A Catholic bishop and human rights groups in India have welcomed a Supreme Court order for a federal investigation into allegations that thousands of people were killed by security forces in the northeastern State of Manipur.

India’s top court July 14 directed the government to engage the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation agency to probe allegations that army, paramilitary forces and police killed without trial 1,528 people in the state between 2000 and 2012.

The court’s decision came while hearing a petition seeking an investigation and compensation. “We welcome the decision and hope the probe will be impartial, devoid of political goals, and bring justice to the victims,” said Bishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, whose diocese covers the whole state.

The entire northeastern region consisting of seven Indian states, bordering China, Bangladesh and Myanmar remains heavily militarized because of insurgency. Some five decades ago the federal government passed the Armed Forces Special Power Act to check insurgency in Assam and Manipur.

The law was later extended to another seven states as the insurgency spread with the government describing the situation in the region as “war-like.”

Rights groups say the law gives sweeping powers to armed forces in their efforts to crush insurgency and results in unchecked violence that includes night raids, rapes and killings without trial or provocation.

The Asian Human Rights Commission estimates there is at least one security personnel for every 20 citizens in Manipur.

Goa Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao on July 12 said, that he is “deeply pained” by the recent spate of religious desecrations, suggesting that the violent acts were aimed at provoking communal discord and promotion of religious hatred.

“The Church in Goa is deeply pained with the recent spate of desecrations of religious structures and burial places of the Christian community, along with a stray incident also targeting the Hindu community in the State,” Ferrao said in a statement issued here. More than 100 crosses and plaques at a cemetery in southern Goa were desecrated in the wee hours of Monday, July 10, police said.

Police sources said that a CCTV camera installed at the Guardian Angel Catholic cemetery in Curchorem village, 45 km from Panaji, was damaged before the vandals went around indiscriminately desecra-ting crosses and plaques fixed atop graves. “We do not tolerate such mis-chief,” Parrikar said, when asked to comment desceration of the Holy Crosses in St Jose de Areal and Gudi Paroda villages, located nearly.

“These violent incidents seem to be designed by vested interests to provoke communal discord and promote religious hatred. While we strongly condemn the same, I personally appeal to our brothers and sisters of all faiths to refrain from taking any retaliatory action or even fanning the flame of religious hatred in their hearts,” archbishop added.

The statement comes in wake of a series of desecrations of Catholic and Hindu religious symbols, including the incident, when several Catholic crosses were smashed and grave-stones broken at a cemetery in south Goa’s Curchorem town, located 45 km from Panaji.

A congregation of nuns in central India is helping domestic workers who face sexual abuse and other forms of violence access legal help, counseling and rehabilitation.

Abp Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, who is based in the Madhya Pradesh State inaugurated June 28 the Nyay Chaupal — forum of justice initiated by the congregation of Holy Spirit Sisters for domestic workers.

The office plans to monitor cases of rape, sexual harassment and violence of domestic workers and help them file police complaints, provide them legal help and well as counseling and rehabilitation. The new office is part of the congregation’s Uday Social Development Society that already works with victims of abuse.

Holy Spirit Sister, Sister Lizy Thomas, its secretary, told ucanews. com that they were compelled to launch this new office as nuns found many domestic helpers women “stressed and in need of help.”

A 2015 survey by the Uday Social Develop-ment Society in two slums of Bhopal found that most domestic servants came to the city from villages in search of employment and had “no means to get legal remedies” against exploitation.

More than 60 percent of the 800 families that took part in the survey came from the Dalit or socially poor communities once considered untouchable, while 36 came from other economically weak communities.

Christian leaders in tribal-dominated Nagaland State say the Indian Prime Minister’s recent visit to Israel will help their people have easy access to holy places such as Jeru-salem, a right they have been demanding for decades.

Thomas Ngullie, a legisla-tor in the Christian dominated state, lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 4-6 visit to Israel, saying the improved India-Israel relations bode well for Christians.

Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel.

Former lawmaker Khyamo Lotha echoed Ngullie’s comm-ents acknowledging Jerusalem as a place of Christian pilgri-mage. The 77-year-old retired politician was the first to stress the need for improved Indo-Israel relations as far back as 1991.

Bilateral ties between India and Israel were first established in 1992 under then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Prior to that, Christians could not go to Israel, even with diplomatic passports.

During his visit, Modi struck a good rapport with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and both leaders have vowed to take the relationship to new heights, media reports said.

Condemning the growing communal violence in the country, the Catholic Church in India has appealed to the people to “rise above religion, caste, language or region and to unite in promoting peace, harmony and brotherhood.”

