A court in Karnataka, south-ern India, has spared a Catholic Bishop from facing police inquiry into a land dispute.
The Sessions Court in Chik-magalur’s September 1 order observed the accusation against Bishop Thomasappa Anthony Swamy of Chikmagalur and a priest was false. A group of priests and lay people had earlier accused the prelate and Father A Shantharaj of selling a property attached a Church school by fabricating documents.
V T Thomas, the prelate’s lawyer, challenged the case and explained to the court that the plot in dispute was “never sold” and no manipulation of documents had been done.
Presenting proof of documents and minutes of the St Joseph’s Education Society that controls the property, the lawyer pleaded that the case filed by Michael Sadananda Baptist against the Bishop was “fabricated and without evidence.”
Thomas, the lawyer, told that a criminal case has also been filed with city police against Baptist “for cheating, tampering documents, mischief, and criminal conspiracy to tarnish the name of the Bishop and the Diocese.”
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Crisis deepens in India’s Eastern Church over liturgy
The liturgical dispute in India’s Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church has deepened after a section of priests opted not to follow a synod decision to have a uniform liturgical celebration in all 35 dioceses.
Some 300 priests of Ernakulum-Angamaly Archdiocese, the seat of the church’s Major Arch-Bishop, Cardinal George Alencherry, met their archiepiscopal vicar, Archbishop Antony Kariyil, on Aug. 28 and explained their decision, said Father Jose Vailikodath, a priests’ council member.
“We met Archbishop Kariyil and urged him to get a dispensation from Pope Francis over the synod decision so that we can continue with our traditional mode of celebrating Holy Mass, facing the congregation,” Father Vailikodath told on Aug. 31.
The bishops’ synod, the church’s supreme decision-making body, on Aug. 27 asked parishes in all dioceses to implement a uniform mode of Mass from Nov. 28. The synod had decided on a uniform liturgy in 1999 but the decision was not implement-ed in some dioceses following opposition from priests and laity.
Bishops who find it difficult to implement the decision should do it in a phased manner “through effective catechesis.” All dioceses should complete the process by next Easter Sunday, April 17, said the synod of the church based in southern India’s Kerala state in an official circular.
Indian bishops launch handbook on ecumenism
A handbook on a better understanding of ecumenism has been released by Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, in India’s capital New Delhi.
The book titled May They All Be One: Ecumenism in Catholic Perspective has been compiled by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) to help re-establish unity among all Christians. “The book proposes a common call for Christian unity made by the Second Vatican Council through prayer and dialogue. Adequate formation for the ecumenical dialogue needs to be fostered among all the churches in India,” Archbishop Girelli said during the book’s launch on Aug. 31.
Addressing members of the clergy, laity and faithful from different church denominations, the Vatican ambassador said that “the Church is open to ecumenical endeavor for the witness of unity among all people.”
Judge bats for cow as India’s national animal
The observations of a high court judge in calling for the cow to be declared India’s national animal have evoked mixed reactions from social activists.
Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav of Allahabad High Court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh made the observations on September 1 while denying bail to Javed, a Muslim man accused in a cow slaughter case.
Fifty-nine-year-old Javed was jailed in March for slaughtering a cow but his lawyer told the court that his client had been implicated in a false case.
“All circumstances must be considered and the cow should be declared as a national animal and cow protection should be made the fundamental right of Hindus,” the judge is reported to have said. Human rights activist A.C. Michael told that there is nothing wrong in declaring the cow as a national animal. “In fact, it should be whole- heartedly welcomed. The government of the day should immediately imple-ment the law to protect the cow.”
Michael, a former member of Delhi Minorities Commission, said Indians do worship the cow and depended on it for agri-culture and allied economic activities. The judge seemed neutral in his observations but the judiciary must also recognize the rights of those consuming beef.
“The law must not be misused by cow protection activists or private cowsheds built to show off and doing little to protect the cow, as the judge himself observed,” the Christian lay leader said.
Justice Yadav had said that the cow is known as the mother in the country and is worshipped as a goddess. “Cows give milk, which is needed for a strong and healthy constitution. It gives cow dung for fertilizers and urine that kills germs … It produces calf and oxen, which help in agriculture when they grow up,” he said.
Pope: Afghanistan, as Christians we cannot remain indifferent
The Pope is calling for “intensified prayer and fasting” for Afghanistan, which he follows with “great concern”. “As Christians,” he said at the Angelus, “in historical moments like these we cannot remain indifferent.”
Francis expressed his sympathy “for those who mourn for the victims of the suicide attacks,” asking that “we continue to assist those in need and pray that dialogue and solidarity may lead to peaceful and fraternal coexistence,” and calling for help to be given especially to women and children.
Earlier, before the recitation of the Marian prayer, to some thousands of people present in St Peter’s Square, commenting on the passage of the Gospel in which Jesus says that “there is nothing outside man that, entering into him, can make him impure”, while it is “from within, from the heart” that evil things are born, Francis urged people to “learn to blame oneself” for evil.
“Often,” he said, “we think that evil comes above all from outside: from the behaviour of others, from those who think badly of us, from society. How often we blame others, society, the world, for everything that happens to us! It is always the fault of others, of people, of those who govern, of bad luck. It seems that problems always come from outside. And we spend our time laying blame; but this is a waste of time. You become angry, bitter, and keep God out of your heart. Like those people in the Gospel, who complain, are scandalised, polemical and do not welcome Jesus. One cannot – he warned – be truly religious in complaining: complaining poisons, brings anger, resentment and sadness that close the doors to God”.
Vicar of Arabia on the Synod of a migrant Church in a Muslim land
Bp Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of southern Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen) and Apostolic Administrator of the vacant seat of northern Arabia (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain) issued a pastoral letter ahead of the 2023 Synod.
