A parish under the Archdiocese of Bangalore has decided to follow a new set of ten commandments as part of its observation of the Year of the Poor.

The Don Bosco Church in Bengaluru, capital city of Karnataka State, will follow a simple lifestyle, avoid culture of waste, educate poor children, feed the hungry, heal the sick, support the imprisoned, welcome immigrants, provide shelter to the homeless and show concern for the differently abled and the marginalized and offer employment opportunities to the poor. Father Aloysius Santiago, the pastor, said these moves are the Salesian parish’s response to a circular from Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore that declared 2020 as the Year of the Poor.

Father Santiago, his assistants Fathers Stanley George, James Sunder and Sunder joined lay and youth representatives to light the lamp as a symbol of opening the year. Father Sunder read out the action plan containing the ten commandments proposed by the archbishop to be observed during the year.

In his homily the parish priest asked people to follow the archbishop’s directives to alleviate poverty in the parish. He also urged the people to help him educate girl children from the new academic year. He said the presence of the Catholic community in the slums near by the parish is to radiate God’s goodness to the people. He said children should not be deprived of quality education because they are poor. The inauguration ended with the recitation of the prayer for the Year of the poor as given in the circular.

Archbishop Machado, in a recent circular, exhorted all to imbibe the spirit of Saint Joseph as whose feast falls on March 19. He expressed the hope the foster father of Jesus would “certainly inspire us to reach out to the poor and marginalized, especially in this Year of the Poor in our Archdiocese.”

St Joseph is referred to as the patron of the poor. Though poor, the saint is referred in the Bible as a “just man,” a man who did justice to everybody, both in his role as the head of the Holy Family and as a man of dignity who was proud of his poor profession.

Hundreds of Dalits, Tribals, Muslims and Christians from various parts of India gathered in New Delhi to protest against the implementation the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

The March 4 protest at Jantar Mantar, near the Parliament building, was organized by Save Nation Save Constitution Committee, a civil rights group.

“The unleashing of violence by anti social elements under the political backing on the citizens of the nation, particularly women from marginalized religious and caste communities around the country has led to a state of unprecedented insecurity among people,” says a statement issued by the organizers.

The protesters expressed deep anxiety against CAA which is to be used as a ploy to divide the society based on the religious identity.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay celebrated a special memorial Mass at St John the Evangelist Church in Marol on March 1 in honor of his predecessor, who died 2013 at the age of 93. The parish was the home parish of the late cardinal, and was the place where he was buried after his death. Marol, a suburb of Bombay, was once under Portuguese control and considered a Catholic heart of the city. St John the Evangelist parish was founded in 1579.

Pimenta served as Arch-bishop of Bombay from 1978-1996 and was created a cardinal in 1988 by St John Paul II.

“I wanted to give Cardinal Pimenta a fitting memorial to mark his birth centenary,” Gracias told Crux.

“I worked very closely with Pimenta, and was his close advisor, and we have to honor Pimenta’s pioneering initiative in Raighad. When Pimenta was appointed Archbishop of Bombay, the Catholic Church had no presence in Raighad,” the cardinal said.

Ucanews.com reported the charges came after Hindu activists barged into Sanjo Hospital in Mandya district and beat up its public relations officer, Solomon George, said Father Josekutty Kalayil, who is helping the hospital deal with the case.

George and Sister Nirmal Jose, hospital administer, were accused of denigrating Hindu gods and attempting to convert Hindus, Kalayil told ucanews. com on March 4.

George was granted bail March 3, two days after he was arrested, but the case continues in court, said the priest, who is helping the hospital deal with the case.

Kalayil told ucanews.com the case started with an elderly man being admitted to the hospital with a complaint of high blood pressure on March 1. The next day, he sought to leave the hospital against medical advice.

There is extreme poverty in the world. One percent of rich people have more money and wealth than the combined wealth of 4.6 billion people who have almost nothing. World-wide there are about 735 million people in extreme poverty.

