Around 2,000 people on Oct 12 attended the inaugural Eucharist of Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) and Synod convention at Dumka, about 250 km northwest of Kolkata.
The congregation danced before the Eucharist to express their joy of meeting each other and to thank God for the opportunity to hold the convention. “To enlarge the Space of the Tent” is the theme of the convention as proposed by Pope Francis for the Rome Synod.
Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi, presided over the Eucharist concelebrated by eight bishops of Bengal and Jharkhand regions and about 100 priests. It is a time to thank the Almighty God for the blessings showered upon Jharkhand region and specially Dumka Diocese, said Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka, the host.
Bishop Vincent Aind of Bagdogra and Regional Chairperson of BEC in West Bengal and Sikkim inaugurated the convention by raising the flag of BEC and lighting the lamp along with representatives of youth, women, men, priests, religious Sisters and Bishops from various dioceses.
After inauguration, a tribute was offered to Cardinal Telesphore Toppo who died on Oct.4. He was the second bishop of Dumka.
About 600 participants from 20 dioceses are participating in the October 12-15 convention. The youth of Dumka conducted prayer and worship.

The Enforcement Directorate, better-known as ED, could arrest any citizen even without possessing any evidence of the alleged financial scam. It seemed to have the absolute right of arrest.
However, in a landmark judgment on October 3, the Supreme Court criticized the ED for ‘arbitrary exercise of power’ and said it must provide a written explanation of why it was making an arrest.
In its judgment in the case Pankaj Bansal versus Union of India, the apex court told the federal government categorically that there is no provision in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which entitles the ED to arrest a person merely on allegations of a financial corruption/ scam.
So long the ED’s standard approach has been to justify arrest under the excuse of the alleged scamster’s non-cooperation to summons/in the investigation. But the court said the denial of guilt by a person cannot be construed as non-cooperation.
Rather, the court asked the ED to pay attention to three provisions which are clearly stated in the law –the reason for arrest must be clearly recorded in writing by the arresting officer; the arrest document must be properly signed; and the copy of the arrest document must be given to the accused person before the arrest.
The court reiterated there would be no exception to these stipulations. It reminded the ED that an accused is not a criminal, and an attempt to prove a charge against an accused does not mean that the charge has been proved. Therefore, to ensure the constitutional rights of a citizen, it is imperative for a democratic government to document that a citizen is being arrested on a specific provable charge and not out of retaliation.

Pope Francis on September 21 appoi-nted Father Lourdu Anandam as the bi-shop of Sivagangai, a diocese of southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The 65 year old bishop elect is a clergy of the Archdiocese of Madurai, currently the parish priest of the Holy Rosary Church and director of the Pastoral Centre and Coordinator of the Archdiocesan Commissions.

The Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) has honoured Jose Kavi, the Managing Editor of Matters India with the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to the Church Media.
The Louis Careno Award for Excellence in Journalism, including a citation, a memento and a cash award were handed over to Jose Kavi in a glittering ceremony on September 23 at the 28th National convention of ICPA at Ashirvhavan, Kochi.

A renowned Jesuit-missiologist, who had studied missionary life as part of his vocation within the vocation, has died.
Father Joseph Valiamangalam died of diabetic complication on September 14 at Vadodara in Gujarat state. He was 73. He was a member of the Jesuits’ Gujarat province for 54 years.

Francis has a well-earned reputation as the “Cold Call Pope,” often phoning people out of the blue who’ve written him or whom he wants to contact for some other reason. He recently burnished that reputation with a video call to the 95-year-old grandmother of a member of his travel team.
On Sept. 2, Pope Francis made a video call to the home of the Kallukalam family in the southern Indian state of Kerala, which was answered by Father Thomas Kallukalam.

Pakistani authorities on Sept.19 handed out thousands of dollars to nearly 100 Christian families whose homes were destroyed or damaged by a Muslim mob angered over an alleged desecration of the Quran last week. The government of caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said each household was getting 2 million rupees ($6,800) in compensation on Monday. Police said they have arrested dozens more rioters in ongoing raids, bringing the total number of those detained over the attacks in the city of Jaranwala to 160.
“They are worried for their safety, they are worried for their children, who witnessed the tragedy and are traumatized,” priest Khalid Mukhtar said of the local Christians.

