Catholic officials in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand have accused the media of trying to tarnish Church-run institutions after a school was accused of forcing about 80 teenage girls to return home in their blazers without shirts. Media reports accused Carmel School in Digwadih city, Dhanbad district, of confiscating the shirts of the tenth-grade girls on Jan. 9 as they celebrated Pen Day, the final school day before board exams. They were supposedly taken from the girls because they were writing messages on each other’s shirts to mark the end of their academic year. The Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel congre-gation, which runs the school, denied the media reports.
Sister Maria Kirti, Councillor for Edu-cation of the congregation’s Northern Province, said an initial inquiry showed that the students were “wearing an extra shirt over their school uniform on which they were writing the messages.” “At the time of dismissal, the students were only requested to return [home] in their original uniform,” Kirti said in a statement on Jan. 13. The media reports said the school principal disapproved of the celebration and told them to remove their shirts autographed by friends to create lasting memories. Social media videos reportedly showed the girls in tears as the school authorities ignored their repeated pleas to keep the shirts, sparking a public outcry. The nun blamed a section of the media for publishing unverified and inaccurate reports that “do not fully reflect the facts” that triggered a public uproar and maligned the image of the reputed school. She said her religious order had asked the school to conduct an internal inquiry to ascertain the facts and recommend corrective measures. She said the school principal has been ordered to “stay away from all administrative responsibilities” until the inquiry is completed. Meanwhile, on Jan. 12, the parents of the students filed a complaint with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, prompting an official investigation.

Catholic priests in a troubled Indian Church archdiocese have called off a four-day protest after an assurance of dialogue to resolve their demands amid a raging decades-old liturgy dispute on the rubrics of Mass. The temporary truce within the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church, based in southern Kerala state, was reached on Jan. 13. The protesting priests were hoping for a settlement of the liturgy dispute at the Synod of Bishops, which was held from Jan. 6 to 11. On Jan. 9, some 21 priests entered the archbishop’s house to press their demands. However, the police evicted them on Jan. 11 and moved them to the adjacent compound of St. Mary’s Cathedral Basi-lica. “The protest was called off after the new vicar, Archbishop Joseph Pamplany, agreed to consider our demands and hold a dialogue to resolve them,” said Fr Kuria-kose Mundadan, the presbytery council secretary of the troubled Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. Nearly 12 priests sustained injuries, including fractures, in the police action, leading to public protests by priests, nuns, and laypeople in the arch-diocese on Jan. 12. “They demanded action against police officials for their barbaric actions,” Mundadan told on Jan. 13.
When the situation escalated, the district collector convened a meeting with Church officials and the protesters late on Jan. 12. The Church authorities assigned Vicar General Father Jacob G Palakkappilly for the meeting, but the protesters refused to speak to him, saying he did not have the mandate to make a decision. Instead, they insisted on holding talks in the presence of Pamplany, the newly-appointed vicar of the archdiocese and the Archbishop of Tellicherry in Kerala state. The collector, the district’s top govern-ment official, contacted Pamplany, who was traveling but was asked to abort his journey. He joined the talks around 10.30 pm. The discussions continued until 1:30 am on Jan. 13, when Pamplany agreed in writing to consider the protesting priests’ demands, which included setting up cano-nical bodies in the archdiocese, considering the appointment of new curia, and halting all disciplinary actions initiated against them. The prelate also agreed to begin a dialogue with the priests and lay leaders regarding all the pending issues, including the liturgy dispute, from Jan. 20. Earna-kulam-Angamaly Archdiocese is the seat of power of the Church’s head and the biggest diocese, with close to 10% of the over five million followers worldwide.

