The Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala has planed a series of programs to celebrate the Nov. 4 beatification of Sister Rani Maria, a Franciscan Clarist missionary nun murdered in Madhya Pradesh 22 years ago.

Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly and the Franciscan Clarist Congregation are jointly organizing the programs with involvement of other two Catholic rites in the state—Syro-Malankara and Latin, said press release from the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. As part of the program relics of the nun will be brought to the Major Archbishop’s House in Ernakulam from Indore, where the ceremonies of beatification are palnned. It will be then taken in procession to Perumbavoor, her place of birth, on November 15. A thanksgiving Mass and related ceremonies will be held at Pulluvazhy on November 19.

Beatification is the penultimate stage in the four-phased canonization process in the Catholic Church. Rani Maria’s cause of canonization began in 2003 and she was declared a Servant of God four years later.

The nun was 41 when Samandar Singh, hired by some landlords, stabbed her inside a bus on February 25, 1995. She was on traveling to Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh State, en route her native place in Kerala, southern India. The attacker followed her when she ran out of the crowded bus and continued to stab her. She died on the roadside at Nachanbore Hill, near Indore.

The next Youth Day will take place in India in 2020, the second time the South Asian nation will be hosting the continental-level Catholic Church event since 2003. Card. Oswald Gracias made the announcement on August 5 at the end of the concluding Mass of the 7th Asian Youth Day (AYD7), which he presided over in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The venue of the AYD8 will be discussed and decided upon by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, together with Indian Church officials and some of the Indian youth delegation received the simple bamboo AYD cross from their Indonesian counterparts for the next AYD to take place in 3 years’ time.

Differences cannot separate us. Among those who flanked Cardinal Gracias, the main celebrant, at the altar were Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila and Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta, who delivered the homily in Bahasa Indonesia.

“We do realize our differences: We are of different nationalities, different languages, different cultures, and so on,” noted the archbishop who is president of Indonesia’s bishops’ conference (KWI).

“However, in this event, we do realize and experience that those differences cannot separate us, but the differences show the richness of the united humanity instead. It proves that the power of faith, hope and love unites us.” Arch Suharyo wished that the AYD7 help the young people to “diligently and faithfully live out the Gospel so that we may be filled with the joy of the Gospel.” “Thus, our life could mirror the glory of the Lord, which changes our lives,” he said.

Catholic Church officials are backing a hunger strike in support of demands for com-pensation and rehabilitation for 40,000 families affected by a major dam project in central India’s Madhya Pradesh State. Protesters say increased water levels in the Sardar Sarovar Dam will submerge 912 villages while officials maintain that affected people have already been compensated and benefited from ‘rehabilitation’ measures.

Police on Aug. 7 ‘cane charg-ed’ supporters of 12 people on hunger strike since July 27 at Chikhalda, a village in Dhar district. Activist Medha Patkar was hospitalized as a result of the encounter.
Police also forcefully took six others to hospital as their health deteriorated, but more joined the hunger strike to replace them.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, who is based in the Madhya Pradesh State capital, said the current situation is a matter of great concern as nobody should be deprived of his or her “right to life.” He called on the government to conduct a fresh survey to determine how many more people should be offered rehabilitation packages.

A leader of pro-Hindu BJP party wants morning prayer calls from mosques and sounds of bells from churches be replaced with shouts of nationalist slogans.

President of the Bihar unit of the party Nityanand Rai said “sound of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ (hail mother India) should replace azaan from mosques and sounds of bells from churches.” He was speaking at a BJP function in Patna Aug 8. However, he made U-turn soon, reported media.

After realizing that he has made a controversial statement, Rai corrected himself before the media and said: “I told that sound of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Matram should come from mosque and church and did not mean in place of azaan and bell.”

The function, the Sankalp Sammelan of the BJP to honour all the 12 ministers of the party in the newly formed coalition government in Bihar, also turned controversial when Vinod Kumar Singh, state minister for Minister of Mines and Geology, made a similar demand.

Singh wanted all people to join him in loudly shouting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” However, when the media persons present did not shout “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” he expressed his displeasure and anger over it.

Christian intellectuals in India have called on the community to safeguard pluralism and fight fringe elements targeting Chri-stian, Muslim and other minori-ties. In an open letter to Catholic and Protestant leaders, 101 Christian theologians, academics and members of different orga-nisations expressed concern over Hindu nationalism “What used to be fringe, has now become main-stream,” the non-denominational letter said. It comes against a backdrop of increased attacks on Muslims, including several cases of lynching, by Hindu mobs in the name of protecting cows, which are revered by Hindus.

The letter made a veiled reference to a perceived lack of coordinated action among Chri-stian churches against religious violence. The Christian commu-nity itself has experienced increased violence since the pro-Hindu Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. In the past three years there have been more than 600 incidents of violence against Christians.

The letter to Christian leaders stated that it was time to take bold initiatives, and join with civil groups, to prevent further erosion of human and constitutional values. “In unison with members of all faiths, ideologies, we should marshal India’s tremendous spiritual resources in consolida-ting peace, resolving conflicts and infusing a sense of values in the body politic,” it added.

Bishop Theodore Mascare-nhas, general secretary of the Indian bishops’ conference reacted to the letter saying: “Our doors are open to everybody. These leaders [who signed the letter] are most welcome to come and discuss.” He told ucanews.com that the church stands by its principles and are “against ideologies of polarization, hatred and violence.”