Category: From The States

In a landmark ruling, the Kerala High Court has held that Christian priests and nuns have right to ancestral property and that their vow of poverty does not deprive their rights.

The ruling was given by a division bench after considering an appeal (AS No. 460/2000) challenging a lower court’s ruling that a priest does not have right to ancestral property as he takes a vow of poverty as part of attaining priesthood.

In the judgment, the court said, “To hold that one would suffer a ‘civil death’ and be deprived of his property on entering into the Holy Order would be a naked infringement of Article 300-A of the Constitution of India (right to property). Of course it is the volition of a Hindu ascetic or a Christian priest to relinquish his right over his personal property in favour of a Mutt or Monastery in a manner known to law.

But there cannot be any automatic deprivation of property acquired by way of intestate or testamentary succession by the mere fact that one has entered into the religious order and renounced his worldly pleasures.”

There is absolutely no statutory prohibition for a Christian priest or nun in the matter of intestate or testamentary succession of property in his or her personal capacity, the judgment delivered on June 7 stated.

Manipur Congress on May 28 said Centre’s ban on sale of cattle for slaughtering was a direct attack on Christians and Muslims. The ban of cattle slaughter was against Muslims and Christians and a challenge to the two communities by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, said Congress spokesperson and sitting MLA Md Fajur Rehman.

Addressing a news conference at Imphal Congress Bhavan, the spokesperson alleged that the recent move of the Central government has insulted secularism of the country.

He said that India as a secular country has now been put at stake by a “dictator government.”

“Congress will fight tooth and nail the challenge in the fore of the minority Muslims and Chri-stians,” the Muslim leader said. Alleging that BJP as a commu-nal minded party is infusing communal venom among the different communities, particu-larly among the minority co-mmunities, the Congress spokesperson called upon the people to join hands with the Congress in rooting out such party from the soil of the state.

Former deputy mayor of Imphal Municipal Corporation (IMC) Meibon Phaomei who also attended the news conference alleged that the latest move of the Central government once again showed anti-Christian activities which the BJP has been indulging across the country.

A rebel-turned-politician from Meghalaya said the BJP would reduce the price of beef if voted to power in the state while insisting that the Centre should take the public’s view before putting any restriction on the sale or consumption of beef. Bernard Marak, who is BJP’s Tura unit president, said the beef ban should not apply to states with a Christian-majority.

“Meghalaya has a huge demand for beef but the prices are not regulated. Neither is there any slaughter house nor is the meat certified by doctors. As such, sometimes old meat is mixed with fresh meat. If BJP is voted to power, it will look into the issues and regulate the prices so that people don’t have to buy meat at a high price,” Marak told the New Indian Express.

“The Centre wants to ban beef consumption but it should not apply to the Christian-majority states where most people consume meat including beef. Any ban has to be on public consensus.

Meghalaya being a tribal State, we want the sentiments of the people to be respected,” he said. Marak, who co-founded insurgent group Achik National Volunteer Council, said any restriction on beef consumption in Meghalaya would create a big impact. Rival political parties are criticising the BJP by calling it a “Hindu party,” he said.

Unidentified mis-creants vandalized a church in West Bengal in the early hours of June 6.

Police said they have launched search to find the culprits who attacked the 127-year-old St Luke’s Church at Dayabari Mission Gate in Ranaghat in the Nadia district. The miscreants stole old religious items and 3,000 rupees, the church authorities said.

“The Holy Sacrament was torn to pieces by miscreants. The other religious items, like the chalice and bronze candle stands were damaged and a few were taken away along the cash. They took the cash after breaking open a cupboard,” pastor Kishor Mondal told reporters.

“The stolen and damaged articles are very old. It is a blow for us,” he added.

A Christian leader in Chhattisgarh alleges that the eastern Indian government’s move to protect primitive tribes infringes personal freedom.

On May 26, the Chhattis-garh government passed an order amending the 1979 rule passed by then undivided Madhya Pradesh to protect primarily vulnerable tribal groups.

The amendment “is an attack on the free thought of an individual,” Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told Matters India June 6.

The new rule stipulates tribals who want sterilization should apply for permission from their subdivisional magistrate.

While making the law in 1979, the government officials said the order was necessary to protect primitive tribes that had extremely low health indicators. The tribes also showed a negative rate of growth and there was fear of them dying out.

The state has seven primitive tribes that are on the verge of extinction.

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment officials say the amend-ment is a “step forward,” but Pannalal and other activists denounce it continu-ation of an inhuman practice of denying the tribes “autonomy over their own bodies.”

“It is up to the individual or the family to decide whether they want to procreate or not. There should not be any interference from anybody from outside,” the Christian leader asserts.

If the government is serious about primitive tribes’ welfare, it should provide them better health care and educate them to improve their living conditions to enhance their population, Pannalal says.

Attacks against Christians are increas-ing in India, with 260 incidents recorded in the first five months of 2017, according  to Persecution Relief, an ecumenical Christian forum that monitors incidents of persecution. The organization counted 348 incidents last year, an average of 29 incidents per month, while this year the monthly average, 52, almost doubled. The offences reported include murder, physical violence, destruction of churches, threat and harassment, social boycott, hate campaigns, abduction and attempts to murder. “It is an alarming situation for us,” said Shibu Thomas, founder of Persecution Relief, who started the organization in 2015 to provide support to the victims of persecution in the country.

A Catholic bishop is the first religious leader to join community efforts dealing with water shortages in Jhabua district in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. Bishop Basil Bhuria of Jhabua, four priests and nearly 80 Catholic community members worked on Hathipava Hill May 21 to fill hundreds of pits prepared for planting saplings with black soil. The prelate was respond-ing to a call for religious leaders by police superintendent Mahesh Chandra Jain in Jhabua district to support community efforts to tackle water shortages.

“People in many villages in my diocese have to walk several kilometres to fetch water during summer. It is difficult for people to source enough water to drink, for agriculture, cattle and other needs,” Bishop Bhuria said.

Two Missionaries of Charity nuns, who celebrated 25 years of religious life, say serving the poorest of the poor continues to thrill them.

“I find real peace and joy in serving the downtrodden and under privileged following the footsteps of our founder, Saint Teresa of Kolkata,” Sister Selena Toppo, one of the nuns, told Matters India after the jubilee Mass on May 20 in Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha State in eastern India.

Both the nuns expressed gratitude to God for accompanying them in their religious life.

Suspected Hindu nationali-sts in Tamil Nadu burned down a church and the home of its pastor after some high “caste” Hindus converted to Christia-nity and joined the church.

Pastor John Muller and his pregnant wife were out when their home and adjoining church were set ablaze May 3 in Attipattu village in Cuddalore District.

“Recently, some villagers belonging to Vanniyar, a caste-based Hindu sect, came to Christ,” Pastor Muller was quoted as saying.

“The same caste group opposes conversions in the village because they treat Christianity as a religion of lower castes. They don’t want anyone from Vanniyar to convert to Christianity,” he added.

The pastor said that he had been threatened by five people three days earlier who asked him to “get out of this area, or we will see your end.”

However, no arrests have been made in the case.