An Indian woman has been elected to the board of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO) for a period of five years (2018-2022).

Juliet Ramamurthy was elected during the world body’s on October 15-22 general assembly at Dakar, Senegal. The last Indian on the board was 12 years ago. Ramamurthy is the only one from

India in the 27-member of the Board. Currently she is based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. “I feel honoured and humbled,” Ramamurthy told Matters India after the election.

A Catholic prelate on October 2 apologized for recent scandals involving Church leaders around the world and justified some Indian nuns coming to the street for justice.

“We are in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, promoter of Satyagraha and the only condition is that our strikes should be of ahimsa and not of violence,” Arch-bishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of Faridabad told more than 10,000 people attending a Bible convention in Thyagaraja Stadium in New Delhi.

The remarks of the prelate, a former Vatican diplomat, came in the backdrop of a sit-in by five members of the Missionaries of Jesus in Kerala to demand justice for a nun who was allegedly abused by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar.

The nuns and their supporters led by the “Save Our Sisters” movement ended their 14-day demonstration on September 22, a day after the Kerala police arrested Bishop Mulakkal.

Archbishop Bharanikulangara recalled that it was not the first time that the Church has gone to the street for its causes.

He recalled the late Arch-bishop Joseph Kundukulam of Trichur calling for a rally to protest a controversial drama that depicted Christ in poor light. Recently several bishops joined a sit-in the national capital seeking the release of Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was kidnapped by Islamic militants in Yemen.

He, however, admitted that the arrest of a brother priest and the nuns protest have shaken the faith many ordinary Catholics in India. These events have also affected the credibility of the Church systems and the clergy, he added.

He listed several scandals that hit the Church in the past one year such as the “land deal affair” in the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly in Kerala and the breaking of confession seal by an Orthodox priest and subsequent abuse of a woman by several priests.

Other scandals that have caused “a great turmoil and tumult” among Catholics and others are punishment of an American cardinal, resignation of some Chilean bishops, and the recent sexual abuse report of the German bishops’ conference have, Archbishop Bharanikulangara added.

“I regret that these things happened. I publicly apologize for the scandals caused by the Church leaders to the common Catholic faithful,” he added.

The Association of Catholic Historians of India (ACHI) has chosen to deliberate on the contribution of missionaries for nation building for its forthcoming annual conference in Bangalore, next June.

“The right-wing Hindu organizations such as RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and the pro-Hindu BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) with their hidden and malicious agenda seek to destroy the contribution of Christian missionaries in India. That is exactly the problem we are facing for longer. Many a time the work of Christian missionaries is interpreted negatively. We need to put them in the right perspective,” Divine Word Father Rayappan Jesuraj, a member of the executive council of ACHI, told Matters India.

Fr Jesuraj, professor of church history at Papal Seminary-Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, is an author as well. He has decades of teaching church history in many major seminaries and institutes in India. He was also dean and principals of a few theology seminaries in the country.

“We chose the theme on the contribution of missionaries for nation building because there is a general feeling that either the missionaries did little for Indian culture and language or destroyed it entirely, which is not the fact,” he added.

The chief minister of India’s Jharkhand state, Raghubar Das, who heads the state government led by the pro-Hindu BJP, recently accused Christian missionaries of working to keep the tribal stronghold poor. Christian leaders and historians deny the charge saying he was trying to cover up his government’s lapses ahead of state elections.

The faults of one person cannot be blamed on the entire Catholic Church, Percival Holt, a 25-year-old observer at the Synod of Bishops, told reporters.

“It is wrong to judge the church for the acts of certain people within the church,” he said Oct. 11 during the Vatican’s daily briefing on what is happening inside the synod on young people, the faith and vocational discernment.

Holt, president of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement and member of the National Youth Commission of India’s bishops’ conference, said he wanted to make it clear that the church has “immense love and concern” for young people.

“The church cares for you,” he said. When asked specifically about the clerical abuse scandal, Holt told Catholic News Service, the abuse was not caused by the structure of the church, but by its members.

His message to young people is that “if we want the church to be different, we have to hold onto our values and principles.”

As his generation steps into more leadership positions within the church, he said, they will have the opportunity to make a positive change if they are led by their principles. But if their values are compromised now, the cycle of poor behavior among church leaders will only continue.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has expressed anguish over “constant” media attacks on the Church imply-ing that it was trying to cover up a sexual abuse case against a prelate.

“This accusation does not correspond to the truth. Church authorities have studied and continue to examine this serious and complex matter,” says a September 30 press statement from conference president Cardinal Oswald Gracias. The cardinal issued the note two days after the conference’s Stand-ing Committee met at Bengaluru to address recent happenings in the Indian Church.

Pope Francis on September 20 appointed Retired Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias of Bombay as the temporary administrator of Jalandhar diocese in the absence of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who is now in Kerala facing a sexual abuse case.

“Our prayers accompany Bishop Gracias as he takes on this responsibility,” says a press release from Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India announcing the appointment.

The Vatican acted on Bishop Mulakkal’s on September 16 request to the Pope for temporary relief from his episcopal ministry.

The appointment was announced as Bishop Mulakkal, 54, was undergoing the second day of questioning by police at a high tech police station in Thripunithura, some 10 km east of Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.

He was accused by a member of the Missionaries Charity, a diocesan congregation under the diocese of Jalandhar, of subjecting her to rape and unnatural sex for 13 times during 2014-2016. The nun filed the case on June 28 in Vaikom, a town in the Kottayam district of Kerala.

The bishop has denied the charges, calling them “concocted” and said the nun holds a vendetta against him after he had initiated disciplinary action against her.

Bishop Gracias, 79, thus becomes the apostolic administrator of the diocese of Jalandhar “sede plena et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis.” The Latin term which refers to any circumstance involving a conflict of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, where Rome decides to take the matter under its jurisdiction and reserves to itself the right to make a final judgment on the matter.