Two important initiatives to encounter East Asian religious tradition and thought see the Taiwan-Hong Kong Interreligious Dialogue Dicastros engaged in these days.
An international seminar entitled “Christians promoting dialogue with Confucians: guidelines and perspectives” was held March 8 and 9 in New Taipei, Taiwan. The initiative-promoted in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University-is part of a track that aims to formulate official guidelines for Catholics engaging in dialogue with followers of Confucianism.
Already last January 15, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue had convened an online study group, animated by Prof. Umberto Bresciani, an Italian for more than 50 years in Taiwan who has been pursuing this reflection at Fu Jen Catholic University for some time. That first discussion was attended by scholars and practitioners of interreligious dialogue who live or have roots, in addition to Taiwan, in the People’s Republic of China, In Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Italy and the United States.
Msgr. Indunil Kodithwakuu Kankanamalage, secretary of the dicastery, opening that meeting had explained that this study group is part of a tradition carried on by the Vatican body, which has already developed guidelines for dialogue with Buddhists, Hindus and traditional Asian religions. Now,” he had added, “a new need has emerged to develop an official dialogue with Confucians. “And as we work to build on the ‘seed’ that has been planted,” he had concluded, “let us always keep in mind that ‘God is the One who makes it grow.
The meeting held these days in New Taipei was a significant step forward in this journey, involving a wider audience interested in promoting Confucian-Christian dialogue.
The drafting of the guidelines,” the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue explains in a statement, “will be followed by a final review process and is expected to serve as a valuable resource for individuals, organizations and communities both inside and outside the Catholic Church seeking to engage in dialogue with followers of Confucianism.
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Fr. Curtois’ legacy in dialogue between Christians and Muslims in India
A great pioneer of Islamic-Christian dialogue who still inspires the path of the Church in India today. Thus in Delhi the figure of Fr. was remembered in recent days. Victor Curtois, a Belgian Jesuit who explored Islamic identity in depth in Calcutta in the mid-20th century.
The occasion to celebrate him in recent days was the seventh edition of the Victor Courtois Memorial Lecture organized by the Association of Islamic Studies in Delhi. This year’s conference was held on February 25th with the intervention of prof. Michael Calabria, Franciscan friar minor, who spoke on the topic: “From Morocco to the Mughal Empire: Franciscan meetings with Muslims and their meaning for today’s interreligious dialogue”.
The Islamologist Fr. Victor Courtois, who died in Kolkata in 1960 at the age of 53, is considered an apostle of Islamic-Christian dialogue in Calcutta. His brother Fr. Victor Edwin, secretary of the Association for Islamic Studies based in New Delhi, explained to AsiaNews: “Fr. Courtois spent much of his life in India and played a fundamental role in transforming relations between Christians and Muslims in this country.
He inaugurated an era of relationships and respect”. The Belgian missionary taught that Christians and Muslims are brothers, since God is the Father of all men. “Fr. Courtois – added Fr. Edwin – he encouraged Christians and Muslims not to hesitate in bearing witness to each other’s faith.”
Bengaluru: Six female congregations together for young people at risk
Religious Sisters from different institutes have joined forces to offer a new opportunity to hundreds of youths in difficult situations in Bengaluru (Bangalore), in the Indian state of Karnataka, with particular focus on the future of girls and their rights.
The Sisters Led Youth Initiatives (SLDY) programme began some months ago, which Sr Nirmalini, Superior General of the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel and President of the Conference of Women Religious of India (CRWI), has decided to share with AsiaNews on International Women’s Day.
“By 2025, we envisage to empower 1,200 youths in the Bengaluru region, bringing changes to their families by improving their living conditions,” Sr Nirmalini explained.
The activity promoted by CRWI brings together the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters), the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC), the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI), the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (PHJC), and the Sisters of St Joseph of Tarbes (SJT).
“The Synodal journey invites us to walk together,” Sister Nirmalini explained.
Indian Church schools face fresh threat over Christian symbols
The leader of a Hindu group in north-eastern Assam state plans legal action against Church-run schools in the state after they ignored a deadline to remove Christian symbols from school premises.
Satya Ranjan Borah, who heads the Kutumba Surakshya Parishad (family safety council), told that his preparations are complete to file a case in the high court, the state’s top court.
