Category: From The States

Farmers organizations have condemned a Chennai’s school’s examination paper that disparages their agitation against new farm laws.
An English language examination paper of Dayanand Arya Vidyalaya Boys’ school in Chennai’s Gopalapuram has labeled the protesting farmers as “violent maniacs” acting under “external instigations.”
During a written English exam on February 11, the renowned school asked its tenth graders to write a 100-to-200-word letter to a daily news-paper editor condemning farm law protesters for the Republic Day violence and for failing to “realize that country comes be-fore personal needs and gain.”
Responding to the wording of this question, All India Kisan Sabha (farmers’ council) General Secretary Hannan Mollah wrote to the Principal, “The AIKS strongly feels that the way in which the question is framed is extremely prejudiced against the just, legitimate and peaceful farmers’ struggle that has been going on at Delhi borders for the last three months.”
He told the school that the question’s general tone is loaded against protesting farmers and will poison young minds against the on-going farmers’ struggle across India. The school is managed by the Arya Samaj Educational Trust.
“We demand that this question be either dropped or it be re-drafted in an objective manner,” he said.

July 23, 1921 is the date of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. The event occured in Shanghai in what was once the French Concession. One hundred years after that date, in 2021, the Catholics of China will hold a symposium “in memory of the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party” and will deepen their understanding of “the moving events during the period of the Long March,” which laid the foundations for the definitive victory of Mao Zedong over Chiang Kai Shek.
The information is reported in an article published in the state-Catholic magazine “The Church in China”, by a certain Hui Jing, citing a preparatory meeting between the Chinese bishops and the leaders of the Patriotic Association, held in early February.
The symposium and the study of the Long March are just some of the events that will characterize the program of ecclesial commitments drawn up by the Council of Bishops and the PA for this year.
The article lists “formation courses in collaboration with the Central Institute of Socialism;” preparatory courses for the national gathering of the “Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference” (held in March);  the “construction of the Patriotic Association,” and much more.
Naturally, Catholics are firstly required to deepen “the guidelines of the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and the 5th Plenary Session of the 19th National Congress,” as well as assimilate “Xi Jinping’s thinking on socialism with Chinese characteristics  for a new era,” strengthening “our awareness of the need to maintain political integrity, to think in general terms, to follow the heart of the leadership and keep in line with the central Party leadership.”

A Catholic forum has joined activists, lawyers and political leaders to condemn the arrest of young climate change and environmental activists in India.
It followed the arrest of environmentalist Disha Ravi for her alleged involvement with the “toolkit” case being investigated by the federal government in relation to the Jan. 26 tractor rally violence in New Delhi.
The 22-year-old was apprehended from her residence in Bengaluru on Feb. 14 by Delhi police.
“The All India Catholic Union is deeply distressed and extremely worried by the hounding of young climate change and environment activists in the country,” AICU national president Lancy D. Cunha said a Feb. 18 statement.

Hungary is mourning Jesuit Fr Ferenc Jálics, who years ago counted Pope Francis among his students. He died in Budapest on Feb 13 at the age of 94. The Hungarian Society of Jesus confirmed that Jesuit Fr Jálics passed away following a turbulent but spiritually fulfilling life. He authored numerous books on Christian spirituality, and became the founder of a school of contemplative prayer.
Born in Budapest in 1927, he saw the impact of conflict when he was sent to Nuremberg at the end of World War Two, after attending military school.

A special court is set to pronounce its verdict on the bail application of an elderly Indian Jesuit activist five months after his arrest and detention on charges of sedition.
The special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the federal anti-terror agency, has set March 2 to announce the result of the bail application of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy.
“We are happy that finally the court has fixed a date for announcing its order on the bail application,” said Father A. Santhanam, a Jesuit lawyer based in Tamil Nadu state who is following the case.

