Category: From The States

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.

Ten elderly Catholic nuns applied for a state pension in the Indian State of Kerala leading to accusations that the church is not supporting them adequately. The nuns all applied for a monthly pension of 1,100 rupees (US$16) available to elderly unmarried women in Kerala State. They belong to the Congregation of the Sisters of St Anne of Trichy based in the Trivandrum Latin-rite Arch-diocese and are from St Anne’s convent there. The nuns are all aged over 60 years, said the convent superior, who did not want to reveal her name.

Local media reported that their application revealed a neglect of elderly nuns in convents.

Locals along with members of St John’s church in Secu-nderabad held a protest on Mar 28 against demolition of houses on church land by district authorities. The protesters demanded that the victims be relocated in new houses.

As many as 16 people were rendered homeless after the revenue department demolished their homes behind the Civil Court in Secunderabad the previous day.

The affected residents claimed that the land belonged to the Marredpally church, built in 1813, and they had been living there with permission from the Anglican church.

“We are completely helpless. We have small children, where does the government expect us to go?” said Mathilda, a beautician who was ousted from her house. According to her, the authorities did not issue any prior notice before the demolition drive.

Another resident, Assunkossu, said, “I not only have an ailing father-in-law but also two children to take care of. Without a roof over my head, where do I go now?” The homeless had to turn to their neighbours for shelter for their children. The adults spent the night in the open. Most of those evicted deliver newspapers to run their household.

Members of the Indian Women Theologians Forum (IWTF), the Conference of Religious India (CRI) Women’s Section, and “other individuals who are deeply concerned about the integrity and mission of the Indian Church” have written to Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India in the context of a recent scandal involving a parish priest in Kerala who sexually abused a girl, leading to her pregnancy. The case is being brought to court.

“The episode highlights an issue that is unique to the ecclesial context, one which women have been struggling to bring to the attention of the bishops for the past four years, namely, that the violation of the fiduciary trust inherent in the priest-parishioner relationship has an additional dimension of damage, because we are taught to believe that the priest is ‘another Christ’,” the letter says.