Catholic faithful in Laos joined clergy and religious to celebrate the dedication of a new church to the first layman from the ethnic Hmong community who was martyred for his faith six decades ago.
The church was dedicated to Blessed Paul Thoj Xyooj at Ban Nam Gnam village in Thulakhom district of Vientiane province, reported Fides new agency.
Born in 1941, Paul Thoj Xyooj was a Laotian teacher and catechist. He was killed by com-munist guerrillas in 1960 along with Italian Oblate missionary Father Mario Borzaga.
Pope Francis proclaimed them martyrs in 2015. Both were beatified on Dec. 11, 2016, along with 15 other martyrs by the pope’s special envoy, Oblate Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, archbishop of Cotabato in the Philippines, in Laotian capital Vientiane.
According to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congre-gation, communist forces killed 17 Catholics between 1954 and 1970: a young Laotian priest, five priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP), six OMI priests (an Italian and five French) and five Laotian laymen.
Italian Oblate Father Angelo Pelis, who served in Laos for years as a missionary, told Fides that consecration of the new church was presided over by Cardinal Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Vientiane. Catholic priests and Laotian Catholics also attended the ceremony.
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Vietnam Catholics rush to feed poor during Tet festival
Catholics in Vietnam are speeding up provision of basic food to allow people badly affected by Covid-19 to celebrate the coming Lunar New Year holiday. On Jan. 19, Caritas workers and parish council members from the parishes of Nhan Hoa and Xom Moi provided gifts for some 400 families whose members had died or lost jobs because of the pandemic, disabled people and street vendors regardless of their backgrounds. They were given money, rice, cooking oil, fish sauce, sugar, cakes and other items worth 1 million dong (US$45). Those people could not afford to get food for the five-day traditional festival starting Feb. 1.
“We are really appreciative of the generous gift from local Catholics who sympathize with our family,” Mary Vu Thi Loi said, adding that all her family members had suffered Covid-19 and her daughter had been left with partial paralysis.
Singapore Catholic charged with sexual abuse of teenagers
A court in Singapore has charged a former Catholic officer of a church-run school with committing unlawful sexual acts with at least two teenage boys more than a decade ago.
District Judge Terence Tay at the State Courts of Singapore accepted the charges on Jan. 10 but issued a ban against media revealing the identity of the accused, victims and the school involved, local media reports said. Court documents showed that the accused in his 60s had unnatural sex with a boy aged 14-16 some time between 2005 and 2006. He also committed the same act some time between April 2007 and December 2007 with a younger boy aged 14-15.
The accused faces two charges of carnal intercourse against the order of nature under Singapore’s Penal Code. He was also charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child or young person under the Children and Young Persons Act.
Under Singaporean Penal Code, a person convicted of each count of carnal intercourse against nature can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
Myanmar bishops appeal for humanitarian assistance
The Catholic Bishops’ Con-ference of Myanmar has issued a statement last week calling for humanitarian assistance to thousands of people who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in the country.
In a letter of appeal released on January 14, the Church leaders called on “all concerned” to facilitate “humanitarian access to suffering and internally displaced people.”
“Human dignity and the right to life can never be compromised,” the Church leaders said in the letter following their general assembly in Yangon last week.
The bishops also called for “respect for life, respect for the sanctity of sanctuary in places of worship, hospitals, and schools.”
The letter also expressed their appreciation to priests, nuns, and catechists who continue to take care of the people “in their flight from dangers of life.”
The bishops called on all Church workers, especially priests, religious men and women, and catechists, to continue the “mission of love and sacrifice for the people irrespective of the faith, race, and place.”
Covid kills Jesuit canonist
Jesuit canonist and lawyer and a former professor in Delhi’s Vidyajyoti theologate died of Covid-19 January 26 in Dindigul town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was 69. Fr. Jeyaseelan Thomas Barnabas suffered a massive heart attack and died at 7:30 am as he was taken to a hospital for Covid-19 treatment. He had fever and cold for the past few days and was tested Covid positive.
Syro-Malabar Church elevates two auxiliary bishops
The Syro-Malabar Church on January 15 appointed new prelates for its Tellicherry archdiocese and Palghat diocese.
