Category: From The States

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.

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.