In the latest escalation in a long-running dispute within India’s Syro-Malabar Church, the administrator of its largest diocese has required all candidates for the priesthood to take a loyalty oath swearing to celebrate the Mass only in the manner prescribed by Church authorities.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath issued the new oath in a Nov. 23 letter, indicating that all deacons in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Anga-maly must sign it prior to being ordai-ned to the priesthood.

Ranchi is one of the oldest cities of Jharkhand and ranks among the best-known hill stations in the state. Popularly known as the City of Waterfalls, Ranchi is famous for its picturesque Hudru Falls, Dassam Falls, Johna Falls and several other tourist attractions like water sports at Patratu Lake.

Papal delegate Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil arrived in Kochi on December 13, a week after Pope Francis personally intervened in the vexing liturgical dispute in the Syro-Malabar Church’s Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.
Archbishop Vasil was received at 8 am in the Kochi International Airport by a team led by Bishop Emeritus Bosco Puthur of Melbourne, the temporary apostolic administrator of the troubled archdiocese.
This is the second time Archbishop Vasil is visiting the southern Indian state of Kerala to resolve the decades-old liturgical dispute. His earlier two-week visit that ended August 21 had left the fate of more than 400 priests uncertain for defying his ultimatum to offer Masses on August 20 in the synod-approved mode in all parishes and institutions in the archdiocese.
He had apparently alienated the majority of the priests and lay people in the archdiocese by his insistence on implementing the uniform method of celebrating Mass.
Archbishop Vasil’s latest visit takes place after Pope Francis on December 7 accepted the resignations Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur from the post of apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, a demand made by the dissidents.
However, the Pope, through a video message, asked the priests of the arch-diocese to celebrate the uniform mode of Mass from Christ-mas eve. The Pope also pleaded with them not to divide the ancient Church or create another sect.
He then appoint-ed Bishop Sebastian Vaniyapurackal to function as the administrator of the Syro-Malabar Church, and Bishop Puthur the temporary administrator of the arch-diocese.
The major archbishop is to be elected at the bishops’ synod in January.
Archbishop Vasil’s engagements in Kochi are kept under wraps, although he was expected to meet groups of priests on the day of his arrival.

As many as 52 young women from various parts of India recently took first vows in the first religious congregation for women founded in northeastern India.
They vowed to be poor, chaste and obedient in the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians on December 8 in the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya state.
Sister Philomena Mathew, the congregation’s superior general received their vows during a solemn Mass officiated by Archbishop Emeritus Leo Cornelio of Bhopal.
“It’s a joyful and exalting moment for the congregation. These young women are assets to the congregation, the Church and society as they are highly motivated to live a life of service and dedication,” said the superior general.
She said the entry of the vibrant new members would make the congregation more powerful in changing society through various apostolic and charitable services. “In this digital, highly advanced and globalized world, the ultimate need of people is God. So, true to our motto – ‘Go proclaim the Goodnews’, we hope to become Good News to the poor and needy and proclaim the Goodnews to all people.”

“If on the one hand I accept the Supreme Court’s verdict on Kashmir, on the other I hope that the young people who live in the region are educated to become good citizens and that ordinary people can live in peace.”
These are the words of Sr. Maria Suzette, of the Congregation of the Apostolic Carmel, after Decemebr 12 a constitutional panel made up of five judges ruled that the Indian government acted legally in 2019 when it revoked the auto-nomy of Jammu and Kashmir, guaranteed by Article 370 of the Constitution.
The bench, headed by Jus-tice D.Y. Chandrachud, ruled that Article 370 was a tempo-rary provision “necessary due to war conditions in the State” and was not intended to develop “internal sovereignty”, the ruling said. The special status was to be considered “a characteristic of asymmetric federalism, not of sovereignty,” the court specified.
However, in its verdict, the Supreme Court did not rule on the validity of what is called the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, the 2019 law that provides for Jammu and Kashmir to join the Indian Union as two Separate states. However, he ordered that local elections be called by September 2024.