The Oriental Catholic Church’s bishops’ synod promoted, with the papal approval, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry as the archdiocese’s new prelate. He replaces Archbishop George Njaralakatt, who has retired.
Similarly, the synod has appointed Palghat Auxiliary Bishop Peter Kochu-purackal as the diocese’s new bishop. He replaces Bishop Jacob Manathodath, who too has retired.
Indian missionary captured, released in 24 hours in Ethiopia
Fr Joshua Edakadambil, an Indian Catholic priest serving in Ethiopia as a missionary was kidnapped by rebel soldiers but released him in 24 hours.
The member of the Order of the Imitation of Christ, or Bethany Ashram, has been working in the Apostolic Vicariate of Nekemte in the east Afri-can country. The 32-year-old priest was abducted while going to celebrate Mass in a mission station. They then took him to a forest and kept him in their custody.
Bishop Varghese Thottamkara, Vicar Apostolic of Nekemte, said the rebel soldiers took the Indian priest for mistaken identity. They released the priest after the Church negotiated with the rebels.
300 attacks on Christians in past nine months: Report
As many as 300 attacks on Christians have taken place in India in the past nine months, says a report of a fact-finding team. The report titled, “Christians Under Attack in India,” was released January 18 at a press conference in Jaipur, capital of the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan.
The meet was organized by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, United Christian Form, United Against Hate and Jaipur Catholic diocese at St. Anselm’s school in Jaipur’s Malviyanagar locality. Speaking on the attacks, Bishop Oswald Lewis of Jaipur noted that India is a country where every religion is respected and their followers have been living together with peace and harmony for centuries.
But in the past few years the minority groups have been targeted especially Christians and Muslims. It is being done by some fringe groups to destabilize the unity of the country,” the Catholic prelate bemoaned.
Bishop Lewis also said, “It is sad to see that a community that has been offering its service to everyone in the country especially the poor and marginalized, has become the target. Such attacks are on increase. Besides, the inaction of the government encourages such groups who go unpunished. The government must take stern actions against them to preserve the unity and democracy of the country.”
The Rajasthan state president of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Advocate Saiyad Saadat Ali said, “Our country is a secular country where everyone has the right to profess and propagate their faith. But there are some people who want to snatch away from their rights. Since some days there has been continues attacks on Christians which must be condemned. The peace loving people of the country must come forward to stop such atrocities.”
Indian bishop denies role in actor’s bail plea
A Catholic bishop in India has denied media reports that he had a hand in securing bail for a film actor charged with sexual abuse and assault on an actress in the southern state of Kerala.
Local media reports said Bishop Vincent Samuel of Neyyattinkara helped actor Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, better known by his stage name Dileep, to secure bail.
The reports quoted the affidavit Dileep had furnished in Kerala High Court during the hearing of a petition filed by the prosecution seeking cancellation of his bail. Police wanted him in judicial custody for further questioning in the three-year-old case.
Dileep, 54, claimed in his affidavit that a film director named Balachandra Kumar had told him that Kumar had used the influence of Bishop Samuel to secure the bail.
“It is totally a false and manipulated story and there is no iota of truth in it,” Father Christudas, vicar general of Neyyattinkara Diocese, told on Jan. 26.
“The prelate neither knows the actor nor the director, nor ever had any interaction with them,” he added.
Corruption, lack of freedoms holding back Asia-Pacific
Perceptions of corruption among Asia-Pacific countries remained almost unchanged in 2021, with New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong among the world’s best performers but Cambodia, Afghanistan and North Korea again ranked with the worst.
Transparency International (TI) said “grand corruption” and a lack of freedoms were holding back progress in the Asia-Pacific region.
While Asia-Pacific countries have made great strides in controlling bribery for public services, an average score of 45 out of 100 on the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index shows much more needs to be done to solve the region’s corruption problems.
“Some higher-scoring countries are even experiencing a decline as governments fail to address grand corruption, uphold rights and consult citizens,” TI said in its annual report.
Of the 180 countries ranked by TI, it said weak scores were recorded among the world’s most populous nations, with China and India ranked 66 and 85 respectively and Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh coming in at 96, 140 and 147.