Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, archbishop of Goa and Daman, was re-elected president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), the national body of the country’s Latin rites bishops.
The election took place during the conference’s 33rd plenary assembly held November 11-12 at St. John’s National Institute of Health Sciences in Bengaluru, southern India.

The police in Kerala have registered a case against a Catholic archbishop, his auxiliary and 48 others in connection with violence during a protest against an under construction international seaport in the southern Indian state.
The police and protesters clashed at Vizhinjam police station close to the port protest site on November 27 night that led to injuries to more than 50 people, including 36 police personnel.
The violent mob also ran-sacked the police station and destroyed equipment and police vehicles parked in the compound.
The protesters came to the police station demanding the release five men detained by the police the previous day for violent clash in front of the port site. The protestors had blocked the entry of dumper trucks with construction materials.
Some claiming to be su-pporters of the port project acco-mpanied the trucks and threw stones at the protestors.
The clash continued alle-gedly in connivance with the police. Many had sustained wounds in the violence.
The police later charged Archbishop Thomas J Nettor of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese, his auxiliary Bishop R Kristudas, priests and other protesters for the violence.

Hundreds of temporary teachers are on an indefinite strike demanding regularisation of their service in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
“We were employed by the government during 2003-2004 but the government sacked us in various false cases,” says a statement from the association of Swechasevi Sikshya sahayak (SSS, Student Assistant volunteers).
The association wants the government to follow a High Court order and re-employ all dismissed teachers and regularize those still working.
The protest that began November 14 continues even after two weeks at the Lower PMG Square in Bhubaneswar, the state the capital.
“The government has divided us into three parts, regular, contractual, and overthrown members. This is how we have been harassed for 19 years,” bemoans Duryajan Sethi, president of the SSS teachers’ federation.
He said the high court on November 9 gave the order in the teachers’ favor. “If the government does not listen, we will intensify the protest and continue to demand to re-employ 243 teachers who were removed unjustly and regularize the 412 teachers who are working on a contractual basis.”

The Catholic Church in Mizoram on November 20 ended the celebration of the 75 years of the presence of priests in the northeastern Indian state with Cardinal Oswald Gracias hailing the Mizo society for setting an example for the rest of the country.
“Your core values of solidarity, concern for the other, community feeling, decision by consensus, kindness, casteless society, and non-discrimination that are the values of Jesus,” the cardinal, who is the archbishop of Bombay and the chief guest, told a public reception. The public meeting concluded the November 18-20 celebrations. It was preceded by a solemn Mass presided over by the cardinal at the Christ the King Cathedral at Kulikawn, Aizawl, the state capital.

A federal agency dealing with economic offenses has attached close to 10 million rupees of movable assets of a Christian medical college in Kerala as part of its probe into a money laundering case.
A November 22 statement from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) says it has provisionally attached movable pro-perties worth 9,525,000 rupees from the bank balance of Dr Somervell Memorial Medical College, Karakonam, in Thiruvananthapuram district, under the Church of South India.
The amount is equivalent to the amount of funds the officials of the medical college, including a doctor and Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam, had collected from parents promising to give their children seats in MBBS and masters courses in the institution. The agency also said it initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of multiple first information re-ports registered by Vellarada Police Station and Kerala Police’s Crime Branch.
The probe revealed that the officials had indeed collected the amount from their parents but failed to give admissions to their children even after taking the money.
The accused, ED release points out, had used part of the cash for developing infrastructure in the medical college and the remaining amount was di-verted to the parent Organisation – the South Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India.

The arrival of three Mi-ssionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians from India has answered the 22-year long prayers of the parishioners and parents of a Catholic school in Hawaii for the return of nuns to their school. On October 7 their prayers were answered.
They arrived at Lihue airport to assume involvement in parish ministry at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church and School in Kapaa, Kauai. They are Sisters Jincy Thomas from the southern India state of Kerala; Rachel Marius from the northeastern India state of Manipur; and Philisita Jyrwa from the northeastern India state of Meghalaya.
The sisters were warmly greeted by St. Catherine’s ad-ministrator Father Nicholas Apetorgbor and parochial vicar Father Dario Rinaldi, and with more leis of aloha from about a dozen pari-shioners.
The three sisters expand the community’s Hawaii mission to seven members. Four others serve on Oahu.

Sunday Liturgy, the premier liturgical publication, turns golden this month. Published by the Indian Province of the Society of St Paul, the periodical was launched in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, the mother house of the Congregation in India in November, 1972, coinciding with the beginning of the coming liturgical year. The goal of the till-now four- page leaflet was/is to help the Catholic faithful to more actively participate in the Sunday Eucharist.

A Catholic priest from India is reco-vering in a hospital in Ireland after an intruder broke into his residence and stabbed him on October 30. Father Bobit Augusthy was attacked at around 9:30 am at Waterford in the Republic of Ireland.
The property is located in the grounds of Waterford Regional Ho-spital where Father Augusthy is a chaplain and he was rushed for treat-ment and remains in a serious condi-tion. It is understood that the priest, who is originally from India and a member of the Order of St Camillus, was attacked when he came upon the intruder in the home he shares with two other priests.

Father Àngel Fernàndez Artime, head of the Salesians of Don Bosco, says northeastern India experienced Mother Mary’s presence even before his congregation reached the region a century ago.
Father Artime mentioned this when he visited the Salesian novitiate at Sunnyside Upper Shillong, capital of Meghalaya state, October 28 on the second day of his visit to the region.

The first Catholic nun from Odisha’s Kandhamal region thanks God for accompanying her in her 50 years of religious life.
About 50 people, 27 nuns and 7 priests attended the November 5 thanksgiving Mass of Sister Florentia Digal, a member of the Daughter of Charity congregation.
The Mass was presided over by Divine Word Archbishop John Barwa Cuttack-Bhubaneswar at Jatni, Khordha Road.