Fourteen years after his death, Fr. Augustus Colombo’s dream of a great university of medical sciences among the last in Warangal, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, becomes a reality.
This afternoon during a Mass presided over by the apostolic nuncio to India Msgr. Leopoldo Girelli, along with Indian Cardinals Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, and Felipe Neri Ferrao, archbishop of Goa, with all the bishops of Andhra Pradesh, the foundation stone was blessed of the college for nurses and paramedics, the new wing of the Fr. Colombo Institute of Medical Science, of the diocese of Warangal.
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Policies of ‘ethnocide’ must end, including in China
Lately, my attention was drawn to news from Australia in June that reported a ceremony taking place in Queensland to celebrate the renaming of Fraser Island — a World Heritage-listed island that lies just off the east coast — as K’gari, the original name used by the Butchulla people.
This recognition and honouring of the First Nation People’s culture and history is in sharp contrast to what I observed as the Japanese consul-general in Melbourne two decades ago. At that time, Australians were divided between liberals and conservatives, and the former’s argument for apologies to indigenous people was strongly resisted by the latter.
It took another decade for the declaration of apologies to materialize. In this context, I am impressed by the substantial change Australia has brought about.
Clergy abuse ‘swept under the carpet’ in Indian Church
On June 1, the Vatican accepted the resignation of Indian Bishop Franco Mula-kkal, almost five years after police arrested him on charges of raping a nun.
The Vatican “requested” his resignation, said a statement from the apostolic nunciature in India, adding that this action should not be seen as a “dis-ciplinary measure imposed up-on” the bishop.
The Mulakkal case has once again revived the demand for speedy and transparent action into allegations of clerical abu-se in India as delays can lead to embarrassment for Christi-ans, who make up 2.3 percent in the Hindu majority nation of 1.4 billion people.
The Vatican’s move in the Mulakkal case came 18 months after a lower court acquitted him, and when an appeal against the acquittal is pending in a higher court.
Mulakkal is the fourth Catholic bishop to resign over allegations of sexual abuse in India — all in the past 15 years.
In all four cases, the hierarchy failed to act on its own against the accused but moved only after public outrage and police complaints. Even when acted upon, the hierarchy made no public report of its investigation on the allegations nor explained reasons for removing the person.
In the Mulakkal case, the nun was forced to go to the police because “the hierarchy did not listen” to her complaints and those of her companions, Sister Norah Alunkal, secretary of the women’s section of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), the forum of consecrated Catholic religious in India, told.
The hierarchy also “took a position with the accused and totally ignored the alleged rape victim,” said Alunkal, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny.
Mumbai Christians win fight for burial grounds
The top court in India’s commercial capital Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has restrained a suburban civic body from converting designated burial grounds for other purposes.
The Bombay High Court in western Maharashtra state on July 19 asked the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) “not to use the land designated as a burial ground in the city development plan for any other purpose.”
The court order came in a plea filed by a group of Christians in the city.
“It is a major victory for the Christians who live in the suburban civic body limits,” said Melwyn Fernandes, the lead petitioner in the case.
Fernandes, a Catholic activist, told UCA News on July 21 that the local Christian community has been facing a severe shortage of burial grounds after many of its designated cemeteries “were encroached on by builders and influential people with the backing of politicians.”
Land is very expensive in Mumbai and the city and its suburbs are prone to illegal encroachments by land sharks.
The megacity of some 21 million people on the coast of the Arabian Sea houses the most expensive real estate projects in the country and attracts millions of immigrants from across the nation.
“I filed an application under the Right to Information Act, a special law empowering citizens to seek information from the government, to get details of burial grounds meant for Christians,” Fernandes said.
Indonesian priest faces ‘smear campaign’ over power row
Pro-government media outlets in Indonesia have accused an activist priest of turning local villagers against a state-sponsored geothermal project in Christian-majority Flores Island, which the priest denounced as “fabricated.”
Online portal Infopertama.com published a report on July 25 that alleged Divine Word priest, Father Simon Suban Tukan, has been behind protests by villagers against the power project at Poco Leok in Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province.
The report accused the priest, the chairman of Divine Word’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission (JPIC-SVD) for being the organizer of a women’s march against the project last month.
It ended after police reportedly charged in and beat up protesters, leaving several injured and one person hospitalized.
The report on the Bahasa Indonesian language site said that all protests against the project including the women march “were instigated” by Father Tukan.
It alleged that some of the women were willing to go topless as a form protest against the power project.
The report quoted Raimundus Wajong, a resident who supports the scheme, saying that Father Tukan “recruited Poco Leok residents to reject the project.”
Last week, another outlet, Suaranusantara.co, accused the priest of “provoking residents to reject the project” and “damaging people’s lives.”
Elderly Indian nuns get dismal healthcare: survey
The majority of Catholic nuns in India struggle to provide healthcare to their elderly and infirm members because of logistical and financial challenges, says a new survey report.
Some 44% of 190 religious congregations do not have any care facility for elderly and infirm members, found the survey by the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Washington DC-based research organization affiliated to the Jesuits-run Georgetown University.