Christian leaders in central Indian Madhya Pradesh state have urged the government to dispel fears among people before disposing of hazardous waste from the four-decades-old Bhopal industrial disaster. The appeal was made after two people set themselves on fire on Jan. 3 in protests. Protests erupted after authorities moved hundreds of tonnes of toxic waste from the site of the world’s deadliest industrial disaster in the state capital, Bhopal. The 337 tonnes of waste–sealed inside containers–were ferried in a long convoy of trucks over-night on Jan. 1, with a police escort, to Pithampur town, about 220 kilometres away. “We want safe disposal of toxic waste from the site of Union Carbide Corporation. It should not risk the life of people,” said Jerry Paul, national president of the Sarva Isai Mahasabha (All Christian Federation) based in Bhopal. Paul and his family are survivors of the chemical leak that killed some 3,500 people in its immediate aftermath in December 1984. For decades, local people have blamed the toxic gas leak for a high level of sickness due to groundwater contamination caused by the poisonous gas leak. Overall, 25,000 people are estimated to have died so far, according to activists helping the survivors cope with the tragedy.

Christian leaders in the central Indian Chhattisgarh state say police have regi-stered their complaint against a state legislative member following four months of persuasion after the politician allegedly in-sulted Jesus Christ. State police registered the complaint by Chhattisgarh’s Christian Forum against legislative member Raymuni Bhagat on Jan. 7. Forum president Arun Pannalal said the police acted after refusing to accept the complaint since Septem-ber. “We are satisfied with the development as we ran from pillar to post to register our complaint,” Pannalal said. He added the administration was favouring the culprit by not registering the complaint. Pannalal told on Jan. 8 that police were forced to accept the complaint following the intervention of the local court. Bhagat, a member of the Hindu-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is accused of making remarks denigrating Christianity in a programme organized in Dhengni village on Sept 1. Bhagat, who represents the Jashpur constituency, made fun of Jesus Christ, saying: “Christ was nailed to the cross…he couldn’t remove the nails, how do you expect Christ will remove your problems.”

Catholic bishops of the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church have opposed changes to the forest law in southern Kerala state, saying the move could harm farmers amid a rising man-animal conflict. The Communist-led government has proposed amending the Kerala Forest Act of 1961 purportedly to suit current social needs and help better forest conservation. The amendments “will adversely affect the farmers living in the periphery of the forests,” the bishops said in a statement on Jan. 8 during their synod. The five-day synod, the supreme decision-making body of this Eastern Rite Church, began Jan. 6. It is attended by 54 serving and retired bishops at Mount St Thomas, the Church’s headquarters in the Ernakulam district. “Prima facie, the changes look more harmful to humanity instead of being human friendly,” the bishops said, urging the state government to “clear the anxiety of the people over its move.” The statement said the prelates held extensive discussions over the proposed changes. It expressed concern over granting forest officials more powers to arrest or detain individuals without a warrant and search the premises or vehicles of anyone based on mere suspicion.

A district authority in Maharashtra state in western India has been ordered to take back land encroached upon by a state minister and designate it as a multi-faith burial ground as per a directive the authority made eight years ago. Last week, the Bombay High Court ordered the Thane Municipal Corporation “to secure the land from illegal encroachment.” The court also asked for a status report by Feb.12 on the land’s readiness to be used as a burial ground for faith groups, including Chri-stians. The Thane district administration, through a government notification in November 2016, allotted 37,000 square meters of government land as a burial ground, the court noted in its Jan. 8 order. The land “shall not be put to any use other than the use for which it has been reserv-ed,” the order said. The court took up the issue following a petition by Melwyn Fer-nandes, a Catholic activist, who complained that the Christian community in the area suffered from a lack of burial grounds as it could not use the land the government had allotted for burials. Fernandes, general secretary of the Association of Concerned Catholics, filed the public interest litigation in 2021 seeking the court’s intervention to ensure adequate burial land for Christians in Thane district. The petition alleged that the municipality, in 2019, engaged a private land-developing firm to prepare the land for use as a cemetery. But, the firm, alle-gedly owned by the state transport mini-ster, Pratap Sarnaik, did not develop the plot. However, Sarnik’s firm began constru-cting a commercial housing project adjacent to the designated burial ground and en-croached upon it. Fernandes told that the court order made the Christian community happy as the original burial ground plan designated an area for the community in the district. Christians in the state, who form barely 1 percent of its 132 million people, do not have enough burial grounds, Fernandes said, adding: “The case for Christians in Thane is worse.”

