A Catholic college’s decision to ban Muslim girl students from wearing hijab sparked protest outside the college campus on June 25.

St Agnes College, Mangalore, has ordered the Muslim students not to wear hijab in the classroom saying the headdress does not conform to the college’s dress code.

In a press statement Principal Sister Jeswina said St Agnes is a “minority institution” catering to women’s education and it respects every student. But the college rules do not permit “headscarves in the classroom.”

The faithful should work together to solve the issues being faced by the archdiocese, Syro-Malabar Church Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry has said.
“We should reach unity through faith and try to become matured,” he said while delivering introductory message at the installation ceremony of Bishop Mr Jacob Manathodath as the Apostolic Administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese at the St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica.

The Conference of Religious India held a meeting in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) from 27 to 30 May. Participants agreed that, despite criticism of Christians, they will continue to work together for the good of the country.

Speaking at the event, Msgr Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), reiterated the importance of Church unity, stressing the need for everyone – bishops, Caritas, religious and laity – to work together.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Fr Rayarala Vijay Kumar, regional superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), said that the meeting provided an opportunity to talk about the country’s political situation, ahead of next year’s general elections.

The venue also gave participants a chance to reiterate “the commitment of the Catholic Church to the needy people of India,” Fr Kumar said, “not only their material needs,” he added, “but spiritual ones as well.” The general assembly of superiors of religious – male and female – congregations is held every three years. About 550 superiors and representatives of Church hierarchies were present at this year’s meeting, including Msgr Giambattista Diquattro, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal.

“One thing we greatly appreciated was the fact that the nuncio stayed for all four days,” Fr Kumar said. “He spoke to at least with 250 men and women religious. This shows the Vatican’s interest in India.”

Taking a cue from a topic dear to Pope Francis, the Assembly discussed “the Church going forth,” i.e. “the Church going out to the edges (or peripheries) of society,” Fr Kumar explained. “It means finding the Lord in those who thirst for him, the marginalised, and lend a helping hand to those in need.”

With the term edge (or periphery), “we mean being on the margins – the needy, the poor, the sick – but also spiritual, that is, those who live in the misery of the spirit, whether rich or poor.”

Fr V.M. Thomas, a former CRI president, was one of the first to speak. He highlighted the challenges the Indian Church has to face at a very delicate moment in the country’s political life.

The pontiff appointed Father Fulgence Aloysius Tigga as the new bishop of Raiganj in West Bengal state and Salesian Fr Dennis Panipitchai as the auxiliary of Miao in Arunachal Pradesh, according to a press release from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India headquarters in New Delhi.

Father Tigga, a priest of Bettiah diocese in Bihar, is currently its vicar general.

Father Panipitchai is currently the parish priest of Mary Immaculate Parish, Chingmeirong, in Imphal archdiocese in Manipur diocese. He is also a consulter of the Salesians’ Dimapur province.

The collegium of India’s Supreme Court has met to reconsider its recomm-endation to elevate a Christian judge to the top court amid allegations that the pro-Hindu federal government had rejected him for ideological reasons.

The collegium of judges met on May 11 to consider its January recommendation to elevate Chief Justice K.M. Joseph of Uttarakhand High Court to the Supreme Court, local reports said.

The federal government, run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), rejected the recommendation on April 26 and asked the collegium to consider other names.

The collegium concluded that Joseph was “more deserving and suitable in all respects” than other eligible judges, according to local media.

“The government turned down the collegium recommendation as he is a Christian and may not toe the pro-Hindu ideological line,” said Govind Yadav, a Supreme Court lawyer.

The government said Joseph was a junior judge who stood 42nd in India’s rankings. It also suggested the collegium consider candidates from socially poor Dalit and indigenous groups as they have no representation in the top judiciary.

The government also said Joseph’s appointment would cause regional imbalance as he hails from the same southern State of Kerala as another judge, Justice Kurian Joseph, who was already serving the top court. However, Kurian Joseph is due to retire this year.

“None of these arguments hold water,” said Yadav. “There is no such law that a junior judge cannot be elevated.”

The government “is taking revenge” on Joseph because he led bench judges to strike down the BJP-led federal government’s decision to impose president’s rule in Uttarakhand when the rival Congress party was in power.

The bold order humiliated the federal government and therefore it does not want him to be elevated to the top court, Yadav said. “Then again, he is a Christian who may not follow pro-Hindu ideology. That further contributed to rejection of his name,” he said.

In the campaign for the southern Indian State of Karnataka’s May 12 election, religion was once more at the centre of the battle between the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which controls the federal government, and its long-term rival, the Indian National Congress. The two, along with local secular party Janata Dal (Secular) were fighting for the votes of a substantial Muslim minority of about 13% in a poll that underscores the religious versus secular battle lines that have now been drawn in the world’s largest democracy. The poll was more than just a test to determine which side had a superior on-the-ground organization. Rather, it was a test of how well the Hindu nationalist card, melded with promises of economic improvements, would fare in the heartland of India’s information technology sector.

Such episodes have claimed at least 25 lives since 2010, with 21 of the victims being Muslims, according to a recent report by the IndiaSpend website.