Police arrested 10 people under the stringent anti-conversion law after a raid on a Christian prayer gathering in a central Indian state.
Some 70 Christians had gathered at a private residence in Kotwali in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh state on May 13 when a police team arrived and stopped their prayer meeting alleging “religious conversion activity.”
“Our people were arrested after branding the routine prayer meeting as a conversion activity,” a pastor speaking on condition of anonymity said on May 15.
Police also seized copies of the Bible and other documents from the residence. The 10 people who were arrested were produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
“We are confident our innocence will be proved in the court of law and our people will be released from prison,” the pastor said, adding such raids on prayer gatherings inside houses and arrests of the Christians had become a trend in Madhya Pradesh.
The state government is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The raid and arrests were initiated by the police on the basis of a complaint filed by Ashram Baiga, who is from a local indigenous community.
Baiga alleged that the arrested people had offered him 100,000 rupees (US$820) to convert him to Christianity.
The police arrested those they believed to be the leaders of the group and also filed cases against 12 others for violating various provisions of the state’s sweeping anti-conversion law passed in 2021.
The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, prohibits unlawful conversion from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, any other fraudulent means, and allurement. Violators face a prison term of up to 10 years.
The law is often used to target Christians and their prayer gatherings held in remote parts of the state.
The law also criminalizes inter-religious marriages, especially between Christians and Muslim men marrying Hindu girls, without prior approval from the government.

Divisive ideologies and agendas are the root cause of an ethnic conflict that has led to violence against Christians and attacks on churches in India’s northeastern state of Manipur, said Indian Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, the state’s capital city.
“Hidden agendas and ideologies contrary to the constitutional and demo-cratic values often infiltrate into the region and the state which jeopardizes the peaceful coexistence and religious harmony of the state and the region,” Archbishop Lumon told on May 24.
“Outside forces with hidden agendas to disturb communal harmony and vested interests have to be recognized and resi-sted,” he said.
The violence began in early May when ethnic tribal groups, primarily Christian, protested against a High Court decision granting “Scheduled Tribe” status to the majority Meithei Hindu community.
Scheduled Tribes are Indigenous tribal groups that are given reservation status under India’s constitution. Traditionally disadvantaged communities recognized as Scheduled Tribes are guaranteed political representation, and receive benefits such as education and employment.
Answering questions from OSV News via email, Archbishop Lumon explained that opposition to the Meithei community’s inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes also would grant them the right to own land in ethnic tribal areas and is an issue that is at the “heart of the violence in Manipur.”
He also cited disparity in land distribution and in political representation in favor of the Meithei community as reasons for escalating tensions in the region. According to UCA News, recent riots claimed the lives of over 70 people and left tens of thousands of people displaced.
Anger toward tribal Christians and their opposition toward the Meithei’s granting of reservation status has led to attacks on homes and Christian places of worship, the archbishop said.
Archbishop Lumon told OSV News that Manipur is a multi-ethnic state of many cultural and religious groups and that the only way it can move past the violence is if its people “learn to embrace a common brotherhood and peaceful coexistence.”

The Evangelical Presbyterian church suffered a fire as munitions exploded in a nearby market. The Coptic Orthodox church was struck by a rocket. And All Saints Anglican Cathedral was occupied by militant forces.
Over 500 people have been killed, with more than 4,000 injured.
“The situation is very serious,” said Ismail Kanani, general secretary of the Sudanese Bible Society. “I am trapped in my house, without power and water.”
Prices for food and fuel are skyrocketing, electricity supply has been cut off in much of the capital, and hospitals have been looted and are barely operating. A three-day truce has been agreed—and violated—to allow civilian escape and embassy evacuations.
Almost all Christians have left the area, said Abdalrahim Musa, director of the Evangelical Cultural Center of the Khartoum Presbyterian church. An eyewitness to the carnage, like many other Christians he fled three hours south to Wad Madani, an area relatively distant from the conflict.
But in their absence, he hears reports of widespread looting of their properties.
They are not the only ones displaced. More than 100,000 people have fled Sudan, according to the United Nations, with an additional 334,000 displaced within the country.