Chakkalakkal Varghese Joseph hardly ever gets five hours of sleep. His roadside tea shop in the southern Indian state of Kerala opens at 5.00 a.m. and closes at 10.00 p.m.
Joseph is used to the hard life. As a teenager, he began working as a mason and, a few years later, became a carpenter and is now the owner of the tea shop.
In between these unending struggles, he married Mary in 1992, and they are happily busy eking out a living and bringing up three children.
“I have strong faith in God,” says the 55-year-old Catholic.
Joseph had been a carpenter for some three decades and also ran timber mills that cut logs into smaller pieces for carpenters to work with.
He began the teashop after his businesses collapsed due to extended lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the tea shop remains the primary source of income for the family.
Customers, mostly day la-borers and commuters rushing to their faraway workplaces come for hot milk tea, coffee and snacks that Joseph sells at a crossroads in his sleepy Neerikode village.
“My life is full of struggles. But I am happy. I can say that with confidence. These problems will come and go,” says Joseph with a smile.
Besides tea and coffee, Joseph also sells fritters fried in fresh coconut oil. But his bestseller is congee (rice porridge) with vegetable curries that dozens of people buy on their way to the nearby market.
He wouldn’t reveal his average income. “I make just enough to survive,” was all he said with a smile.
Inside his tin-roofed tea shop, Joseph works alone most days. His wife Mary comes to help him only occasionally as she is busy with the household chores.
“I am proud of our children. The bond that I have with them is my greatest strength,” Joseph said.
The eldest is Anu, who is now married and lives with her husband. Their son Anfin recently started working in a private firm and the youngest son Akhil is preparing for university studies.
As a carpenter, he had to travel to distant places, and always took his wife along.

More than 10,000 Catholics from across the state of Manipur, which in recent months has witnessed a surge in ethnic violence between Hindus and Christians, attended the Dec. 8 installation of the new archbishop of the Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. The Imphal Archdiocese, comprising the entire state of Manipur, held a solemn service led by outgoing Archbishop Dominic Lumon with Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli delivering a special message to the assembled, calling for unity in this time of conflict and hardship.

Devotees flocked to shrines dedi-cated to Venerable Agnelo in various places in India on his 96th death anniversary.
“Venerable Agnelo is an inspi-ration for Catholics in their journey of faith,” said Cardinal Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrão, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, in his homily during the co-mmemorative Mass on November 20 at Pilar hillock, 13 km southeast of Panaji, capital of Goa state.

Frustrated with the pervasive and paralyzing levels of unemployment in the state of Telangana, in southern India, and with no real hope of finding an employment in the near future, Karne Sirisha, a graduate woman, chose to graze buffaloes, and thereby to support her family.
At 25, she lives with her mother (who is abandoned by a drunkard-husband, not uncommon in rural India) and two younger brothers.
In spite of all odds that go with being born into a poor rural Dalit family, Sirisha fought her way and excelled in studies.
She is one of the angry and frustrated millions in Telangana who remain unemployed, recruited neither by the state nor by the private firms. Instead of remaining idle at home, Sirisha chose to add a few more buffaloes to the flock. Buffalo-milk consumption is popular in many areas in India.
By making and circulating a partly-critical and partly-humorous video in which she describes herself as Barrelakka, buffalo-sister (she uses it descriptively and not derogatorily), she ingeniously invented herself. As she got much attention and as her video got numerous views and shares, the panic-stricken government of Telangana, slapped cases against her. She has been fighting them all alone.

Ratan Singh Masram does not remember seeing his father, who abandoned his mother a few months after he was born. His mother left him in the care of her parents.
Both mother and father remarried and “practically forgot about me,” he says.
Masram, a Gond tribal Catholic from central India, works hard as a day laborer to be a good father to his two children.
“Although I grew up almost like an orphan, my Catholic faith has helped me lead a decent life and bring up a Catholic family,” the 48-year-old says.
No one in Masram’s family was literate. The Gonds, a group of indigenous people in central and south-central India, did not send their children to school until recently.
“They also did not allow me to go to school,” he recalls.
As a child, he remembers working hard under the scorching sun in the fields, helping his grandparents cultivate rice, millet and oil seeds, besides grazing cattle and performing other daily chores like fetching water and firewood.
“God protected me. My life shows his plan,” says Masram who lives in a village in Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh state.
As a teenager, he was forced to move out of his grandparents’ home in search of work.
In nearby villages where he found work, Masram often spotted “some educated and well-behaved” people who wore “clean dresses.”
They regularly visited local people and took an interest in solving their problems.
He soon gathered they were Catholic priests and nuns from Jabalpur diocese.
“I wanted to be like them. But being illiterate, I knew very well that I could not become like them,” he recalled.
Despite the fact that nobody in his family even knew about Christianity, he made up his mind to become a Christian.
He was told by an acquaintance to meet the priest in nearby Junwani parish.
“The priest told me to learn more about Christianity before becoming one,” Masram said.
Though unable to read, he was determined enough to learn by heart the basic catechism.
A few years later, he was baptized.
At the age of 18, Masram married a Catholic woman named Chaity who was three years younger than him. This was in keeping with their tribe’s customs and practices at the time. However, he has ensured his children do not marry young.