Category: From The States

A group of priests in a Mumbai parish prepared a five-course dinner for their parishioners as part of their effort to raise fund to help the poor.

The idea follows up the call of Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay to initiate programs to support poor and marginalized in line with Pope Francis’ constant plea to Catholics to help the poor, particularly to poor and migrants.

Cardinal Gracias wanted each parish of the archdiocese to initiate programs so that they could grow beyond the “cold charity” of donating to collection boxes.

The five-course formal dinner on Dec. 2 aimed to provide a fine dining experience for the parishioners to raise funds for Katkaris of Raigad, a marginalized community.

The entire meal was prepared and served by the priests themselves with a little help from a couple of Chef friends, said a release from the archdiocese.

Seven Indian Christians were granted bail on Dec. 19, after being arrested for allegedly hurting the religious feelings of Hindus 15 days earlier. The group, which included two pastors, was praying at a house in Mathura district of northern Uttar Pradesh State when about 25 Hindus burst in on them. The attackers reportedly accused those present of using words that were offensive to Hindu gods. Michael Williams, president of United Christian Forum (UCF), who was present in the court, told that police protection had been requested for those granted bail.

A.C. Michael, a Catholic leader and former member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, said that on Dec. 4 there had been threats to burn down the house where the prayer meeting was being held.

Michael said the angry mob had expressed a willingness to set the building alight with the Christians still inside.

He told that the two pastors visited the area for the first time on the request of a local woman to pray for her sick husband. “They are accused of using certain words, which were never used,” he added.

Lawyer Pramod Singh, who appeared for the accused in the court, later referred to “frivolous and false accusations” made by political ideologues seeking to restrict freedom of religious belief.

The Holy Family Latin Catholic Church at Karichal does not exist for Christians alone. It is a beacon of hope for Hindus and Muslims also as it fulfils the dreams of many poor families by arranging the marriages of their children.

It provides them financial aid and also arranges mandapam and pandal on its premises. The church in Veeyapuram panchayat in upper Kuttanad that lies sprawled on the banks of three rivers – Achankovil, Pampa and Paipad—has conducted the marriages of 200 Hindu and Muslim couples from 2009 to 2014.

It started its social mission with the fund from the Rachael George Charitable Trust instituted by her sons, M.G. Philip and M.G. Stephen and daughter-in-law Molamma Philip for charitable causes in 2009. So far, five annual mass weddings have been held on the occasion of the church festival in January. The marriages of three communities are held at the same time.

Hindus marry in the mandapam erected on one side of the premises, Christians within the church and Muslims in the pandal on the other side.

Joseph Pulikunnel, a veteran Christian social reformer and a former faculty in economics and former member of the Kerala University Senate passed away. He was 85. The last rites took place at the houses premises at Bharananganam. He was the director of the Indian Institute of Christian Studies in Kottayam. He was the author of several books and the organising editor of the Malayalam Bible Translation Project. He has published the most authentic translation of the Bible in Malayalam.

Since 1976 he had been pursuing his interests in social work and founded several social service organizations including the Good Samaritan Project India; the Word and Deed Hospital and Palliative Cancer Care Centre, and a Juvenile Diabetic Centre. He is best known for his independent and scholarly views on the state of the established church in India.

Fr George Koottickal, who founded a pious association to care for vagabonds and deranged people, died in the early hours of December 20. He was 64. The founder director of the Friends of the Birds of the Air (FBA) was undergoing treatment for some time for liver disease at a private hospital in Ernakulam. He was discharged mid December, but his condition deteriorated while recovering at Marvallah Dayara Ashram in Malayattoor, Kerala.

A 43-year-old Catholic nurse in India died on Christmas Day from breast cancer, two years after she refused her doctor’s advice to get an abortion, so she could begin chemotherapy.

Sapna Tracy, who already had seven children, refused to sacrifice the life of her child, giving birth to her daughter Philomena in December 2015.

“I visited the family on Christmas Day, the day she died, and her husband was carrying the baby in his arms, saying ‘Praise be to Jesus.’ Sapna stood for life. Sapna stood for being pro-life. She wasn’t afraid,” Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath, of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur, told Crux.

The nurse lived with her husband, Chittilappally Joju, and her children, all under the age of 15.

Both had been active in various Catholic organizations as young people, and had been working with pro-life advocacy in their married life.

She worked as a nurse at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Faridabad gave an award to the couple to honor them for their large family.

“This Catholic couple was inspirational in their witness of the Gospel message,” said Faridabad Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara.

He told Crux he personally baptized Philomena, as well as the couple’s previous child.

“In our Eparchy, since 2012, I have initiated that any couple having four or more children, the children will be baptized by the bishop,” Bharanikulangara.

Tracy’s husband has been telling the story of his wife to the people of India hoping it will provide an example.

Indian Vice President Venkiah Naidu on December 12 commended Christians for their service to those on the periphery and share in building a new India.

“The Catholic community is peace-loving and it contributes immensely to nation building,” the vice president told a gathering that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) organized to launch Christmas celebrations in the national capital.

“I have been attending Christmas functions at different parts of India as part of my political and social activities. This is the first occasion as the vice president of India that I am participating in a Christmas celebration,” said Naidu, who assumed the second highest officer in the country on August 11, this year.

The vice president asserted that Jesus’s message for love and peace is for all seasons, cultures and nationalities. “People all over the world irrespective of caste, creed or nationality celebrate Christmas with great joy and gaiety,” the vice president, the chief guest of the program, told the gathering comprising religious, political and social leaders as well as diplomats and media persons.

Christian community, especially Catholics, work for people’s welfare. “They maintain best educational institutions in the country that create awareness about the need for education and education for the needy.”

Christians have opened thousands of dispensaries and hospitals in remote areas and collaborate with the central and state governments. “The Christian community as a whole is assiduously engaged in contributing their share in building a new India which is united and strong,” the vice president said and added that he has personally witnessed how Christian helped in social transformation through formal and non-formal education.

Dalit Christians, under the aegis of the Council of Dalit Chri-stians, held a march to the Secretariat on Dec. 12 demanding prote-ction of re-servation for Dalit Christians.

The rally, organised by the Council of Dalit Christians (CDC), raised the demand of 5% reservation for Dalit Christians in Union government recruitments and 4% reservation in the State. It also demanded 10% reservation for students of the community in higher education. Inaugurating the rally, Church of South India (CSI) moderator Thomas K. Oommen said the discrimination of people based on their religious beliefs was violation of the Constitution.

The rally began from the Museum junction. People from various districts, including women and children, joined the rally. “This is not merely a community issue but a church issue as 95% of Indian Christians are Dalit,” CSI Kollam-Kottarakara Bishop Oommen George said.