In a statement issued on July 11, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) said the “lynchings, killings, terrorist attacks in recent times are frightening and worrying.”

The bishops stated the militant attack on Hindu pilgrims returning from Amarnath shrine in Kashmir on July 10 was “dastardly and cowardly.” Seven pilgrims were killed and 12 were wounded as the bus they travelled got caught up in a gun battle between the militants and police near the town of Anantnag.

“This last attack is another sign of the flames of violence that seem to be unfortunately engulfing the country,” said the statement signed by Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, CBCI Secretary General.

Department of biotechno-logy, ministry of science and technology, Government of India, has awarded star college status to city-based St Agnes College. The status was awarded on June 30.
Sr M Jeswina, principal, said the institution was reco-gnized for its outstanding performance in the field of science and technology.

From its inception, St Agnes College, a Catholic women’s college in the West Coast of India established in 1921 by Mother Aloysia, has proved to be a standard bearer of repute in the field of education.

The ‘Star College’ status comes in the wake of the college receiving recognition of College of Excellence from UGC in February and ‘A+’ Grade in cycle four from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in March 2017. St Agnes is the second college in Karnataka to be conferred with star status. The college had applied for financial assistance under Star College Scheme in 2011. In 2012, it received financial assistance for physics, chemis-try, botany, zoology and micro-biology under the scheme.

A Salesian college in Kerala suffered huge losses after miscreants attacked it for taking disciplinary action against a student. The authorities of the Don Bosco College, Sultan Bathery in Wayanad district, have blamed the activists of the Student Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Front of India (DYFI) for the July 11 attack.

Catholic communicators in northeast to fight fake news 

The need to highlight truth amid lies and promote peace in a troubled region was stressed at a meeting of Catholic communicators of north-eastern India. Signis (fire) is an international media moment recognized by the Catholic Church. Northeast is one of its 14 regions in India. The region held its annual general body meeting on July 8 at Inspiration building in Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam State.

Hundreds attend visionary missionary’s funeral 

Sacred Heart Church in Mumbai’s Andheri East suburb was packed with people on July 6 for the funeral Mass of Father Augustine Kanjamala, a renowned theologian and missiologist.
He died at Holy Spirit Hospital, Mumbai. He was 78.

Bishop Chacko Thottumarikal of Indore, who led the Mass, noted that the Divine Word priest served the Church intensely with his visionary leadership in evangelization.

Priest arrested for child abuse

Christian leaders say that a Catholic priest arrested for abusing a child in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh has been framed to malign the Christian community in the state ruled by a pro-Hindu party.

On July 10, police arrested Father Leo D’Souza, 56, following a complaint from the parents of an eighth-grade boy of the church-run Amar Jyoti School in India a Hindu nation.

The priest is manager of the school run by Jabalpur Diocese.

Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur said the accusation and the arrest has “shocked” the diocese. He said hard-line Hindu groups had earlier tried to create trouble for Christians accusing them of converting tribal people to Christianity.

The nuns of the Provincial House of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (CMC) providing accomodation to the transgenders employed by Kochi Metro who were facing homelessness.

In one of the first major initiatives to employ transgen-ders, the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) hired 23 trans employees through a Kerala government poverty eradication programme aimed at women called Kudumbasree. However, no one was willing to provide the transgenders accommo-dation, and many of them were forced to skip work.

The KMRL has now been able to solve the problem, with the commitment from the CMC nuns. Sister Pavithra of CMC confirmed to Catch that the Congregation will provide “shelter to the transgenders working in KMRL.”

The nuns got the letter from Kochi Metro and are yet to figure the logistics. “They haven’t yet told us the number of people who want to reside. May be 12-13,” she said.

Protestors waved flags and chanted as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the White House on June 26 for a meeting with President Donald Trump.

“We’re here basically to raise awareness of the human rights violations that are happening with India,” Jatinder Grewal, director of Sikhs for Justice told CBN News.

The protestors alleged that under Modi’s rule, conditions for Sikhs, Christians and other religious minorities have grown difficult.

“When Modi came into power in 2014 he promised the Christians and other minorities that he would allow freedom of religion, he lied,” declared Pastor Rob Rotola, who also protested outside the White House.

“The only people that have favored status in India is not all people; it’s the Hindu nationalist,” he said. “It’s the far extremist party that tends to violence. And as these groups have ramped up the violence, the police state and the government looks the other way, and is allowing it to happen.”

“I am here to speak for the Indian church,” said Bishop John Lutembeka, a missionary in India, “the Indians who are being persecuted by Prime Minister Modi, by a group of radical Hindus.”