Iran arrested scores of Christians, mostly converts from Islam but also some Assyrian-Chaldeans baptised as children, over a seven-week period in June and July in 11 different cities of the country, this according to Article18, a human rights organisation that advocates on behalf of Iranian Christians and religious freedom.
In an early report, the NGO had reported 50 arrests by mid-July in five cities, but its latest update indicates that at least 69 people were taken into custody, 10 of which – four men and six women – are still held by the authorities.
The arrests occurred between 1 June and 17 July in the following cities: Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Orumiyeh, Aligoudarz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Semnan, Garmsar, Varamin, and Eslamshahr.
In the capital Tehran and the other cities, after their arrest, people were forced to sign statements pledging to refrain from Christian activities or undergo Islamic re-education in order to be released.
Some say that after their release they were summoned for further questioning, or were ordered to leave Iran. One said he lost his job at the request of intelligence agents. For those granted bail, families had to pay between US$ 8,000 and US$ 40,000.
The majority of those arrested are converts from Islam, but at least two are Iranian-Armenians, who were born into Christian families..
The wave of arrests among Christians also coincides with a new crackdown on Iran’s Baha’i community, which, along with Christian converts, is a minority religious group not recognised by the Islamic Republic.

The Indian Christian community in the Tri-state area organized a vigil in front of the United Nations to pray for peace and justice in Manipur where ethnic clashes have raged since May 3.
The participants of the August 5 program prayed for good sense to come to the perpetrators of the violence and for the authorities to have the courage to reign in the continuing attacks on the Kuki-Zo tribal people, mostly Christians, in the northeastern Indian state.
The vigil, attended by more than 700 people, expressed solidarity with the grieving people of Manipur. “Prayers by the clergy reflected the deep pain felt across the Indian Christian Community in the United States for the great calamity that befell Manipur with tremendous loss of human lives and destruction of homes and churches,” says a press statement from the Federation of Indian American Christians of North America (FIACONA), one of the organizers.
“This is not a protest rally. We aim not to examine why the riots happened, who is responsible, or politics. We are here today to pray for the rule of law in Manipur, and obviously, there are limits as to what we can do to help. However, Prayer does not have any limitations,” said FIACONA president Koshy George.

In Hong Kong, the authorities have ordered another crackdown against pro-democracy activists and civil liberties advocates under the infamous national security law, Beijing imposed in 2020.
As part of this, police yesterday arrested 10 people for allegedly violating the draconian law in connection with a humanitarian relief fund. Card Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Hong Kong’s bishop emeritus, was also detained because of his involvement with the fund, which disbanded two years ago.
In an operation, a prominent Catholic leader was also arrested. According to the Hong Kong Free Press (HHKFP) newspaper, six men and four women were taken into custody, including Bobo Yip, former chairwoman of the diocese’s Justice and Peace Commission.
Following the arrest, police took Yip to a Catholic bookstore in the Yau Ma Tei neighbourhood to gather evidence against her, seizing two computers.Charges against the 10 were mentioned in Card Zen’s trial, who was formally accused of failing to register the fund; If convicted, the 10 face a long prison sentence, up to life imprisonment.

Indian Christians observed what has become an annual “Black Day” protest on Aug. 10 as a vital panel readies to submit a report on granting reservation status under India’s affirmative action policy to Christian and Muslim Dalits.
Protest marches, rallies, and debates were held across the country as different Christian denominations sought scheduled caste status to avail reservation benefits in jobs and educational institutions for Dalit Christians who form 75 percent of India’s 25 million Christian population.
In New Delhi, members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), National Council of Churches in India, and National Council of Dalit Christians observed a “silent protest” outside the Sacred Heart Cathedral after permission was denied to hold it at the Jantar Mandar, a place earmarked for protests in the national capital.
Dalit Christians began observing Aug. 10 as a “Black Day” in 2009 and the protest has grown to include all Christian denominations in recent years.The observance is to protest against a 1950 presidential decree issued on Aug. 10 which denied reservation benefits to downtrodden people who left Hinduism for other religions.
The government, headed by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, issued the decree to prevent the mass exodus of Dalits from caste-ridden Hinduism to other egalitarian and progressive religions like Christianity and Islam. Under Hinduism, the caste system is a “divinely sanctioned” social order where one’s social status is determined by a hereditary vocation.
Dalits are on the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system and are destined to toil for the benefit of upper castes. They currently make up more than 25 percent of India’s 1.4 billion inhabitants.The term Dalits was used as a translation by the British Raj for the first time during a census classification of “depressed classes.”

