The ten-year-old gender policy of the Indian Catholic Church has proved to be a failed promise, women theologians say.

A great majority of women’s servitude betrays male privilege that is normalized in the families and in the Church. “This situation makes us interrogate whether the ‘Gender Policy of the Catholic Church in India’ acclaimed as the first of its kind, has remained a failed promise even after 10 years of its existence,” the Indian Women Theologians Forum said in a statement.

The forum’s April 28-May 1 annual meet at Good Shepherd Convent Bengaluru deliberated the theme, “Towards a Gender Just Church.”

The participants said they are pained at the indifference and silence of the Church leaders to sexual abuse survivors, including religious women.

“We are deeply disturbed by the double standards with which the survivors and their supporters are further victimized while the alleged offenders are sympathized and defended in various ways,” said a statement issued by the forum after the meeting.

The statement also noted that the notion of gender justice still remains an ambivalent concept or, a mismatch within the framework of the institutional Church.

“While the Christian doctrine affirms equality between women and men on the biblical foundation of the creation of humans ‘in God’s image’ (Gen.1: 26-28), women’s experience of discrimination, silencing and exclusion within the ecclesiastical structures point to the contrary,” the statement said.

A Catholic nun died on the spot and another suffered serious injuries on May 12 when their scooter collided with a truck near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

According to Jabalpur Church sources, Sisters Manju Sisodia and Agnes Surin were traveling from Sagar to Rimjha, some 135 km southeast, when a truck hit their Activa scooter from behind. While Sister Surin died on the spot, Sister Sisodia was admitted to a hospital in Jabalpur.

A Catholic priest has been conferred with the “Best Citizens of India Award” in recognition of his work among the marginalized in northern India.

The International Publishing House, the world’s leading biographical specialists, chose Father Vineeth George for the award. He is a member of the Bangalore province of the Claretians and a doctoral research scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad.

Salesian Fr Jacob Anil D’Sa has been appoint-ed the Asian Inter-national Young Catholic Students (IYCS) chaplain.

The 40-year-old Indian priest will be based at Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

The IYCS is a Catholic action movement of the apostolate of Laity. As an International Catholic organization, it functions under the Pontifical Council for the laity, Vatican.

Pope Francis on May 1 transferred Bishop Derek Fernandes of Karwar to Belgaum as its new prelate, according to a press note from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India headquarters in New Delhi.

The diocese was without a head after Bishop Peter Machado was transferred to Bangalore as its arch-bishop in May 2018. He was chancellor and procurator of Belgaum diocese during 1991-2002 and the diocesan administrator for two years from 2004. He was appointed Karwar bishop on February 24, 2007.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics throughout India dedicated on April 28, the feast of Divine Mercy, to pray for neighbouring Sri Lanka that was ravaged by serial blasts.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, the national body of the Latin Rite Church, had called for observing the feast with various programs to show solidarity with the victims of the blasts that killed 359 people and wounded more than 500 in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

The Catholic Church observers the Sunday after Easter as the feast of Divine Mercy associated with special promises from Jesus and indulgences issued by the Church.

Expressing solidarity with the Sri Lankan victims, Catholics of Arunachal Pradesh conducted special prayer service and candle light rallies in various parts of India’s north-eastern most region.

About 3,000 people, mostly survivors of 2008 anti-Christian violence, joined similar programs in the Kandhamal district of Odisha State in Eastern India.

At Our Lady of Charity Parish Church, Raikia, a major parish in Kandhamal, the survivors marched with lighted candles and sang hymns for the Sri Lankan victims. Catholics in Raikia were attacked twice in the past — 2004 and in 2008 — by Hindu extremists.

“How can we the victims of anti-Christian violence of 2008 fail to show our solidarity towards the victims of terrorists in Sri Lanka?” asked Anita Pradhan, a widow.

She said, she could understand the agony of family members of Sri Lankan victims since “I had felt totally blind after the brutal massacre of my husband by the Hindu Extremist in 2008.”

India’s Catholic theologians on April 25 assembled in Bengaluru to analyze the current situation in the country and evolve relevant responses to help the Church address modern problems.

The 42 annual meeting of the Indian Theological Association (ITA) at the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre addressed the theme, “Whither India.”

“Upholding democratic values and the secular fabric of our Indian Constitution is paramount. The ITA seminar to create awareness for people, civil society and entire Indian polity is timely,” says Father Udayanath Bishoyi, a visiting professor at Morning Star Regional Seminary, Calcutta, and a participant.

The Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese priest is among 74 women and men theologians from various parts of India attending the April 25-28 event. The association was founded in 1976 to promote the development of an Indian Christian theology.

Jharkhand State in Eastern India has sought a federal investigation into 31 Christian charity organizations to check for the mishandling of overseas donations.

The state government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), suspects organizations have diverted donated funds for unspecified expenses and violated certain rules in submitting their annual reports, media reports said on April 13. Church leaders have termed the move an attempt to slander them and church bodies in the state.

“This is nothing but an attempt to give us bad press and malign our name,” said Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi.

He said they have learned from media that the government has recommended the Federal Home Ministry to use the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe 31 Christian non-governmental organizations, most of them Catholic.