood Process
Archbishop Geevaghese Mar Ivanios, the first head of the Syro-Malankara Church, advanced on the sainthood path on March 14, 2024 when Pope Francis elevated him as a Venerable.
Archbishop Ivanios, who is known as the Newman of the East, is currently a Servant of God, the first stage in the four-phase canonization process. A statement from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints says the Pope has accepted the heroic virtues of the archbishop, who founded the Order of the Imitation of Christ, also known as Bethany Ashram, for men, and the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ, (Bethany Madhom) for women. The archbishop died July 15, 1953, aged 70, in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala. Archbishop Ivanios was declared a Servant of God in 2007.
Archbishop Ivanios led a spiritual move-ment in the Syrian Orthodox Church that was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on September 20, 1930. He is thus considered the father of the Syro-Malankara Church, one of the 23 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome.
The Malankara Church sees a parallel between the “Reunion Movement” of the 1920s and the Oxford Movement of the 1830s led by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who is now a saint. Like Cardinal Newman, Archbishop Ivanios was part of a broader grouping that sought to discover the sources of unity in their own traditions, Anglican and Orthodox. When the time came, though, it was not a corporate unity that was possible but an individual conversion.
The 1920s saw a “Reunion Movement” in the Malankara Orthodox Church, and Mar Ivanios, who took that name upon being consecrated a bishop, was appointed to lead it. The movement towards corporate unity with Rome faltered, and Mar Ivanios found himself increasingly alone. In 1930, he and four others – a bishop, a priest, a deacon and a layman – entered into full communion with Rome.
Lahore: diocesan phase ends for the martyrdom of Akash Bashir
With a solemn Eucharistic celebration, the Archdiocese of Lahore closed the diocesan phase of the process for the recognition of the martyrdom of Akash Bashir. The young Pakistani man died at the age of 20 trying to protect worshippers outside Youhanabad’s St John Church during an Islamist attack nine years ago against the Catholic church and a nearby Protestant church, which resulted in a massacre with scores of dead and wounded.
Bashir is the first Pakistani Catholic to be accepted as a Servant of God towards the honour of the altars. His Christian life, marked by service to others in the youth group organised by the Salesians in Lahore, has been examined in the past two years by the diocesan tribunal for the causes of saints, which established in 38 sessions that his act of great courage on 15 March 2015 is the fruit of a life wholly spent bearing heroic witness to Christian virtues.
In his homily, Archbishop Shaw expressly thanked the parents of the Servant of God for the Christian education passed onto Akash. “We pray for this grace for all parents to raise peaceful youth strong in their faith,” the prelate said. “His humility, simple life and determination are a source of bravery and courage for us all. We know that it is difficult to lead a Christian life in our environment. Akash has set a powerful example for young people. He will remain alive in our lives and church,” he added.
Chinese Christians Detained For Links To ‘Illegal Organization’
Nine Chinese Christians be-longing to a Protestant house church have remained in police detention following their arrest ten days ago for allegedly carrying out activities in the name of “an illegal social organization.”
Christians from the Fuyang Maizhong Reformed Church in Fuyang city in northwestern China’s Anhui province were arrested on March 10 during a Sunday gathering, a report from China Aid said on March 21. Plainclothes police officers and officials from the local religious affairs bureau carried out the raid and detained total of 18 Christians, including two children. Eight of them were placed under 13-day administrative detention and the church’s Elder Chang Shun was slapped with a 15-day detention.
Fuyang Maizhong Reformed Church and its members have been targeted several times since 2018 for refusing to join the state-sanctioned Three-Self Church, which oversees Protestant chur-ches in China. Raids became fre-quent after the leader of the Chur-ch signed a “Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” by Pastor Wang Yi of the Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church in 2018. The document condemned the persecution of Christians in China and openly refused to obey the government’s order asking all Protestant Churches to join the Three-Self Church.
Officially atheist China’s con-stitution allows freedom of reli-gion or belief. It legally recogni-zes five organized religions – Bu-ddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholi-cism and Protestantism. All reli-gious groups are required to regi-ster with the government and shou-ld obtain prior permission for acti-vities as per the rules. The Chine-se Community Party is accused by rights groups as one of the world’s worst violators of religi-ous freedom due to the persecu-tion of both recognized and unre-cognized religious groups. China has intensified its crackdown on religious groups and activities since Xi Jinping became president in 2013.
Amnesty Call To Tackle Air Pollution In South Asia
Global rights group Amnesty International has called for cross-border cooperation to reduce the widening impact of air pollution in South Asia. “We reiterate our calls to the affected South Asian countries to urgently create and implement cross-border pollution action plan,” Amnesty International’s Climate Adviser Ann Harrison said in a press statement on March 20.
There has been “little conce-rted action by both the affected countries as well as the high-income fossil fuel producers that are planning to expand, not reduce production,” Harrison added. She pointed out that the issue of air pollution “is largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels.” Earlier, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India occupied the top three spots for having the worst air quality among 134 nations surveyed in the 2023 World Air Quality Report releas-ed by IQ Air.
