Native Catholics of the northern Indian State of Punjab have demanded a Dalit as their next bishop. “We demand a spiritual, well educated, co- operative and energetic Dalit bishop installed in Jalandhar diocese,” Roshan Joseph, the spokesperson of the Catholics of Punjab, told Matters India on September 25.

The Jalandhar diocese covers Punjab and four districts of neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

On September 24, several lay leaders met with the native priests to discuss the diocese’s future in the wake of a sexual abuse case against their bishop. They expressed distress after Bishop Franco Mulakkal, earlier in the day, was remanded to 14 days of police custody by a court in Kerala, southern India.

“The diocese has suffered too much insult because of the rape case in Kerala,” Joseph explained the reason for the meeting called by Punjabi priest Father Martin Sadiq. All Punjabi priests and lay leaders of the diocese attended the meeting at the Pastoral Council Centre in Jalandhar.

Sr Meena Barwa, a child migrant and member of the Handmaids of Mary, was the victim of rape 10 years ago during anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal, a district in the India state of Odisha. Her court case is largely unresolved. At the recent conference on migrant workers in New Delhi, she told her story of being a young migrant and undergoing persecution to a crowd of some 160 attendees, who afterward fell into complete silence. Following is her address, which she consented to share with Global Sisters Report.

“I share my experience and pilgrimage with gratitude to God.

I recount my suffering and triumph for thousands of girls, women, dalits, tribals who suffer – maybe more than I do.

I am a victim of migration, as many of these people are…..

I was among those who suffered during the unprecedented attacks on Christians that lasted for months. More than 100 were killed while thousands abandoned their land and houses to protect their lives.

I was abused sexually, and paraded half-naked in the street by forces inimical to Christians. It was a miracle that I survived the ordeal. I escaped death and managed to file a First Information Report, the first step in filing a case with the police….

The first trial in the court traumatized me again. I could not sleep for days after that. I felt humiliated, offended, accused falsely, intimidated and tortured mentally. I developed an aversion for the court and its process. Despite such turmoil, I passed my three-year degree course. I stayed in a convent, where, except for the sisters, no one knew my identity.

I do think often about Kandhamal, where I had lived for two years, sharing life with the local people. For four days, starting on Aug. 23, 2008, I saw people, including little children and women, running away to the forest. I saw Christian houses in villages going up in flames.

All this did not put me down, but steeled my resolve to do something for people who suffered with me. Nothing much has been done for Kandhamal. I was nagged by thoughts: Who will speak for the Kandhamal people? Who will fight on their behalf for justice, which still eludes them even after 10 years?…

Pope Francis has chosen 13
Indians to
attend the
Synod of
Bishops on
Youth in
October
together
with other
Catholic
leaders
from around the world.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), will lead the Indian delegation composed of three cardinals, two archbishops, four bishops, two priests and two youth.

The Pope has approved the members elected by the three individual sui juris (Ritual) Churches that have their respective episcopal bodies, which constitute CBCI, to represent the Indian Church at the synod.

The Syro-Malabar Bishops’ Synod is represented by Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of Ernakulam- Angamaly, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Pandarasseril of Kottayam, president of the Youth Commission, and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum-Malankaras, will represent the Synod for the Syro-Malankara Church.

The Conference of the Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) for the Latin Church will include Cardinal Gracias, Abp George Antonysamy of Madras and Mylapore, (Tamil Nadu), Bp Sebastian Thekethecheril of Vijayapuram (Kerala), Bp Henry D’Souza of Bellary (Karnataka) and Abp John Barwa, of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar (Odisha).

India is among countries where religious freedom is infringed and governments tolerate violence, says the US International Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a global report into reli- gious freedom.

On September 4, USCIRF released its report (2018) into the religious freedom that identified high levels of religious repression in 28 countries.

India comes under Tier 2 countries — nations where the violations engaged in or tolerated by the government during 2017 are serious and characterized by at least one of the elements of the ‘systematic, ongoing and egregious’ CPC [country of particular concern] standard.”

Other countries in this category are: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia and Turkey.

These countries, USCIRF says, “represent the most pressing religious freedom concerns worldwide and the most promising
avenues for addressing
them through US foreign
policy.” The US body has
listed 16 countries as Tier
1 – the harshest level of
repression. They are Myanmar, Central African Republic,
China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria,
North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Myanmar, China, Iran and Sudan have been designated as countries of particular concern in every USCIRF report since its first report in 1999. The annual report, issued on August 29, focused on three themes: advocacy for the release of specific prisoners, the use of blasphemy laws in place in at least 69 countries and which “should be repealed,” the report said, and women and religious freedom.
It also focused on seven “religious prisoners of conscience” in hopes of reducing the number world- wide of such prisoners and to highlight the conditions in each country that led to their imprisonment. One of the seven was the Rev. Andrew Brunson, who is still under house arrest in Turkey after having been jailed for nearly two years, and which has led to US economic sanctions against Turkey in retaliation for its refusal to free him.

He was born in the mountains, up in the northern Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, where the air was then still fresh and the trees were green.

Up there, in the small,
remote village of Ulaytokpo
in Ladakh, Sonam Wangchuk
went to school with other tribal children.

Education was difficult, he recalled, because minorities were discriminated against, and schools were lacking and poorly-equipped.

Teaching standards were abysmal during those days and what was written in textbooks was irrelevant to the lives of mountain people.

“I had a very rough education in the mountains,” Wangchuk told ucanews.com during an interview in Manila. “Not much with what you got from the textbooks made sense,” he said.

He was then too young to understand, but when he got older and was confronted with financial difficulties to continue his own education, he opened his eyes.