In the Philippines, there are an estimated six million people in extreme poverty. Why is there so much inequality in the world?

Can the power of goodness bring social justice and overcome the devastating harm done by powerful greedy, selfish people? They must be challenged, opposed and resisted by those dedicated and committed to doing well.

Humanity develops when there is sharing, cooperation, justice, freedom and equality among people. When these values pervade daily life, they bring peace, harmony and well-being. People have to change peacefully the political and economic forces that allow them such a life.

Each of us can help our neighbors and find ways to open the cage of poverty and let them fly free. Everyone needs a job and a just wage to support their family. The following is a true story, one that is repeated many times over.

Luisito was a boy from a hungry, homeless family. They lived in poverty under sacks at the edge of a beach. His father was a simple fisherman but when international fishing companies were given commercial fishing permits in Philippine waters by corrupt officials, the fish disappeared.

Thousands of Filipinos were thrown into the pit of poverty. Luisito, then 15, collected, junk, plastic bottles, anything he could sell for a few handfuls of rice. That’s all they had but it wasn’t enough. Sickness took his father.

Some 1,000 tribals from across India including Christians gathered in the national capital to demand recognition of their religion in the 2021 census. They sang, danced and displayed placards saying they were misguided by all the parties who had used them for their political gain without fulfilling their promises.

A two-day communication and media workshop on the theme “Awakening: A Missionary Responsibility” was organized by the Society of Divine Word (SVD) Mumbai province on March 3-4 at Atma Darshan, Andheri, Mumbai. As many as 30 SVD priests and two Holy Spirit sisters (SSpS) from all over India participated in the workshop. Seeing the need to preach the Gospel through social media is the need of the time as the modern techno-logy has become a handy thing.

Christian leaders in New Delhi have condemned the communal violence in the Indian capital and asked churches to open their doors to victims of the riots.

The violence that started Feb. 23 in several areas of northeast Delhi has left 27 people dead and more than 200 injured in the deadliest episode of unrest in the capital in three decades, reported ucanews. com.

“At this trying moment, when communal riots have suddenly gripped Delhi, let us come forward with our prayers and every possible effort to bring relief to the affected people in terms of shelter, food and clothing,” said an appeal letter from Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi.

In his letter to parish priests, Couto said churches should open their premises “for this noble cause in the Lenten season. Please convey this to our people and organize them for action.”

The three days of violence were the worst unrest since the 1992 nationwide riots following the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, and possibly since the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 after the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, media reports said.

The clashes broke out after groups favouring the Citizenship Amendment Act clashed with groups protesting it. The act, passed on Dec. 11, 2019 aims to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan while blocking naturalization of Muslims.

Muslims see their exclusion from the law that makes religion the basis of citizenship as yet another attempt by the Narendra Modi government to marginalize them, ucanews.com reported.

Coupled with the National Register of Citizens, the community fears the moves are intended to strip millions of Indian Muslims of citizenship. People from other disadvantaged caste and gender identities as well as women are vulnerable to the national register.

“Humanity has been knocked down one more time, our houses burned, our kindred killed, our peace destroyed, and future betrayed,” said a Feb. 26 statement from the National Council of Churches in India, the forum of Protestant and Orthodox Churches in India.

Even as India prepared to welcome the American President Donald J Trump, who on his two-day visit to India reportedly plans to discuss, among other things, the issue of religious freedom in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) registered nine incidents of hate crime and violence on Indian Christians over the weekend.

From Feb 21 to 23, the RLC recorded nine incidents targeting Christians and their congregations including disruption of worship services, intimidation from police machinery and mob violence. Such incidents around weekends and especially on Sunday have become a regular phenomenon for Christians in many parts of India, Reverend Vijayesh Lal, national director of Religious Liberty Commission of EFI, said in a press note.

One incident was also reported from Chhattisgarh on Feb 20 evening taking the total number of incidents to ten in the last three days.