Category: From The States

An NGO led by the Society of the Divine Word has joined civil society groups to help those affected by the lockdown in a district of the north-eastern Indian State of Tripura.
As coronavirus spread in Tripura, Oisho Bani Society (OBS) joining organizations such as Yuva Vikash Kendra to reach out to various parts of Dhalai district, its director Divine Word Father Jeevan Kennady told Matters India.
As the opening of relief work phase-II on August 13, Father Kennady handed over 30 dry ration kits worth of 800 rupees each in Laxmilonga and Lembucherra area and also in the working office of OBS near Assam Rifles Circuit House.
YVK, the partner organization of OBS and Prasanta Chowdhury, a volunteer of OBS, distributed dry ration kits to 150 families in Bardaman Thakurpara ADC village and 30 families in Teliamura respectively.
The dry ration includes rice, dal, oil, wheat, salt, turmeric, soybean, onion, potatoes, sanitizer and masks.
OBS has a plan to cover over 600 families from different places in Tripura in two weeks, said Father Kennady.

Demands for official recognition of the Sarna tribal religion have intensified in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand after Hindu groups took soil from sacred Sarna sthals to use in the construction of a temple in Ayodhya.
Some 32 tribal organizations plan to boycott next year’s national census if their demand for recognition of the Sarna religion in the census is not met.
“There is no doubt that we are also included among those 32 organizations because we are tribals first, then Christian. Tribal Christians have always been in favour of the Sarna code and have joined the demand for recognition,” Ratan Tirkey, a member of the Tribes Advisory Committee of Jharkhand, told UCA News.
“Demand for recognition of the Sarna code intensified after the soil-taking incident because that was a conspiracy by Hindu fanatics to divide tribal people in the name of religion.
“Christians are outnumbered by people who practice the Sarna religion in the state, so Hindu fanatics are attempting to alienate Christian tribals by claiming that Sarna tribals belong to Hindu society.
“Sarna tribals are nature worshipers who revere forests, mountains and rivers. They do not belong to any religious sect and their demand for a separate category in the census dates back to the 1990s.”

When Jesuit Father George Gispert Sauch died on July 29 in Bombay, India’s secular media completely ignored the fact that this 90-year old from Spain spent more than 70 years working for interreligious dialogue in the country.
He himself articulated it so well: “The relations between the followers of the many world religions and even of smaller religious traditions and Christian believers have now entered a stage beyond ‘confrontation,’ ‘encounter’ and comparative ‘dialogue’ to a search for sharing spirituality.”

A Marian hymn sung by a Catholic arch-bishop in Kerala, southern India, has become a hit on social media platforms.
“This is the first time in the history of the Indian Church that an archbishop has sung in a studio for a Christian album,” says Father John Puthuva, who wrote the lyric for ”Japamaala Kayyil” (Rosary in Hand), a Malayalam hymn sung by Archbishop Antony Kariyil, episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

An Indian tribal Catholic woman is among seven young climate leaders selected by United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres to advise him on the global climate crisis.
Archana Soreng, who hails from Odisha State in eastern India, was chosen on July 27 to advise the UN on accelerating global action to tackle climate change.

Bishop Allwyn D’Silva, chair-man of Prison Ministry India (PMI), has advo-cated for the dignity and real social integration of prisoners.
The auxiliary bishop of Bombay made this appeal on August 2 when the Catholic Church in India marks Prison Ministry Sunday. For the occasion this year, Bishop D’Silva issued a pastoral letter advocating for the dignity and social reintegration of prisoners in the country.

The Public Affairs Commission of the Syro Malabar Church urged the Kerala government to take immediate action to protect farmers, farms and livestock from wildlife attacks. “It is not in the interest of a civilized society to ignore the cries of farmers and their families who are losing their lives due to wildlife attacks,” said Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, chairman of the Public Affairs Commission of the Oriental Church.

“The increasing presence and invasion of wildlife is creating more crises to the existing miserable living conditions of ordinary farmers and the crisis in the agricultural sector. In the hilly areas, almost everything the farmers cultivate are destroyed by wild boar, elephants and monkeys.

Sister Nichole, a member of Missionaries of Charity, died on Ranchi on July 27. She was 61. At least five nuns of the congregation died of Covid-19.

Sister Nichole, who develo-ped mild headache and sleep-lessness, was tested positive and admitted in the Constant Lievens Hospital and Research Centre.

“The nun had been in the forefront to distribute food packets to the poor during the lockdown,” Missionaries of Charity Sister Sebastino, the former regional superior of Ranchi region, told Matters India on July 28.

Her funeral was held on July 27 at the congregation’s burial place in Doranda, near Ranchi, capital of the eastern Indian State of Jharkhand. The nuns in Doranda convent are now under quarantine. She is the third Missionaries of Chari-ty nun and the Indian woman religious to die of Covid-19. Others are:

1. Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Ajaya Mary.

2. Maria Bambina Sister Michael Serrao in Dibrugarh, Assam.

3. Maria Bambina Sister Florence Kurisinkal in Dibru-garh, Assam, on July 21

4. Missionaries of Charity Sister Mukta in West Bengal.

5. Missionaries of Charity Sister Sienna from Jharkhand’s Gumla diocese.

A group of Christians was brutally attacked by a gang of religious goons at midnight on July 21. The attack took place in the eastern Indian State of Odisha in a village named Badaguda in Koraput district.

Speaking to Persecution Relief, Ayuba Khora, the local Pastor said, “The goons broke into the home of 75-year-old Chachiri Muduli, who was housing around 7 odd Chris-tians after their homes had been broken down earlier this year by the same fanatics. The goons not only mercilessly beat the Christians up but also destroy-ed the house.”

He further added, “Eight Christians in all were admitted to the local government hospi-tal with severe injuries, of which the elderly Chachiri had the worst wounds.”

Ayuba told Persecution Relief that he had been running a house church at the Badaguda village for the past two years. Around 40 Christians used to gather to pray every Friday. Since then, the villagers have been harassing and beating up the believers saying, “When you pray, our gods leave us, so you have to stop praying here or you must leave this village.”

A Hyderabad-based Mont-fort centre for human rights has launched a livelihood pro-gram for those who have lost their livelihoods because of Covid-19.

The first group to benefit from Montfort Social Institute (MSI) project, launched on July 21, is transgenders who lost their traditional occupa-tions such as begging and sex work after India imposed the lockdown on March 25.

The institute also works for sustainable development and good governance education.

Five members of the co-mmunity have started making and marketing ginger-garlic paste, an essential kitchen in-gredient, said MSI director Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath.

The effort is well received by households that find the hygienically prepared product better than what they get from markets, Brother Theckanath told Matters India.

“Perhaps MSI is one of the few organizations related to the Catholic Church working with Transgenders in India.