CARA conducts social, scientific studies about the Catholic Church, and offers a range of research services to dioceses, parishes, religious communities and institutes. The research study said 29% have one facility and 27% have two or more facilities owned by their congregation. Of those owning care facilities, a majority of 85% said their facility “is partially equipped,” according to the sur-vey report released this month. Only the rest are fully equipped.
The study, commissioned by the Conference of Religious Women in India (CRWI), was carried out between April and June this year. The survey is based on the responses from superiors general of the congregations. The majority of the respondents spend at least one-fourth of their income on the elderly and infirm.
Half of the responding congregations said 26–50% of their annual budget is spent on the care of the elderly and sick nuns. About a quarter reported spending 25% or less of their annual budget.
Some 68% of congregations allocate funds from their annual budget for the care of their elderly and infirm members.
About 40% of the religious congregations spent between 10,000 and 24,999 rupees (US$121-304) every month for taking care of their elderly and sick. About one-third require 50,000 rupees (US$608) a month, the survey report said. Most congregations said they face challenges in taking care of the elderly and the sick. Major ones were “healthcare challenges, financial challenges, and congregational challenges.”
Suspended “reformist” priest to continue mission to cleanse church
Unholy horror of churches burnt in Indian ethnic violence
Charred walls, collapsed tin roofs and smashed windows in a burned Kuki community church illustrate how deadly ethnic violence has led to brutal sectarian attacks in India’s troubled Manipur state.
At least 120 people have been killed since May in armed clashes between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki in the northeastern state.
The ruins of the Kuki church in Imphal are just one among the more than 220 churches and 17 Hindu temples destroyed in the months of vigilante violence, according to a report by India Today news magazine.
Across the street from the burned church, Baptist priest Zuan Kamang Damai led a service on Sunday with a congregation just a third of its usual size of about 800 after many of his Kuki parishioners fled.
“After this violence erupted, they moved to different places to save their lives,” he said.
“They want to come back, they want to resettle, they want to live with my family,” Damai said. “This is what they responded to me, and I comfort them. God is there.”
Damai is himself a Naga, another major tribal group in the area who have largely been spared in the cycle of revenge attacks.
But many of his regular worshippers are staying away, fearful of the possibility of violence.
“We have to respect each religion — regardless of Christians, regardless of Hindu, Muslim, whatever,” the 55-year-old said.
Bishops decry law enforcement agencies’ apathy, silence in Manipur
A top team of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India that visited the conflict-ridden areas of Manipur has criticized the prolonged silence and apathy of the law enforcement agencies in containing violence in the northeastern Indian state.
“It is our earnest appeal that the governance system should uphold the secular fabric of our country, reinforce constitutional values and cultivate an environment of peaceful co-existence of various communities,” asserts the team led by the conference president Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur.
The team that visited various places in Manipur July 23-24 included the conference’s deputy secretary general Father Jervis D’Souza and Father Paul Moonjely, executive director of Caritas India, humanitarian response organization of CBCI.
It was the first CBCI official team to visit Manipur where clashes between Kuki tribal people and Meitei people erupted 82 days ago, killing more than 160 people and rendering thousands homeless. As many as 349 churches and institutions have also perished in the violence.
The visit also took place five days after a video surfaced on social media showing two women being paraded naked and later gang raped. The 26-minute video triggered national outrage prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak about Manipur for the first time. The incident occurred on May 4, but the world did not know about it until because of a ban on the internet in Manipur.
Indian Prime Minister Modi Finally Comments on Manipur Violence, Church Says It Is ‘Too Late’
With India and observers elsewhere in the world stunned by a viral video of the naked parading and public rape of two Christian women in simmering Manipur state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had little option but to break his widely deplored silence on the bloodshed there.
“The video showing atrocity against women in Manipur is the most shameful,” acknowledged Modi while entering the Indian Parliament on July 20 for its monsoon session, reacting to the shocking May 4 video. Amid the national outcry, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has banned viewing of the video in India.
“The Manipur incident has shamed the entire humanity and [1.4 billion] people of the country are feeling shamed,” added Modi.
Modi’s delayed response was criticized by Catholics leaders.
“The Prime Minister’s reaction has come too late. He should have spoken out when the bloodshed started but just kept quiet all through,” Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, who heads the Catholic Church in the strife-torn state, told the Register.
“Fear is pervasive even now [after 79 days] and peace remains a dream for us. Everyone is living in fear as violence keeps erupting in the [Imphal] Valley and its peripheries frequently,” added Archbishop Lumon, who heads the 100,000-member local Catholic Church in the tiny state in northeast India, which has a total population of less than four million people.
“On some days, there is relaxation of curfew. But yesterday it was strict curfew due to fresh violence.”
Reports of tribal Kuki attacks on ethnic Meiteis circulated immediately after the protest, which in turn plunged the Imphal Valley that accommodates 90% of Manipur’s population into an outburst of violence against Kuki tribal Christians. At the same time, ethnic Meitei settlements in the Kuki-dominated hills surrounding the valley also were the targets of violence.
While the official death count now totalling around 150, with the overwhelming majority of the victims being Kuki Christians, human rights observers estimate the figure to be underestimated.