Category: From The States

Pro-government media outlets in Indonesia have accused an activist priest of turning local villagers against a state-sponsored geothermal project in Christian-majority Flores Island, which the priest denounced as “fabricated.”
Online portal Infopertama.com published a report on July 25 that alleged Divine Word priest, Father Simon Suban Tukan, has been behind protests by villagers against the power project at Poco Leok in Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province.
The report accused the priest, the chairman of Divine Word’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission (JPIC-SVD) for being the organizer of a women’s march against the project last month.
It ended after police reportedly charged in and beat up protesters, leaving several injured and one person hospitalized.
The report on the Bahasa Indonesian language site said that all protests against the project including the women march “were instigated” by Father Tukan.
It alleged that some of the women were willing to go topless as a form protest against the power project.
The report quoted Raimundus Wajong, a resident who supports the scheme, saying that Father Tukan “recruited Poco Leok residents to reject the project.”
Last week, another outlet, Suaranusantara.co, accused the priest of “provoking residents to reject the project” and “damaging people’s lives.”

The majority of Catholic nuns in India struggle to provide healthcare to their elderly and infirm members because of logistical and financial challenges, says a new survey report.
Some 44% of 190 religious congregations do not have any care facility for elderly and infirm members, found the survey by the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Washington DC-based research organization affiliated to the Jesuits-run Georgetown University.
CARA conducts social, scientific studies about the Catholic Church, and offers a range of research services to dioceses, parishes, religious communities and institutes. The research study said 29% have one facility and 27% have two or more facilities owned by their congregation. Of those owning care facilities, a majority of 85% said their facility “is partially equipped,” according to the sur-vey report released this month. Only the rest are fully equipped.
The study, commissioned by the Conference of Religious Women in India (CRWI), was carried out between April and June this year. The survey is based on the responses from superiors general of the congregations. The majority of the respondents spend at least one-fourth of their income on the elderly and infirm.
Half of the responding congregations said 26–50% of their annual budget is spent on the care of the elderly and sick nuns. About a quarter reported spending 25% or less of their annual budget.
Some 68% of congregations allocate funds from their annual budget for the care of their elderly and infirm members.
About 40% of the religious congregations spent between 10,000 and 24,999 rupees (US$121-304) every month for taking care of their elderly and sick. About one-third require 50,000 rupees (US$608) a month, the survey report said. Most congregations said they face challenges in taking care of the elderly and the sick. Major ones were “healthcare challenges, financial challenges, and congregational challenges.”

A new survey commissioned by the Nicaraguan media outlet Confidencial and conducted by market researcher CID Gallup of Costa Rica revealed that the Catholic Church is the most credible institution in Nicaragua despite the harsh persecution to which it has been subjected for some years by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
The survey indicated that 48% consider the Catholic Church to be the most credible institution, while the Ortega presidency has only 26% credibility.
Along the same lines, the personalities enjoying the most favorable opinions are former presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga with 48% followed by journalist and activist Cristiana Chamorro Barrios with 43%.
Maradiaga was imprisoned by the Ortega regime, deported Feb. 9 along with 221 other political prisoners, and lives in exile in the United States.
Regarding the level of corruption in the last six months, 56% responded that it has increased, while 23% believe it is unchanged and only 13% indicate that it has decreased.
The latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) evaluated by Transparency International placed Nicaragua as the most corrupt country in Central America and the third most corrupt in Latin America, surpassed only by Venezuela and Haiti. Regarding the Ortega regime, 61% disapproved of its work, 29% approved, and 10% didn’t know or did not respond. The survey was carried out between June 14 and 20 with 823 people interviewed. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.93% and the confidence level was 95%.

Sister Venita Fernandes has become the first Indian to head the Sisters of Charity of the Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa, an international Catholic religious congregation based in Italy.
Sister Fernandes, a native of Balli-Fatorpa in the western Indian state of Goa, was elected at the congregation’s 28th general chapter that was held May 8 to June 24 in Rome.