“I have adequate documents to support my demand,” he told on March 7.
Borah’s council had set a 15-day deadline on Feb. 7 for all Christian schools to remove all Christian symbols such as crosses and statues from school premises and classrooms.
The Feb. 7 press meeting, addressed by 10 other right-wing outfits, also demanded priests and nuns to come to schools in civil dress rather than in their religious dress.
Borah publicly made these demands and warned of dire consequences in case of failure.
The government in the state is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I am not against Jesus Christ or Christianity. But my demand is to free missionary schools from religious symbols of all forms,” Borah told on March 7.
“We are against all forms of religious symbols in any school premises in the state,” he added.
“A missionary school is to educate children in a secular environment and therefore, there is no scope for installing statues of a religion or adopting a dress code associated with a religion by its staff and students,” Borah said.
Borah had written a letter to Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati to keep missionary schools free of Christian symbols. Reacting to the fresh threat, Archbishop Moolachira told that Borah ”is free to file a petition in the court like any other citizen of India.”
“We too have given complaints to the government,” the prelate said and dismissed the allegation that missionary schools were being used to promote Christianity.
Communion leads Myanmar Buddhist woman to Catholicism
As a child, Ma Wai practiced Buddhism, the predominant religion in her Myanmar village. But a few months ago, aged 50, she joined the Catholic Church.
Ma Wai began to “get a sense of Christianity” in 2008 after she married a Catholic when she was 34. That was 16 years ago after she fell in love with Stephen Soe Htet Aung.
She was born the eldest of five children of her Buddhist parents, who belonged to a mix of Bamar-Karen tribes in a village on the outskirts of Hinthada township in Irrawaddy division, southern Myanmar.
Most of the 200 families in the village are Buddhists, with a few Christians.
“I knew that Christians revere Jesus Christ, but I had no idea about Catholicism,” the woman said.
Marrying Soe, she said, opened her “eyes to the world of Christianity,” particularly to Catholicism.
Interfaith marriages are common in Myanmar, forming at least half in Catholic parishes, mostly Catholics and Buddhists, a Church source estimated.
In such marriages, the non-Catholic person need not change religion. However, to have a Catholic marriage, Church law insists the bride and groom agree to baptize their children in the Catholic faith.
Ma Wai said her husband “never pressured” her to change her faith.
Restore space denied to Christian Dalits, demands national conference
A national conference on synod has called for restoring the space denied to Dalit Christians in the Church and society.
The February 16-17 conference on “Synodal Church: Voice of the Marginalized in India,” studied the Dalit Empowerment Policy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, 2016, that mandates an end to caste practices and promotes inclusive communities. The policy also focuses on the denied space of Dalit Christians in the Church and society.
“The very focus of the Synodal Church is mission, communion, and participation,” asserted Cardinal Anthony Poola, archbishop of Hyderabad, who presided over the conference held at the Indian Social Institute in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
The first cardinal from the Dalit community said everyone should be included in the mission of the Catholic Church so that no one feels left behind. “The marginalized should participate in the Church where their voice should be heard,” he asserted.
The program was organized by the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in collaboration with the Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
The participants were Dalit Catholics from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
The conference prepared a memorandum that reiterated the need to give to the Dalit Christians in India their denied space and taking steps to empower them.
Educator gets bail after India’s top court intervention
India’s Supreme Court has granted interim bail to a Christian educator, who was arrested in December on a slew of complaints including attempts to murder and violating an anti-conversion law.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, on March 4 ordered the release of Rajendra Bihari Lal, vice-chancellor of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHAUTS).
The British-era institution was established in 1910 and is based in Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, in northern Indian Uttar Pradesh state.
The state police arrested Lal on Dec. 31, 2023, following a complaint from Diwakar Nath Tripathi, a local leader of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which runs the state government.
Earlier, Lal’s bail pleas were turned down by a local court and the state high court.
“We direct by way of an ad interim order that the petitioner be released on interim bail,” the Supreme Court order said.
Police have registered several cases against Lal under the state’s strident anti-conversion law that criminalizes religious conversion without prior sanction from the government.
In the latest case registered in Naini police station in Prayagraj district, Lal is accused of attempting to kill the complainant, Tripathi.