In it, he writes: “As a Church of migrants amidst a Muslim society, comprising the faithful of different nationalities and traditions, our witness stands unique and important within the universal Church.”
Titled “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:23), the letter underscores the importance of a shared synodal journey of a Church that is one of a kind, made up of migrants in a Muslim majority region.
The prelate encourages “the active participation of all the faithful” in the synodal process in the vicariates of northern and southern Arabia, which will officially open on 15 October at St Joseph Cathedral in Abu Dhabi, a few days after Pope Francis leads services in the Vatican (9-10 October).
The Synod is divided in three phases, between October 2021 and October 2023. The first diocesan phase aims at listening to the people of God, while the second and third phases will focus on the continental and universal Church, so that the People of God can journey together in each, with the Synod as much a process as an event.
Philippine diocese gives cemetery space to non-Catholics
An archdiocese in the Philippines has begun allowing non-Catholics to be buried in Catholic cemeteries due to the scarcity of vacant burial lots brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cebu province in the central Philippines has recorded 38,088 Covid cases including 1,193 deaths, according to the latest government figures. The island is also recording a daily average of 10-15 deaths per day, which is affecting the availability of burial plots in cemeteries.
As such, charity demands that clergymen allow non-Catholics to be buried in Catholic-owned cemeteries during the pandemic, Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu said in a Sept. 2 pastoral letter. “In cases of non-Catholics who have died from Covid, and for whom there are no more vacant burial slots in their own respective cemeteries, I take it as an act of charity to allow their burial in Roman Catholic cemeteries during this time of pandemic,” he wrote.
Catholic cemeteries are usually reserved only for members of the Church.
The bishop said the decision was an “act of goodwill” that would last as long as necessary.
Archbishop Palma urged authorities to open more cemeteries to accommodate those who have died of Covid-19.
Non-Catholics expressed appreciation for the gesture.
Vocations to priesthood and consecrated life
78 new priests were ordained, and about 250 men and women religious professed their perpetual vows during the summer of 2021: these vocations are good news and a sign of hope for the Church of Vietnam, in the midst of a difficult time for the nation, marked by the fourth wave of Covid-19. In the diocesan territories affected by the virus, classified as “green areas”, the local communities were able to celebrate solemn masses, in simplicity and often outdoors; in South Vietnam, where the Corona virus infection with the Delta variant is more widespread (the so-called “red zones”), the liturgies of priestly ordination and religious profession have been postponed for now. Those celebrated in the permitted areas took place following strict precautionary anti-Covid protocols, inside seminaries or convents with only the candidates present, and with a limited number of faithful. With-out the massive crowds, without the feasts organized in the past, the new priests and religious lived their ordination in profound intimacy with God, aware of their important ministry.
Webinar studies how Islam, Christianity shape world
A webinar heard a world re-nowned Jesuit Islamic scholar ex-pounding how Islam and Christia-nity now shape the world.
The August 29 program on “Political Religion: How Islam and Christianity Shape the World” was webinar jointly organized by the Institute of Dialogue between Reli-gions and Cultures, Loyola College, Chennai and Islamic Studies Asso-ciation, Delhi.
Father Felix Körner, who teaches Theology of Religions at Berlin’s Humboldt University, invited his listeners to penetrate through the various identities that one holds to reach the deepest form of one’s identity as the God given vocation to participate in God’s project for oneself and for the world.
Such an understanding would make both Christians and Muslims understand that their religions call them to exercise power with respon-sibility so that the power turns into service of the other. It will help liberate humans from all forms of slavery and lead to the empower-ment of the marginalized, added Father Körner, who has specialized in Islamic Studies and Catholic theology.
He hold doctoral degrees in both disciplines and has taught at the Jesuit run Pontifical Gregorian University until 2019.
Christians and Muslims live in diverse contexts and often find themselves as minorities among others. The Jesuit scholar invited both Christians and Muslims to reflect on their ‘weakness’ not as a burden but as grace; a gift and a task.
It’s a gift since ‘weakness’ transforms ‘unruly forms of power’ into service and a task since the voices of the vulnerable make the poor visible and audible in the public sphere. Father Korner called upon both communities to embrace pluralism as an opportunity to become an inspiration for society: a presence that heals without hidden agenda and supports the other with competence and without competing compulsions.
Holiness does not come from following rigid rules, pope says
Redemption is the work of God, not of human beings, so be careful and do not listen to “fundamentalists” who claim holiness comes through following certain laws, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience.
The belief that holiness comes by observing particular laws “leads us to a rigid religiosity, a rigidity that eliminates that freedom of the Spirit which Christ’s redemption gives us. Beware of this rigidity that they propose,” he said Sept. 1 to those gathered in the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican.
God’s saving grace is received through faith in the Gospel message of Christ’s death and resurrection, and God invites people to rejoice in the righteousness received through that faith in Christ, he said.
The Pope continued his series of talks on St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians by looking at the apostle’s explanation of justification by faith and of graces flowing from the Spirit, not from works of the law.
However, before beginning his cate-chesis, the Pope spoke off-the-cuff to explain the context and purpose of the weekly audience talks, which are usually in-depth reflections on many aspects of church teaching. The Pope said the teachings in St. Paul’s letter were not anything new or “my own thing.”
“What we are studying is what St. Paul says during a very serious conflict” in Galatia. “They are not things that someone invented. No. It is something that happened at the time and that can repeat itself,” he said, referring to the apostle’s attempts to correct those who were tempted to believe a person is justified through works of the law, not faith in Christ’s redemptive action.
The Pope said, “This is simply a catechesis on the Word of God expressed in the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians. It is not something else. Always keep this in mind.”