Bangladesh occupied the top spot with an average PM2.5 con-centration of 79.9 ìg/m³ (micro-gram per cubic meter) roughly 32 times higher than the World Health Organization limit of 2.5 ìg/m³. Pakistan occupied the second spot with an average PM2.5 concentration of 73.7ìg/m³ followed by India at the third spot with 54.4ìg/m³. The IQ Air report assesses the PM2.5 concentration – fine particulate aerosol particles measuring up to 2.5 microns in diameter – which is the primary air quality indicator for the World Air Quality Report.
PM2.5 is one of six common pollutants monitored and regulat-ed by environmental agencies worldwide due to its significant impacts on human health and the environment. “The climate ‘red alert’ in addition to prolonged exposure to toxic air quality in many parts of the South Asian region illustrates the risk of harms to life and health of more than a billion people from accelerating climate chaos,” Harrison warned.
Fossil fuels comprise about 80 percent of the world’s energy use, according to a 2023 report publi-shed by Boston University’s Insti-tute for Global Sustainability.
Demographic Winter Is Coming, Even To South Asia
The demographic decline no longer affects only the countries where well-being is more wide-spread. It is a global phenomenon, spanning every continent. And if it continues to a pace according to current dynamics, in 2100 only 6 countries in the world will still reach a fertility rate of 2.1 child-ren per woman, the so-called “replacement threshold” which allo-ws them to keep their population stable.
This is supported by a new study based on statistical models and published by the British scie-ntific journal Lancet. This is a demographic analysis on the gigantic amount of data from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries and Risk Factors Study, carried out by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington.
Precisely those scientific circles that have long shouted about the “demographic bomb”, therefore, today send out exactly the opposite message: births are dra-stically reducing on a global level. By combining thousands of studies relating to demographic dynamics in 204 countries with sophisticated systems, they certify not only that the fertility rate at a global level has halved in the last seventy years, falling from 4.84 in 1950 to 2.23 in 2021.
The most interesting data from the research published by the Lancet concerns the dynamics taking place in individual geographical areas. Because if on the one hand the slowdown (which exists) follo-ws a slower pace in sub-Saharan Africa, the collapse in the birth rate in South Asia would make the difference in the coming years.
According to these project-ions, countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are on track to very quickly reach the low birth rates of Western Europe and the Far East. If in 2021 there were a total of 32 million births in South Asia, by 2050 they could already drop to 18.7 million.
Vietnamese President Thyang, promoter of dialogue with Pope Francis, resigns
The Communist Party of Vietnam has accepted the “resignation” of President Vo Van Thyang over unspecified “shortcomings” that show the extent of the cou-ntry’s political turmoil.
For international analysts, the situation risk undermining the confidence of foreign investors and the possibility of dialogue with various partners, including the Vatican. Major steps have been taken under the out-going head of state, including his recent invitation to Pope Francis to visit the country.
In a statement released, the government accused the president of violating the party’s rules, stressing that his “shortcomings had negatively impacted public opinion, affecting the reputation of the party, state and him per-sonally.” The party’s Central Committee, one of Vietnam’s top decision-making bodies, approved Thyang’s resignation not more than a year after his election. The Vietnamese president plays a largely ceremonial role, but remains one of the top four main political offices in the Southeast Asian country.
Pope’s Vocations Day message: ‘Pilgrims of hope, builders of peace’
Pope Francis releases his message for the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, celebrated on April 21, and urges Christians to welcome our shared vocation to sow the seeds of hope and peace in our world. The Pope’s message focuses on the theme: “Called to sow seeds of hope and to build peace.”
The Holy Father noted that all Christians are called to welcome our God-given vocation to serve Him in the world, whether it be through the consecrated life, the priesthood, marriage, or even as a single person.
Gratitude, he said, should characterize World Vocations Day celebrations, as we recall the countless Christians who serve God in all walks of life. He especially invited young people to make room for God, so that they might find happiness in His call, which always respects our freedom. “Let Jesus draw you to Himself,” said the Pope. “Bring Him your important questions by reading the Gospels; let Him challenge you by His presence, which always provokes in us a healthy crisis.”
Pope Francis went on to invite Christians to be “pilgrims of hope” as the Church journeys toward the 2025 Jubilee. “In this sense,” he added, “the World Day of Prayer for Vocations has a synodal character: amid the variety of our charisms, we are called to listen to one another and to journey together in order to acknowledge them and to discern where the Spirit is leading us for the benefit of all.”
The Pope also urged everyone to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, so that the Lord may “send out labourers into His harvest.” As the Church prepares for the Jubilee with a Year of Prayer, Christians should engage daily in a prayer that listens for the voice of God and helps us become “pilgrims of hope and builders of peace.”
Turning to the heart of his message, Pope Francis recalled that Christian pilgrimage means keeping our eyes, minds, and hearts fixed on our goal–which is Christ–and set out every day anew. “Our pilgrimage on this earth is far from a pointless journey or aimless wandering,” he said. “On the contrary, each day, by responding to God’s call, we try to take every step needed to advance towards a new world where people can live in peace, justice, and love.”
In conclusion, the Pope invited Christians to “rise up” and awaken from our indifference by embracing our vocation and letting Christ guide our steps. “Let us be passionate about life,” he said, “and commit ourselves to caring lovingly for those around us, in every place where we live.”