Tripathi’s complaint said two men who accompanied Lal in a vehicle opened fire at him while he was returning home after a morning walk.
“It is a baseless and fabricated case,” a close ally of Lal told UCA News on March 5.
Patna women pledge to save constitution, democracy
Some 200 women, representing mostly slums in the eastern Indian city of Patna, celebrated the International Women’s Day by pledging to protect the country’s Constitution and democracy.
The March 6 program was inspired by the “Kittur Declaration” that urged Indian women to fight for the land and rights of people of the country, women’s dignity and livelihood.
The declaration was issued by more than 3,500 women from across the country who gathered at Kittur town in Karnataka on February 21 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Rani Chennamma, a folk hero in Karnataka and the 19th century queen of Kittur princely state who revolted against the British.
At Kittur, some 460 km northwest of Bengaluru, the women’s organizations launched “Naanoo Rani Chennamma” (I too am Rani Chennamma), a nationwide campaign to secure the rights as enshrined in the Constitution, to preserve the social fabric, restore communal harmony and to stand up for the rights of citizens to Reclaim India and reject authoritarianism.
The Kittur declaration was released at Patna too. The participants gathered at Aashray Abhiyan (campaign for shelter), an NGO managed by a Catholic nun in Patna, with the theme, “Role of women in saving the Constitution and democracy of India.”
Felicitas Roelofsen, a cancer surgeon from Germany, was the chief guest, and the special guest was Mukund Singh, spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party. Uma Dafftarur from the Am Admi Party also attended.
India’s pro-Hindu party’s tokenism for Muslims, Christians
Social and religious divisions are crystal clear in the politics of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the first list of 195 candidates released by the party’s election committee, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chief decision maker, there are only two names from religious minorities — one Muslim and one Christian.
Both minority candidates in the list released on March 2 will be contesting from the communist-ruled southern Kerala state, where the pro-Hindu BJP hardly has any presence.
Anil Antony, a Catholic will be the BJP’s candidate from the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency with nearly 40 percent Christian voters. The pro-Hindu party is banking on them to wrest the seat from rival Congress, whose Anto Antony Punnathaniyil has represented it in India’s parliament for three terms since 2009.
Anil is the son of veteran Congress leader and former defense minister A. K. Antony, an octogenarian and self-professed agnostic. The father has often advocated the philosophy of Kerala’s foremost social reformer Sree Narayana Guru — a champion of equality and justice.
However, while it has propelled a Catholic in the southern state, the BJP has dropped John Barla, a tribal Catholic, who is serving as a junior minister for minority affairs in the present Modi cabinet.
Barla was elected in 2019 from Alipurduar constituency in West Bengal and has been championing the rights of tea garden workers in West Bengal and Assam states in eastern India.
Barla’s exclusion from the list of candidates came as a surprise to many in Delhi’s political circles as he was Modi’s go-to man in times of crisis, especially amid rising attacks on Christians and their institutions over the past few years.
Catholic nuns empower distressed Nepali women
On a spring afternoon in early March, Usha Rokka took a break from sewing ladies’ handbags ordered by a customer to give snacks to her seven-year-old son who just returned from school.
The 25-year-old single mother has been living in a tiny, rented one-room house in Pokhara, the tourist city in western Nepal since leaving her abusive husband and in-laws seven years ago.
She and her son have a simple, happy life thanks to Rokka’s thriving home-based business that a group of Good Shepherd nuns helped her start as part of their project supporting vulnerable women.
The business yields up to 30,000 rupees (US$277) a month, enough to pay for Rokka’s house rent, daily essentials, utilities, and schooling.
Rokka still remembers her nightmarish days years ago when she attempted to commit suicide twice out of frustration as she failed to find a job to support the family. She fled her in-law’s house in Kushma, a two-hour drive from Pokhara and came to the city in 2018.
“The first time, a fisherman saved my life when I jumped into Phewa Lake and then a neighbor took me to the hospital when she heard my son crying after I drank poison,” she said.
“I couldn’t feed my son properly. I was being mentally tortured by my husband and the people in the village,” she added.
Dowry is considered a social malpractice in many countries as it is blamed for endemic domestic abuse against brides. Despite being illegal in most countries the practice is still prevalent in many parts of South Asia.