September 26 marks a sad anniversary: a thousand days in prison for businessman Jimmy Lai.
Her was jailed for suppor-ting pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. His newspaper, and his newspaper, the Apple Daily, was forced to close by Chinese authorities after they imposed a draconian national security law.
Baptised by Card Joseph Zen, Jimmy Lai, 75, has been in prison awaiting trial since 31 December 2020, exactly a thousand days ago.
Those who have met him since say that, inside, he has found solace in reading the Bible. In the meantime, after repeated postponements, his main trial, on violating the national security law, is set to start on 18 December.
The Apple Daily ceased publication in 2021 after its bank accounts were frozen and 500 police officers raided its offices.
A thousand days behind bars for crimes of opinion gave the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) an oppo-rtunity to put the spotlight on his story and on the fate of other leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
The CFHK, an umbrella organisation of 67 human rights groups, published an open letter to the President of the United States Joe Biden, urging him to take action to secure Jimmy Lai’s immediate release.
It also calls on him not to invite Chief Executive John Lee and other Hong Kong officials to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (AP-EC) Summit in San Francisco on 15-17 November, as well as impose sanctions against Hong Kong officials and pro-secutors who have abused their powers under the anti-demo-cratic law.
“Since Beijing imposed the NSL in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, it has been broadly and arbitrarily applied in arresting 264 individuals for national security crimes, inclu-ding Jimmy Lai. In court cases to date, the government boasts a 100% conviction rate,” the letter states.
Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastian said that he was alarmed by his father’s conditions, openly ex-pressing fear that he could die in prison.
Sebastian Lai also slammed British authorities for their “shameful” failure to help his father who, like many  people in Hong Kong, is a British national. On the one hand, the UK says it supports Jimmy Lai’s legal battle; on the other, it continues to do business with Hong Kong and China as if nothing happened.

A Catholic priest who faced a police complaint for a social media post protesting recent anti-Christian violence in the Indian state of Manipur committed suicide on Sept. 13, with his body found hanging from a tree in a cemetery.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Sagar in India announced the death of Father Anil Francis in a statement to the press on Sept.15, saying, “We are extremely pained and sad over the death of Fr. Anil Fran-cis, who was known for his commitment to the works given to him and dedicated to the values preached by him.”
According to the statement, Francis’s death is under police investigation and the diocese is cooperating fully. It also noted that in a suicide note, Francis had requested that his body be cremated.
The suicide came shortly after Francis had posted an image to social media depicting a woman wrapped in the colors of the Indian flag being held by two men, with a mob behind them, with the text, “Wounded Manipur: 2 women paraded naked, gang-raped, not none arrested since two months. We are ashamed. When will peace prevail? Pray for Manipur.”
“We realize that Fr. AniI Francis was under tension and pressure over an FIR lodged against him over a post he had shared on Manipur violence on social media,” the diocese said in its statement, referring to the police complaint.

Christians in a southern Indian state have urged the provincial government to end discriminatory education policies that adversely impact Christian-run schools receiving state funds.
The Christian community runs around 6,000 of the estimated 8,403 schools in Tamil Nadu that receive government aid, and hence are referred to as “aided schools.”
“Most of them are in villages where the government is unable to provide education for want of infrastructure,” said Father Antonysamy Solomon, secretary of the education commission of Tamil Nadu Bishops Council (TNBC).Top of Form
He said the roughly 6,000 schools, which include close to 2,500 Catholic schools, have played a pioneering role in educating several generations in Tamil Nadu for more than a century.
“The government agreed to provide aid because of the community’s contributions. But it is discriminating against us and favoring only government schools now,” Father Solomon said.
The state government provides breakfast for students in primary schools run by it. Students passing out from the 37,211 government schools also benefit from a 7.50 percent special quota in admissions to higher education courses like medical and engineering.
A monthly stipend of 1,000 rupees (US$12) has been announced recently for female students from government schools to help them pursue higher education.