Category: From The States

Jesuit Father Gaston Roberge, the French-Canadian founder of Chitrabani media training institute in Kolkata and film and media scholar par excellence, died at St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, on Aug. 26. He was 85. Both Chitrabani and the Xavier Institute of Communications, founded by Francis “Packy” MacFarland, were born within a year of each other, a little over 50 years ago in 1969-70, in two different parts of the country, Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Bombay (now Mumbai).

A pioneering Jesuit missionary who had worked for four decades in north-eastern India has died.
Father Jayant Kumar Padival died around 10 pm on September 8 in Father Muller Hospital, Mangaluru, a port town in the southern Indian State of Karnataka. He was 71 and a Jesuit for 54 years.
According to Karnataka Jesuit Provincial Father Dionysius Gerard Leonard Vaz, the burial service was scheduled at 3:30 pm on September 9. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, only a few people are attending the burial service.

Bishop Paul Chittilapilly, the first prelate of a Syro-Malabar diocese Pope Paul II created 33 years ago to resolve the rite rivalry in the Indian Church, died on Sept. 6. He was 86. Bishop Chittilapilly, who had served as the bishop of Kalyan in Maharashtra and Thamarassery in Kerala, died at 6:45 pm in Nirmala Hospital, managed by the Ursulines of Mary Immaculate nuns, in Kozhikode.

Pope Francis on August 29 appointed Father George Kurisummoottil as the auxiliary bishop of Kottayam Syro-Malabar archdiocese to take care of its Knanaya faithful from Syro-Malankara Church. The new bishop is currently the vicar general for the Syro-Malankara faithful of the archdiocese. Father Kurisummoottil has chosen the name Gheevarghese Mar Aprem.

Apostolic Nuncio to Japan Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, an Indian, died September 7 in Tokyo following a heart attack. He was 76. The death occurred at 1:30 pm Japan time (8 am Indian time). The Syro-Malabar prelate from Kerala, southern India, was reportedly recuperating after a stroke some time back. His funeral details are yet announced. Archbishop Chennoth was the apostolic nuncio to Japan since 2011. Archbishop Chennoth was born on October 13, 1943, as one of the six sons and two daughters of Joseph and Mariakutty of Kokkamangalam Chennoth family in Cherthala, Alapuzha district.

An Ursuline Franciscan nun has been appointed by Mysuru District Legal Service Authority as panel advocate for free legal aid clinic. Sr Jenifer Pinto of the congregation’s of Mysuru Province will provide as a free legal advisor in the Taluk office at Mysuru, a city in south-western Indian State of Karnataka.
She is the first person to be appointed as a free legal adviser in the newly started Free Legal Aid Clinic of Mysore Taluk.
Sister Pinto is a practicing advocate in Mysuru and Chamarajnagar District Courts.

The Indian Church and political leaders across party lines are mourning former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee, who died on Aug. 31 in New Delhi. Mukherjee, 84, had brain surgery at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in the national capital in late August. He had also tested positive for Covid-19.
“His passing away leaves a deep void in Indian politics. The Church in India will miss him very much for his political statesmanship, moral integrity and fine oratorical skills,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
He recalled that Mukherjee was the chief guest at the CBCI’s Christmas celebrations in December 2018 when he impressed many with his vast knowledge of the Bible.
“We mourn his loss and express our gratitude for all the support and encouragement he gave the Christian community and its activities. May the Almighty grant him eternal rest.” Cardinal Gracias said.

India’s Home Ministry has cancelled four Christian organizations’ licenses to receive foreign donations without specifying any reason for the move. The Christian groups are among six organizations whose licenses have been cancelled this year, a ministry source told UCA News.
The four organizations are Mumbai-based New Life Fellowship Association, Evangelical Churches Association of Manipur in the northeast, Ecreosoculis North Western Gossner Evangelical and Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church — both based in Jharkhand State. A license number under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), commonly known as an FCRA number, is mandatory to receive foreign donations in a bank account.
“From time to time, relevant matters concerning FCRA norms are reviewed, and government actions are taken,” said an official without citing any specific reasons for cancelling the FCRA numbers of the four Christian organization. Federal agencies are probing the funding activities of two US-based Christian donors — the Seventh Day Adventist Church and Baptist Church — in India.

A forum for Catholic nuns, brothers and priests practicing as lawyers says time has come for the self-examination of the Supreme Court of India. “It is the right time for the Apex Court for its self-exa-mination,” the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests (NLFRP) stated on August 22 after observing that certain moves of the apex court have evoked bar associations across India to organize protests and demonstrations.
The forum says it was disturbed by the court’s full bench on August 20 holding Prashant Bhushan, a noted lawyer, guilty of criminal contempt of court for two tweets.
Bhushan was drawn into the case for the tweets dated on July 27 and 29 on Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and the Supreme Court. One tweet was about a photograph of Justice Bobde astride a bike and another on how posterity would perceive the role played by the apex court in the past six years.
On August 14, the apex court found the tweets offensive and scandalizing the court. Bhushan said the tweets embodied his bona fide belief and that it would be contemptuous on his part to apologize for something he believes in. He also said he would cheerfully submit to whatever punishment the court imposed on him.
The forum for Catholic religious and priests termed as “unfortunate” that the court finding the tweets undermining “the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the Chief Justice of India and directly affronts the majesty of law.”
The forum has declared its solidarity to Bhushan as it finds him not just an individual but the “voice of millions of people and an icon of Right to Expression of our times.”

A 106-year-old dilapidated hospital has become a state-of-the-art healthcare facility in Maharashtra, thanks to a Catholic priest.

Giving a new lease of life to the Morarji Gokaldas Rural Hospital in Mahabaleshwar is among several success stories of Father Tomy Kariyilakulam, who has revolutionized the healthcare scenario of Satara district after he entered the western Indian state a quarter century ago.

“This could be a role model for India to improve public health delivery, without privatization or corporatization,” the 54-year-old priest, popularly called Father Tomy, told Matters India.

The member of the Kerala-based Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament says he draws on “unique collaboration” among the state government, Red Cross of India and corporate houses to improve a few hospitals and nearly 80 public health centers in the district.

The Mahabaleshwar hospital, a government enterprise, boasts of a hoary past as its foundation stone was laid in 1914 by Lord Thomas Willingdon, the then governor of Bombay. It was originally meant for the use of locals and British tourists.

Despite its hoary past, the hospital — sprawled on an 11-acre forest land adjacent to the Mahabaleshwar market — was a decript structure that resembled “a ghost house” when the Catholic priest started the renovation works at the invitation of the Maharashtra government.

Doctor Amrish Vaidya of Mumbai, whose family has a 100-year-old association with Mahabaleshwar, thanks the Catholic priest for converting “a very basic rural” healthcare institution into a well-equipped facility. “It is now ready for the next level of care for the local population,” he said at the soft launch of renovated hospital on May 8.