A group of civil society groups has urged the United Nations (UN) to direct the Indian government to protect life, personal security and places of religious worship of Christians in the country.
In 18-page report entitled “Universal Periodic Review India: Minorities on the Margins: Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Christian Community in India” was submitted by Christian Collective (A National Solidarity of the Indian Christian Community for Peace and Harmony) to UN last September.

This report is a joint NGO submission by the Christian Collective (A National Solidarity of the Indian Christian Community for Peace and Harmony), Franciscans International, VIVAT International, Congregations of St. Joseph, Pax Romana, Sisters of Charity Federation, Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries and other partners on the issue of freedom of religion or belief, related to the third cycle of Universal Periodic Review for India, scheduled to take place in April – May 2017.

The Christian Collective represents human rights, civil society and freedom of faith groups represented in India who have endorsed this report. As international partners, Franciscans International, VIVAT International, Congregations of St. Joseph, Pax Romana, Sisters of Charity Federation, Society of Catholic Medical Missionaries as well as other partners have been involved and consulted in the process and provide support and endorsement for the submission. This report is the culmination of consultations held in various parts of the country. This report focuses on the status of freedom of religion or belief with respect to the Christian community in India.

“We have submitted UPR report on Christian collective to UN Geneva. India is coming for review on May 4,” said Ajaya Kumar Singh, human rights activist.

The Christian Collective report was facilitated by Dr. John Dayal, senior journalist and human rights activist, and Singh. The UPR is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council (HRC) aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground of each of the 193 United Nations (UN) Member States

A convenience store owner in Stuart in Florida, who is an Indian Catholic, is back at work after being stabbed in a recent hate crime attack.

Shinoy Maliackel was stabbed by a homeless man on April 19 at the Family Dollar Discount store he runs in Stuart after he came to the defence of a female co-worker who was being harassed.

The attack was caught on surveillance video. When the attacker was caught by deputies a few blocks away he admitted he did it because he doesn’t like Arabs.

However Maliackel is not Arab. He is from India and is a Catholic. Maliackel is glad to be back at work, and says he’s touched by all the support and well-wishes he’s received from people across US, expressing their concern and sorrow over the attack.

“I’m really happy. I was like, I was really overwhelmed by the support,” Maliackel said. He estimates 200-300 people have stopped by, sent cards or letters or messages on Facebook.

“I’m not really angry for what happened to me because that just makes my quality of life go down, if I get angry, mad, hate, those kind of things,” Maliackel said.

It took 12 stitches and 12 staples to close the wound and now Maliackel has a scar on his right arm.

Catholics in Bangalore are all set to accord a formal welcome to the Vatican Ambassador to India Arch-bishop Giambattista Diquattro May 4 on his first visit to the archdiocese of Bangalore.
Abp Diquattro is in Bengaluru to participate in the Standing Committee Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at St. John’s Medical College. He will also preside over the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre (NBCLC).

On this occasion the Archdiocese of Bangalore has arranged a Pontifical High Mass on May 4 at 6 p.m. at the Infant Jesus Shrine in Viveknagar, which will be presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio. The Cardinals and the Bishop-Members of the CBCI Standing Committee and a large number of Priests, Religious and Devotees of the Infant Jesus will participate in the Mass and the felicitation to be held afterwards.

Student protests continue in the eastern Indian Jharkhand state after the government renamed a college after a Hindu nationalist, a move church activists say was done to dismantle the identity of indigenous people.

The government move was “totally unacceptable and we condemn it,” said Bishop Vincent Barwa of Simdega, chairman of the Indian bishops’ office for tribal people.

The protest began after the government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), re-named the state’s pre-mier Ranchi College to Doctor Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University on April 17.

Mukherjee (1901–1953) was a Hindu who founded the nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. Mukherjee is considered an ideologue of the pro-Hindu nationalist movement that was a precursor to the BJP.

With BJP in power in New Delhi and most states in northern India, Hindu groups have become emboldened and stepped up their action to establish a Hindu hegemony, ignoring the cultures and well being of tribal and Dalit people among them, their leaders allege.

Bp Barwa said people from elsewhere may not fully grasp the ramifications of the decision and consequences for the life and identify of the state’s tribal communities. The move pushes Hindu hegemony on people, “as they did not even consider changing the name to one of several tribal heroes who sacrificed their lives to protect indigenous land and identity,” said the bishop, who comes from the Oraon tribe.

The ruling pro-Hindu party in eastern India’s majority-tribal Jharkhand state has pushed for an anti-conversion law that church leaders fear will be used to intensify the harass-ment of local Christians.

The two-day state-level executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP), that concluded May 1 in Palamu, adopted a resolution proposing a law to end religious conver-sion activities in the state.

“The resolution asks the state government to formulate a law that will make all conversions done through allurement or force illegal and punishable,” J.B. Dubit, the state’s BJP spokesperson, told ucanews.com May 2.

The BJP and other Hindu groups maintain that Christian missionaries’ service in the fields of education and health are a cover to attract poor tribal and Dalit people in the villages. “We are not against religious conversion per se, but it is not acceptable to take advantage of someone’s poverty, or other such issues, by coercing them to switch religions,” Dubit said. However, he did not identify any specific religious groups or provide data to support such claims.

The lay group Catholic Congress has dismissed media reports that it has supported the move of some factions of pro-Christian Kerala Congress party to join the state’s ruling communist alliance of Left Democratic Front.

Such reports that appeared in a section of the media is “against the facts,” Catholic Congress president V.V. Augustine said in a May 2 press statement. If at all some leaders of the lay organization attended a recent meeting of Kerala Congress in Kanjirapally, “they did it in their personal capacity.

The Catholic Congress is not inclined to appreciate any political decisions that meeting might have taken,” the statement said. Media reports said prominent Kerala Congress leader and Catholic K.M. Mani may join LDF with the effort of his former associate Scaria Thomas, now a member of the CPM-led LDF.

The members of Indian Theological Association (ITA) gathered at Montfort Spirituality Centre, Bangalore from April 26-29, for their annual meet cum seminar. This was also an occasion to celebrate the Ruby Jubilee of the Association, on the theme 40 years of Indian Theological Association: Milestones and Sign Posts. A new team of office bearers were elected for a term of three years. Dr Vincent Kundukulam was elected as the new President of ITA and Dr Kochurani Abraham as Vice President. Dr Raj Irudaya SJ is the new Secretary and Dr Joy Pulickan SDB is the Treasurer.

The CSI Immanuel Church here, which completed 110 years of its existence, has been declared a cathedral of the Cochin diocese of the Church. CSI Cochin diocese bishop B N Fenn made the declaration regarding the elevation of the church at the third diocesan council of the diocese.

The decision was made considering the various spiritual and social activities carried out by the church, The New Indian Express reported.

Gabriel Chiramel CMI, an Indian priest, and the award winner of  Padma Bhushan in 2007 by the Government of India for his contribution to education and literature dies, at the age of 102, on 11 May 2017 at Amala Institute of Medical Sciences campus where he was staying towards the later part of his life. The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presented Padma Bhushan to Fr Gabriel Chiramel CMI, at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on March 23, 2007.

Father Thomas Uzhunnalil, a Catholic priest abducted from an old people’s home in Yemen by the Islamic State last year, has made an emotional appeal to the Indian government to step up efforts for his release in a video posted by a Yemeni news website. The video, lasting less than two minutes, shows a frail-looking Uzhunnalil with a long white beard. A small piece of cardboard on his lap shows the numerals “15-4-2017”, suggesting the video was shot on April 15.