The government of Jharkhand (in the northeast of the country) last night approved a law prohibiting conversions brought about by force or coercion. The government spokesman explained that “anyone who violates this law may be sentenced to three years in prison and 50,000 rupees [over 600 euros] fine, or both.”

The law provides for more severe penalties for forced conversion of underage girls and tribal women (scheduled tribes). In this case, the culprit can be sentenced to four years in jail and /or a fine of 100,000 rupees. The law, approved by the govern-ment, has to be approved by the local parliament, on August 8. If it passes, Jharkhand will be the seventh state in India with a law against forced or coerced conversions. Such laws already exist in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Himachal Pradesh. Speaking to AsiaNews, Card. Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi and of tribal ethnicity, states: “This law is not to prohibit conversions, but it is against forced conversions. Forced conversions do not exist. We are free people with a free will and a free conscience and intelligence. No one can force another to convert.”

Commenting earlier to journalists, he had expressed sadness at the government’s decision. “For decades, we have held many schools and colleges, clinics and hospitals across the state, serving the poor, the oppressed, and the abandoned. None of the millions of people we have ever served have been converted to Christianity.”

Although the law only wants to prevent forced conversions or illicit conversions, Hindu nationalists fear of any kind of conversion. According to the Times of India, the Jharkhand government’s decision came after the census data was presented in 2011. On a total population of 35 million, 27% is tribal; Christians are 4.3% and Muslims 14.53. Data show that over the past 10 years, the Hindu population has grown by 21%; Christians of 29.7%, Muslims by 28.4%.

A Catholic nun from India has won a prestigious global award in HIV nursing from an international association.

The Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) selected Sr Lourdu Mary Nagothu for developing and implementing the world’s first masters’ curriculum in HIV/AIDS.

The member of the Bangalore province of the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph will receive the award at a ceremony on Nove-mber 4, the final night of ANAC’s annual conference at Dallas, Texas in the United States. “We are pleased to congratulate you on being selected as the recipient of ANAC’s Excellence in Global HIV Nursing Award,” says an August 2 letter from the association.

Sr Nagothu is the director of Nursing at Bel-Air Hospital as well as principal of its College of Nursing at Panch-gani, a famous hill station in the Satara district of Mahara-shtra State in western India.

The hospital and the college of nursing is an Indian Red Cross Society project managed by Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament priests and JMJ sisters.

If Christianity is being criticised and misunderstood today, it is due to shortcomings from the clergy commu-nity, said Cardinal George Alencherry. He was speaking at Priests’ Grand Conference on August 2 at the Sehion Retreat centre in Attapady near Palakkad.

Siting the example of Jesus Christ, the cardinal urged the congregation to never preach for publicity. He reminded priests to lead the community in a transparent and innocent manner and to not exercise undue authority .

The Cardinal expressed grief at the fact that Chri-stianity seems to be in a state of decline in some countries, and some of the services of the Church have become merely symbolic.

More than 15 bishops and around 1360 priests, including world renowned evange-lists are attending the six-day reside-ntial conference at the Sehion Retreat center in Attapady near
The program is led by Fr Xavier Khan Vattayil , founder-director of Sehion Ministries and world renowned charismatic preacher.

The Syro-Malankara Catho-lic Church has established a new eparchy based in Parassala in Kerala, and named Bishop Tho-mas Mar Eusebios Naickam-parambil as its bishop.

The Aug. 5 announcement made in the Vactian and Church’s headquarters in State capital Trivandrum also said the Pope has named three new bishops and an apostolic visitor for the Church. Bp Naickam-parambil was previously in charge of the Eparchy of Our Lady Queen of Peace for Syro-Malankara faithful in the United States and Canada, Catholic News Agency reported.

Taking his place will be Bishop Stephanos Thottathil, who until now has served as auxiliary bishop of Tiruvalla, in India’s southern State of Kerala, which is predominantly Christian. In addition to the establishment of the Parassala eparchy and the nomination of its bishop, Pope Francis named Fr George Kalayil as Bishop of the Eparchy of Puthur, also in Kerala. He had previously served as a priest in the same eparchy.