The Indian Women Press Corps and Press Club of India on May 4 deplored police manhandling a woman journalist near the site of wrestlers protests.

The Syro-Malabar Church, a prominent Catholic group in India, says it opposes legalizing same sex marriage, as it is “a denial of human nature and an injustice to the family system and society.”
“Legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to calls for the legalization of sexual perversions such as attraction to children, attraction to animals, and attraction between blood relatives,” says a May 4 press note from the Church’s Public Affairs Commission, based in Kochi, Kerala.

Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child in her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:15-16).
These are the words written in a new breastfeeding room, which was opened on February 20 at Our Lady of Periyanayagi Shrine. The shrine is in Konankuppam, Kallakurichi district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and was constructed by Italian Jesuit missionary Father Constantine Joseph Beschi (1680-1747).

Catholic nuns in Kerala continue to demand a ban on a controversial play two months after it was staged at an international theater festival in the southern Indian state. The play allegedly depicts them as lesbians and sexual partners of priests.
The play – “Kakkukali” – in Mala-yalam, Kerala’s local language, was staged Feb 5-14 at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala organized by the state government.

On May 4  sectarian violence broke out in the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. For the past two days, majority ethnic Meitei, who are predominantly Hindu, have clashed with members of the Mostly Christian Kuki tribal group.
For local boxing champion Mary Kom, “The situation in Manipur makes me unhappy. [. . .] “Since last night it has become more frightening.” In view of events, “I ask the state and central governments to take steps and (to) maintain peace and security”. Sadly, “some people have lost family members in this violence.”
In a separate statement, Metropolitan Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore writes: “It is with deep concern that we note the resurgence of the targeting and persecution of Christians in the peaceful state of Manipur in the North-East, where the Christian population comprises 41%.
The prelate goes on to say: “We have received reports that three churches built in 1974 and some houses have been set on fire, and the people have been forced to flee to safer places.” What is more, “there have been disturbing reports in the news and on social media that the Jesuit Fathers serving in these areas have been threatened and made to feel insecure.”
Finally, “It is distressing to hear that despite having a sizable Christian population in Manipur, the community is being made to feel insecure. We are reminded that even the world-famous female boxer Mary Kom hails from this state.”

A papal decision allowing women to vote in the concluding discussions of the Synod on Synodality compels Asia’s national churches to widen the participation of lay people, particularly women, in Church activities, say leading Asian theologians.
A Vatican statement on April 26 said Pope Francis has “approved the extension of participation in the synodal assembly to ‘non-bishops’ — priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, lay men and women,” with voting rights.
It means “the universal Church, as well as local churches, must open their doors to welcome the greater and active participation of women in making crucial decisions about the Church’s activities,” said theologian Father Joseph Ho Thu, who teaches at Vietnam’s Hue Major Seminary.
Theologians across Asia expressed similar views alluding to how national churches have been excluding lay people, particularly women, from bodies that make decisions on their budgeting, ministry programs, volunteer labor, and internal operations.
Despite several resolutions passed in Church seminars and conferences stressing the need for lay participation, men, mostly clerics, continue to head even the offices or commissions meant to protect women’s interests in dioceses, and the regional and national bodies of bishops.

The Commission for Migrants of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of India on May 1 drew plans to combat the issues of forced labor and human trafficking in its Agra region comprising 10 dioceses.
Some 30 delegates from these dioceses attended a workshop at Gyandeep Bhawan Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, to celebrate the International Worker’s Day and address human trafficking and bonded labor that are rampant in the agricultural field, brick kilns and factories of the region.
The participants decided to form a resource team equipped with legal knowledge and adequate skills to effectively address human trafficking which has become a serious issue after the Covid-19 pandemic in region.
They stressed the need for educating Christians on the Church’s social teaching to end injustice against workers.
They noted that the pandemic and the subsequent economic slowdown have worsened migrant workers’ situation. The number of unemployed youth in the country is on rise. Some states have failed to create enough jobs forcing workers to flee to metropolitan cities for livelihood leaving behind their families.