First community radio of Darjeeling bagged National Award for Entertainment and Development Excellence along with awards for Industry giants.
On receiving the award, Director of Salesian Radio 90.8 FM, Father C. M. Paul, said, “This award has come to us solely due to the sincere efforts of Radio Salesian RJs, both past and present. Cheers to TEAM Radio Salesian!”

Although no Indian is among the 21 new cardinals named by Pope Francis on July 9, the country has a link with one of two Asians.
Bishop Sebastian Francis Mechery of Penang is the new cardinal from Malaysia. The other Asian is Jesuit Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan of Hong Kong.
Bishop Mechery was born on November 11, 1951, in Johor Bahru, which was then part of the Federation of Malaya. His grandparents had emigrated to Malaya in the 1890s from Ollur in Thrissur district, Kerala.

Pope Francis on July 8 appointed Father Ferdinand Dkhar, as the bishop of Jowai in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya.
The 59-year-old bishop elect is currently the administrator of the diocese of Jowai.
Bishop elect Dkhar was born February 26, 1962, in Longkaluh, a parish under the diocese.

A mob has attacked the principal of a private high school in the western Indian city of Pune.
The incident took place on July 4 when a group of parents, accompanied by the members Bajrang Dal, assaulted the principal of the D Y Patil High School for allegedly singing a school prayer with the phrase “Dear Lord.”
The school, established in 2002, is situated in Pune’s Talegaon Dabhade area.
The attack was captured by some school staff and it went viral forcing the police to intervene. The video shows the principal Alexander Coates Reid, a Christian, being chased by some 30 people who shouted “Har Har Mahadev.”
The newindianexpress.com reported that the mob attacked Reid and the police booked him for forcing the students to take part Christian prayers.
It also reported that several parents had complained about their children being forced to recite Christian prayer. They also said that the students were not given holidays for Hindu festivals.
However, the wire.in portal quoted an official from the Talegaon police station to say that Reid was a “strict teacher” and a few parents were waiting to confront him. “They decided to make an issue out of a non-issue, involve local vigilante groups and attack the principal,” said Police Inspector Ranjit Sawant.

We meet many people in our day-to-day lives, known and unknown. But many do not realize the goodness of the people we come across.
They may be saints who are making changes in the lives and others. In the fast-moving world, people have no time to sit and talk with others; they have shut their ears to listen to the cry of the poor, and there is no time for people to see what is happening next door.
We live in a period where we eat, live, sleep, and die on or with social media. We get up with WhatsApp and go to sleep on social media without having any time for others. Though the world is less generous, less kind, less charitable, and less courageous, there are people who dedicate themselves to serving others and remain superheroes of charity and kindness.
This is the story of Father Benjamin Chinnappan, who brightened the lives of poor, marginalized children, abandoned widows, and drop-out girls. This pioneer of charity is from a remote village called Kakkanur in the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, India.
Father Ben, as he is fondly known by everyone, was ordained for the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore in 1988 and has been a citizen of the United States since 2004.
He was inducted into the Archdiocese of Pondicherry, India, in November 2020, and became a member of Voluntas Dei Secular Institute, USA.
St Patrick Academy studentsFather Ben obtained a Licentiate Degree in Biblical Theology from the University of St. Paul, Ottawa, and after a year of training in Clinical Pastoral Education, he was certified by the USCCB (United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference) as a chaplain to work in hospitals.

Christians in the eastern Indian state of Odisha seem elated that Pope Francis has created a commission for new martyrs. They hope the new commission would address their demand that the Church recognize as martyrs their people killed during the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Odisha’s Kandhamal district.
“The Vatican move is a welcome step in the right direction,” says Ajay Kumar Sin-gh, a human rights activist and part of a seven-member committee that prepared a document on the Kandhamal victims.
Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the head of the Catholic Church in Odisha, points out that the Kandhamal Christians were killed solely because of their “unwavering faith” in their faith.
“They were not criminals, nor were they anti-socials or a burden on society. They were well-liked community members,” asserted the Divine Word prelate in his foreword of the book “Kandhamal Massacred in Anti-Christian violence in 2007-2008” sent to the Vatican for the recognition of 36 Catholic martyrs of Kandhamal.