Jesuit Father Vasco do Rego, a noted Goan crusader and Konkani stalwart, died. The death occurred at 9:45 pm on February 17 in Pune, Maharashtra. He was 95.
The funeral will be held on February 19 at St Xavier’s Church in Pune. Father Rego was widely acknowledged for contributing to the Church in Goa in the fields of liturgy in Konkani and translation and editing work of the Konkani Bible.

Chhatar Singh Katre, a teacher in a small village school run by the government in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district organized a get-together and a prayer meet on January 27. The occasion, his daughter said, was to celebrate her college admission.
Before the program started, the police reached the spot, and detained Katre, and his friends Mahendra Nagdeva J Nathan; all three were taken to the police station for interrogation, and subsequently arrested for luring and coercing people for conversion.
All three remain in jail, their bail pleas having been rejected by the Balaghat sessions court.
Katre’s daughter Kalyani Katre said, “My father organized the meet for me and now he is in jail for no reason. The case was registered against him and two others on the complaint of a person who was booked 10 years ago for assaulting and harassing my father and others for participating in a religious program.”
Raghunath Khatarkar who is investigating the case at Lalbarra police station of Balaghat district, said the complainant Hemant Thakre recorded his statement before the court and accused Katre and two others of offering him 10,000 rupee for conversion. “In the name of God, they also tried to scare people that something bad would happen to them.”
In a month since the enactment of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance to regulate interfaith marriages and conversion, 28 people have been booked and at least half of them are Christians, according to police records.
The ordinance, which replaces the MP Freedom of Religion Act 1968, came into force on January 9. State home department data shows that eight cases have been registered in eight different districts in a month, and 28 people named. While four cases are against nine Muslims for allegedly forcing women to change their religion for marriage, another four were against 19 Christians for luring and coercing people to change their faith through prayer meetings, police reports showed.

Ahead of state elections in Kerala state, Catholic bishops have cautioned people against misleading political campaigns that polarize people on religious lines in this Indian southern state. The bishops’ warning came after a political leader justified the takeover of the 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Turkey and turning it into a mosque.
“It is true. The efforts are on to create a Christian-Muslim divide in the state ahead of the elections with fake, misleading and maligning campaigns,” said Bishop Joseph Pamplany, chairman of the media commission of Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC).
The KCBC urged political leaders to abstain from any act that polarizes voters on communal lines in a statement issued on Feb. 5.
State elections are due in Kerala in April-May to elect 140 legislators for the state’s 33 million people as the current government’s five-year term ends on June 1.
The state is set to see a fierce battle for power as the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs the federal government, tries to find a foothold in Kerala.

Residents of a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district have mark-ed the silver jubilee of becoming Christians with the blessing of a new church.
Hetlong village under the diocese of Miao has 30 families belonging to the Tangsa tribe. The community conducted worship in a bamboo structure with tin roof for quarter of a century. They marked the 25th year of receiving the Catholic faith with a new concrete church on February 10 in the presence of guests and dignitaries from around the district.
Blessing the church, Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao congratulated the community for staying strong in their faith for the last 25 years. He invited them to have a stronger faith along with the new church. He also encouraged them to keep alive the flame of faith to withstand possible threats to it in future.
“In the Bible we see several letters of St Paul addressed to the Corinthians and Philippians. These communities do not exist today because they did not live according to the teachings of the faith they received. This could happen to us too if we are not fervent in the faith we celebrate today,” the Sales-ian prelate cautioned.

A national body of Catholic and Protestant women leaders has urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to heed the protesting farmers’ demand and repeal the three recently enacted farm laws.
“Our farmers have never failed our nation through the last 71 years. Please do not fail them now,” pleads a letter from the Indian Christian Women Movement addressed to the prime minister as the farmers’ pro-tests on the Delhi borders entered 70th day on Feb. 3.
At the same time, the women says they watch with horror how the protest sites outside Delhi’s borders are being fortified with barbed wires, cement barriers and spikes on the roads. They also point out that wooden batons in the hands of the police have been replaced with steel batons.