“I had to teach other students to support myself,” he said.

“It did not make much sense, even to people in New Delhi, and even in London,” he said with a smile.

He stressed the need for spiritual and religious leaders who should preach about “a new form of non-violence and peace with air, water and all living beings on this planet.”
“We need to update our religion,” Wangchuk told ucanews.com.
“Our religion is somewhat outdated from the time when people were killing with guns and daggers, our leaders are still talking about peace of that kind whereas the current problem is not the peace of guns and daggers,” he said.

Wangchuk said the “main causes of violence and deaths these days are environmental in nature [and] lifestyle related.”

He said he looks forward to “new ways of seeing religion” where Hindus and Muslims, for instance, would not only say that they would not eat this or that kind of meat but would say that “we don’t use plastic bottles, we don’t use cars for no reason, we use public transport, we use steps rather than escalators.”

The Law Commission has suggested certain changes in marriage and
divorce laws that should be uniformly
accepted in the personal laws of all
religions, while holding that the
uniform civil code “is neither necessary
nor desirable at this stage” in the
country. The Commission, headed by
former Supreme Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan whose tenure ended on August 31, has come out with a 185-page consultation paper on “Family Law Reforms’ said a unified nation does not necessarily need to have “uniformity.”

It said the best way forward was to preserve diversity of personal laws even while ensuring they did not contradict fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Saying, secularism cannot contradict the plurality prevalent in the country, the Commission said in the paper that: “Cultural diversity cannot be compromised to the extent that our urge for uniformity itself becomes a reason for threat to the territorial integrity of the nation.”

Indian Jesuit Father Stanislaus Lourdusamy says a treason charge linking him with militant Maoists is a fabrication being used to discredit his work for prisoners and tribal people.

The 82-year-old Jesuit, popularly known as Stan Swamy, was charged along with eight other rights activists on Aug. 28 for alleged links to a banned Maoist group in the western State of Maharashtra.

Police have also linked the activists with violence between Dalit and upper-caste Maratha people in the state earlier this year. “It is nothing but a complete concoction and absolute falsehood that is being propagated by Maharashtra police,” Father Swamy said in a Sept. 3 statement.

Father Swamy said he has been convener of an organization called Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee (PPSC) which assists under- trial prisoners.

For a change, a Catholic priest in Kerala chose a mosque to deliver his sermon.

Father Joseph (Sanu) Puthussery on August 31 visited the Juma Masjid at Vechoor in Kottayam district during Jum’ah (Friday prayers) and delivered a thanksgiving speech at the masjid prayer hall.

The Muslims had fed the flood victims who had taken shelter at his church that comes under Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. St Antony’s Church at Achinakom in Kottayam district had sheltered more than 580 people rendered homeless by unprecedented floods that affected 12 of Kerala’s 14 districts mid August. The church authorities had faced shortage of food and water to feed them.
“I straightaway went to the masjid, appraised the Maulavi about our difficulty and requested his help. After the day’s prayers, Muslim brothers came to the church with a large quantity of food and water as per his direction,” Fr Puthussery told media persons.

The Muslim supplied essential articles to the relief camp at the church for several days. Besides food and water, essential medicines were also brought by the youths attached to the Masjid, Father Puthussery said.

Transgressing all barriers of religion and caste, rich and poor, high and low, Indians have joined hands to provide succour to people reeling under the worst flood in five decades in Kerala.

Justice Kurien Joseph, a Supreme Court judge, Catholic and Kerala native, worked until late at night in New Delhi to help pack and label boxes containing relief materials for flood victims.

“It was heartening to see people unite in love for their suffering brethren casting aside all boundaries of religion and region,” Joseph said as he assisted children and women packing materials.

The flood in the southern state washed away hundreds of houses and submerged villages, killing at least 370 people and displacing about 800,000 to relief camps.

Not only Kerala people living in New Delhi “but people from other parts of India have gathered here. It just goes to show that goodness has not disappeared from humans,” Joseph said.

A group of lawyers launched the initiative through social media. Despite the short notice, people gathered with clothing and food to be packed and sent to the flood-hit state 2,500 kilometers away.

In Kerala, fishermen took out their boats on their own to rescue people. According to reports, they refused remuneration from the government for their voluntary work, saying they did not do it for money.

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“Jesus’ love thy neighbor philosophy has never been so evident in our country,” said Lucy John, a teacher from New Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area, where a collection drive was organized by an association of Kerala people.

Organizations, agencies and resident associations are all busy collecting relief material in cash and kind in the capital.

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen said the minori-ties and the liberal forces in India, who oppose the divi-sive politics of the present day, need to be more vocal and assertive. Discussing the present scenario in India, Sen said those ruling the country do not constitute a majority, but they are in power by virtue of their ability to skilfully use the tools of the political system.

“I think in modern days, the majority and minority cannot be decided based on who is a Hindu or who is a Muslim, as it is not really clear who is a Hindu.

“Definitely, the number of Dalits and other minorities is very less. But the fact is that those who are ruling the nation they are not the majority in terms of number, but the reason of their power is that they are aptly using the tools of our political system,” Sen said at a discussion on where the Indian democracy is heading. According to Sen, if the census is considered then the number of Hindu popula-tion is quite high.

“The result of 2014 only reflects that the victorious party was successful in that particular system,” said Sen. Answering a question regarding the fear factor among Muslims residing in India, he said: “This very state of mind that if we are minority we will be deprived and will have to suffer, is very weakening in itself.”

“The result will not depend on numbers, but on the reach of electoral procedure and the political system. The important fact for victory would be the ability to strongly raise the issues that need immediate attention and deserve thorough discussion,” Sen said.