Pope Leo XIV has appointed Most. Rev. Elias Frank as the new Archbishop of Calcutta. The announcement was made today in Vatican.

Rt. Rev. Elias Frank was born on 15 August 1962 in Bantwal, Karnataka, and belongs to the Diocese of Mangalore. He completed his early education in Modankap and Shillong before entering priestly formation at St. John Mary Vianney Minor Seminary in Barasat and later studied philosophy at Morning Star Regional Seminary, Barrackpore. He pursued his theological studies at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, where he also earned a licentiate and later a doctorate in Canon Law. Ordained as a priest on 23 April 1993 for the Archdiocese of Calcutta, he served in several parishes including Sacred Heart Church in Burdwan and St. Therese of Lisieux in Durgapur. He also contributed as a judge at the Inter-Diocesan Tribunal in Kolkata. Academically accomplished, Bishop Elias Frank has served as a professor of Canon Law in Rome since 2007 and is a visiting professor at the Alfonsian Academy. He has published books and scholarly articles, and held roles as an external judge and consultor for Vatican dicasteries.

A state government in southern India has issued a set of new guidelines to curb discriminatory practices based on caste and ethnicity in schools, drawing applause from several quarters, including the Church. The Tamil Nadu state school education department, in a circular last week, said teachers found promoting caste or communal sentiments among students would face a probe and disciplinary action. The guidelines have been recommended by the single-member committee of retired judge K. Chandru of the state’s Madras High Court, amid rising concerns over the rise in caste-related violence in educational institutions.

The panel was appointed after a brutal attack on a teenage boy and his sister by their schoolmates from the dominant caste in August 2023, at Nanguneri village in the state’s Tirunelveli district. “Students of Dalit [formerly untouchable] or lower castes are often discriminated against or face even physical harm in educational institutions,” said Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, former secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s office for Dalits and backward classes. Dalits are considered the lowest in the caste hierarchy within India’s Hindu society, and many Dalits have converted to Christianity and Islam over the decades. Some 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians are said to be of Dalit and indigenous tribal origin. According to the last national census held in 2011, some 201 million of India’s 1.2 billion people belong to these socially deprived groups.

A woman with an intellectual disability, known only as Sangeetha, was abused by a group of lorry drivers and abandoned at Nelyady, a town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Some Catholic nuns noticed Sangeetha roaming the town and brought her to their convent.

Sangeetha prompted the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ, also known as the Bethany sisters, to open Asha Bhavan (abode of hope), a home for disabled and abandoned women, at Ichilampady, an interior village near Nelyady, which is approximately 230 miles west of Bengaluru, the state capital.

Didi was the second woman the nuns picked up. Since they did not know her name, the nuns called her “Didi” (elder sister). When Global Sisters Report visited the centre on August 1, Sangeetha and Didi, both Hindus, shared their traumatic experiences and sang together, revealing their improved state of mind.

Sister Bhagya Thalichirayil, Asha Bhavan director, said that women’s empowerment is their congregation’s main charism, sharing that Asha Bhavan is among 29 centres her century-old Syro-Malankara congregation manages for disabled and abandoned women in various parts of India.

“Like Sangeeta, we have picked up several women from places where truck drivers usually stop for their food, rest or bath,” said the 49-year-old nun, who prefers to be called by her first name. Truck drivers plying long routes on highways often pick up destitute women and girls and drop them at various locations after sexually exploiting them. Asha Bhavan has 31 such residents. The Bethany leader said they have 369 mission centres for catechesis, women’s empowerment and rural development, in addition to special schools for children with intellectual and physical disabilities. They also conduct programs for migrant workers, form disaster response teams and provide trauma-informed pastoral care.

The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court on September 23 dismissed a 2022 FIR against Pastor Dominic D’Souza and his wife, Joan D’Souza, founders of the Five Pillars Church in Siolim, Goa. The case, which alleged that the couple had coerced two individuals into converting to Christianity, was dropped after the additional public prosecutor admitted there was no evidence to support the claims.

The FIR in the case was filed in May 2022 by a man named Prakash Khobrekar, who alleged that the couple had induced two people to give up their faith and convert to Christianity, offering cash and promising to cure them of their ailments. The pastor was arrested after the complaint was filed and released on bail the same day. With the passing of the High Court’s judgement, the case has now been proved false.  The Five Pillars Church in Siolim village has been facing trouble since the present state government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was re-elected to power in 2022. In January 2024, Pastor Dominic was arrested in a separate case filed by Balasubramaniam Vadivel, who accused him of attempted conversion. The pastor was subsequently granted bail, and the FIR related to the case has been contested by the pastor and his spouse in the High Court, with a hearing scheduled for next month. In December 2022, the then North Goa District Collector Dr. Sneha Gitte had passed an order banning all activities of the church following complaints of alleged illegal conversions against it. However, the church successfully appealed the decision, and the Bombay High Court at Goa quashed and set aside the ban in May 2024.

Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati officially unveiled the poster for Communio Sunday 2025 at the Archbishop’s House, Guwahati. This year, Communio Sunday will be observed across India on 30 November 2025, the first Sunday of Advent. In his message, Archbishop John Moolachira underlined the heart of the Church’s vocation: “Mission is the very life and identity of the Church. Every baptized person is called to live and witness Christ in the world, carrying His light to those in the peripheries. Through Communio, we are reminded that mission is not optional but essential to our Christian life.” The projects supported by Communio are strengthening parishes, communities, and especially the marginalized, enabling the Church to remain a beacon of hope.” Observed annually, Communio Sunday invites the faithful to renew their missionary zeal through prayer, solidarity, and contributions. It is a reminder that every Catholic is a missionary disciple, called to live out communion and share the Good News in daily life. The release of the Communio Sunday 2025 poster in Guwahati marks the beginning of this year’s celebrations and reaffirms the Church’s commitment to being a Communion in Mission. With the blessing of Archbishop John Moolachira and the leadership of Communio, the faithful are encouraged to embrace this call and actively participate in the evangelizing mission of the Church in India.

Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Thomas D’Souza from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, effective September 20. With this, Coadjutor Archbishop Elias Frank has automatically succeeded him as the tenth archbishop of the archdiocese, based in Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal state. He is the sixth Indian prelate of the archdiocese.

In a message, Archbishop D’Souza thanked the archdiocese’s priests, religious and laity for their support during his tenure that began on February 23, 2012. He also shared that he would assist in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Barasat, from September 29. “I will reside in the parish presbytery,” he added. The parish is in North 24 Parganas district, some 25 km northeast of Kolkata.