The Pope also named Fr John Kuchuthundil as a Curial Bishop and Apostolic Visitor to the Syro-Malankara Church in Europe and Oceania, although no specific reason for the visitation was given.

The head of the Catholic Church in Nagaland has sought prayers as the northeastern Indian state faces what he says are “moments of darkness and uncertainty” in finding peaceful solution to the Naga problem.

The peace process has entered a critical juncture after the federal government and Naga national leaders signed a “framework agreement,” says Bishop James Thoppil of Kohima in a letter addressed to Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).

Bishop Mascarenhas shared with media the August 8 letter that notes certain confusion over future as people are not sure “where to turn, what to believe, whom to trust, what to expect, how to be involved.”

Such uncertainty and “moments of darkness” can be overcome only through God’s enlightenment, guidance and inspiration, says Bishop Thoppil. “These can be obtained only by being alert and docile to the Spirit, which come only by prayer,” asserted the 58-year-old prelate who took over the diocese’s administration six years ago.

He urged the CBCI to join the Naga people, who have set apart August 15 as a special day of prayer.

Clad in a simple sari, Sister Jyoti Rosamma sits among the women in a self-help group discussing their issues. In a circle they are all equally important, including the 74-year-old nun, who taught them to fight abject poverty.

The frail-looking Catholic nun was “a stranger to us but now she’s like a mother goddess. Our eyes were opened and we were appalled to see our reality,” said Malti Devi, who escaped poverty because of the self-help groups.

Malti Devi, a 52-year-old woman, is among hundreds of socially and economically poor caste women the nun has helped free from the clutches of moneylenders in the Chhapra area of the eastern Indian Bihar State.

Around 40 spiritual leaders and intellectuals in the national capital on July 16 urged Indians to check an environment of hate, violence and disregard for the rule of law spreading across the country.

They met under the aegis of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and called upon the government to end impunity, which they noted, was at the root of the atmosphere of fear that stalks the land today. They also said these developments threatened not just secularism, but the country’s Constitution as well as the democratic fabric.

They want people to draw from India’s deep spiritual reservoirs to check increasing cases of lying that have claimed “many innocents of religious and marginalized communities.”

The meeting welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurances to leaders of Opposition parties on the eve of the Monsoon session of Parliament.

However, the leaders noted that lynching in various states on the pretext of protecting cows have shocked majority of Indians from all communities. The Prime Minister must now see that state governments and their police forces acted against the guilty in an impartial manner, they assert-ed. The meeting agreed two of five of urgent program of action:

• The ideology of hate is a reality and needs to be challenged by governments, political parties, civil society activists, the criminal justice system and religious communities in a concerted manner.

• Religious leadership must act at the grassroots to assert the inherent unity of the people. This will help restore public confidence and remove the mutual suspicion that had started growing.

Following intense protests for almost two months, private hospital nurses in Kerala called off their strike on July 16 after the government agreed to enforce a hike in their minimum pay to Rs 20,000.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the representatives of nurses’ associations with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his office on July 20 evening. The Chief Minister’s office said that the decision on the wage hikes was unanimous.

“The decision was unani-mous. It has been decided to hike the minimum pay of nurses working in hospitals with a bed strength of up to 50 to Rs 20,000. The government will appoint a committee to decide on the salary of nurses working in hospitals where the number of beds is more than 50,” a statement from the Chief Minister’s office said.

“There will be timely increase in the stipend of nursing trainees. The committee will also consider and submit recommendations on the trainees’ stipend and the period of training. The committee will submit its report in a month,” the statement added.

A cathedral dedicated to St Teresa of Calcutta is due to be consecrated on September 5, the 20th anniversary of the saint’s death. Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Ernest Simoni to be his delegate at the consecration in Pristina, the capital of the partially recog-nised State of Kosovo.

Although the building has been a place of worship for Catholics since 2010, the shrine will be formally dedicated to Mother Teresa at the consecra-tion. The Italianate-style build-ing has been under construction since 2007 and remains unfini-shed. When complete, it will have two bell towers, each standing at 230 feet tall, making it one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Among the designs on its stained-glass windows are depictions of St Teresa with Pope St John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI embracing Pope Francis.