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered a fresh probe into the death of a Catholic bishop in the central Indian state.
Bishop Thomas Thennatt of Gwalior died in a road accident on December14, 2018 and his family members suspected foul play in the death as the prelate’s body was buried without performing the mandatory post-mortem examination.
The Gwalior bench of the high court on July 19 ordered the probe into the death of the bishop, who was then 65 years old. The single bench of Justice Roopesh Chandra Varshney in its order dismissed the objections from the First Additional Sessions Judge, Shivpuri district that upheld the order of the Judicial Magistrate First Class in the same district and ordered for a fresh probe.

Members of various Churches joined the Conference of Religious India to organize a human chain and prayer service on July 23 for peace and harmony in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur.
Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi led more than 10,000 people who stood on the road from 10 and to 12 noon, holding banners and placards pleading for peace and justice in Manipur where ethnic clashes have raged since May 3.

Fourteen years after his death, Fr. Augustus Colombo’s dream of a great university of medical sciences among the last in Warangal, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, becomes a reality.
This afternoon during a Mass presided over by the apostolic nuncio to India Msgr. Leopoldo Girelli, along with Indian Cardinals Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, and Felipe Neri Ferrao, archbishop of Goa, with all the bishops of Andhra Pradesh, the foundation stone was blessed of the college for nurses and paramedics, the new wing of the Fr. Colombo Institute of Medical Science, of the diocese of Warangal.

Lately, my attention was drawn to news from Australia in June that reported a ceremony taking place in Queensland to celebrate the renaming of Fraser Island — a World Heritage-listed island that lies just off the east coast — as K’gari, the original name used by the Butchulla people.
This recognition and honouring of the First Nation People’s culture and history is in sharp contrast to what I observed as the Japanese consul-general in Melbourne two decades ago. At that time, Australians were divided between liberals and conservatives, and the former’s argument for apologies to indigenous people was strongly resisted by the latter.
It took another decade for the declaration of apologies to materialize. In this context, I am impressed by the substantial change Australia has brought about.

On June 1, the Vatican accepted the resignation of Indian Bishop Franco Mula-kkal, almost five years after police arrested him on charges of raping a nun.
The Vatican “requested” his resignation, said a statement from the apostolic nunciature in India, adding that this action should not be seen as a “dis-ciplinary measure imposed up-on” the bishop.
The Mulakkal case has once again revived the demand for speedy and transparent action into allegations of clerical abu-se in India as delays can lead to embarrassment for Christi-ans, who make up 2.3 percent in the Hindu majority nation of 1.4 billion people.
The Vatican’s move in the Mulakkal case came 18 months after a lower court acquitted him, and when an appeal against the acquittal is pending in a higher court.
Mulakkal is the fourth Catholic bishop to resign over allegations of sexual abuse in India — all in the past 15 years.
In all four cases, the hierarchy failed to act on its own against the accused but moved only after public outrage and police complaints. Even when acted upon, the hierarchy made no public report of its investigation on the allegations nor explained reasons for removing the person.
In the Mulakkal case, the nun was forced to go to the police because “the hierarchy did not listen” to her complaints and those of her companions, Sister Norah Alunkal, secretary of the women’s section of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), the forum of consecrated Catholic religious in India, told.
The hierarchy also “took a position with the accused and totally ignored the alleged rape victim,” said Alunkal, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny.

The top court in India’s commercial capital Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has restrained a suburban civic body from converting designated burial grounds for other purposes.
The Bombay High Court in western Maharashtra state on July 19 asked the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) “not to use the land designated as a burial ground in the city development plan for any other purpose.”
The court order came in a plea filed by a group of Christians in the city.
“It is a major victory for the Christians who live in the suburban civic body limits,” said Melwyn Fernandes, the lead petitioner in the case.
Fernandes, a Catholic activist, told UCA News on July 21 that the local Christian community has been facing a severe shortage of burial grounds after many of its designated cemeteries “were encroached on by builders and influential people with the backing of politicians.”
Land is very expensive in Mumbai and the city and its suburbs are prone to illegal encroachments by land sharks.
The megacity of some 21 million people on the coast of the Arabian Sea houses the most expensive real estate projects in the country and attracts millions of immigrants from across the nation.
“I filed an application under the Right to Information Act, a special law empowering citizens to seek information from the government, to get details of burial grounds meant for Christians,” Fernandes said.