His Beatitude Mar Raphael Thattil, the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church and the Metro-politan Archbishop of Emakulam-Angamaly, appointed Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany as the Vicar of the Major Archbishop for the Archeparchy of Emakulam-Angamaly on January 11, 2025. This appoint-ment was made following the First Session of the XXXIII Synod of Bishops of the Syro Malabar Church, held at Mount St. Thomas, Kakkanad from 6 to 11 January 2025, where Archbishop Pamplany was elected to the Office of the Vicar of the Major Archbishop. The election was subse-quently confirmed by the Holy Father. Archbishop Pamplany will continue to serve as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tellicherry. Holy Father Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Mar Bosco Puthur from the Office of Apostolic Administrator of the Archeparchy of Emakulam Angamaly. Mar Puthur, who was appointed to the Office on December 7, 2023, had submitted his resignation in September 2024. With the resignation of the Apostolic Administrator accepted, the gover-nance of the Archeparchy of Erna-kulam-Angamaly has been entrusted to the Major Archbishop by the Apo-stolic See. At the same time, Arch-bishop Cyril Vasil SJ will continue to be the Pontifical Delegate for the Archeparchy of Emakulam Anga-maly.

A group of musicians from Mum-bai has launched an album featuring 15 songs to mark the 2025th year of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The collection, titled “Jubilate Jesus 2025,” released on December 31, 2024, is an initiative by Tej-Prasarini, the media production house of the Mumbai Salesian province.
The project was coordinated by Salesian Father Peter Gonsalves, the founder of Tej-Prasarini, former dean of the Faculty of Social Communi-cations at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, and a member of the Vatican Department for Communications.

An order from India’s top court has rekindled hope for settling a property dispute between two warring factions of the Oriental Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, which is based in southern Kerala state. The Supreme Court, in its Dec. 21 order, told the Kerala state government to assess the facts while maintaining the “status quo with regard to management and administration of the churches, as it exists today.” The government in Kerala is finding it challenging to implement a 2017 Supreme Court order. The court awarded disputed churches to the Orthodox faction, but the state failed to implement it because of stiff opposition from the Jacobite camp, a breakaway faction of the Damascus-based Church. In early December, the top court told the warring Orthodox and Jacobite factions to share all public amenities at disputed church properties until a solution to their row could be found. The latest hearing was held on Dec. 17, but the top court released the order on Dec. 21.
The division bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan told the state government to furnish vital statistics “such as total number of faithful belonging to Orthodox and Jacobite denominations, churches under the control of each side, list of churches under dispute, composition of parishioners of these churches from village panchayat level.” The order also gave liberty to both parties to submit their parish registers before the court. “The state government of Kerala, however, is given the liberty to intervene as and when required in accordance with law in case of any dispute arising between them,” it further said. The top court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging a Kerala High Court order that directed the state government to take possession of six churches in Ernakulam and Palakkad districts under the control of the Jacobite faction in compliance with its 2017 order.
In its Dec. 3 order, the top court held the Jacobite side guilty of contempt and directed it to hand over “only” the admini-stration of the six churches.

Seven Christians, including two pastors, have applied for bail in a court in a northern Indian state after they were arrested, accused of violating a sweeping anti-conversion law. “We applied for their bail at a local court in Sitapur in nor-thern Uttar Pradesh on Dec. 16,” said an activist extending legal help to the arrested Chri-stians. “Hopefully, they will get bail soon,” added the activist, who did not want to be named due to security reasons. Police in Uttar Pradesh arrested the Christians on Dec. 13 for allegedly violating the state’s anti-conversion law, which criminalizes conversion using force, coercion, undue influ-ence, or allurement.
The state government, run by the Bhartiya Janta Party, amended the law in 2024, allowing anyone to complain about a violation. Earlier, only a victim of conversion or close relatives could complain. Cha-kresh Mishra, superintendent of police in Sitapur, told the local media the police acted on the complaint and seized two mobile phones and religious books from the arrested people. Local media reports also accused Christians of luring local people with job offers and monetary benefits while they assembled in a house in Katsa-riya village for a prayer meet-ing. The reports said members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) alerted the police, and its member Abhishek Kumar complained to the police that Christians were making dero-gatory remarks against Hindu deities.