The president of Hockey India Padma Shri Dilip Tirkey has applauded the Jesuits of Jamshedpur province for reaching out to places where no one dared to go.
“The Jesuits dared forests and mountains and faced all odds in doing God’s mission and shaping the bright future of thousands of children,” Tirkey told a function to mark the platinum jubilee of the Jamshedpur Jesuit Society.
The young hockey icon from Odisha was the chief guest at the January 8 program at Loyola School in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern Indian state.
“I am at the helm of affairs at this time as the hockey world cup starts from January 13-29 in Odisha. However, I could not refrain from coming over here and expressing my gratitude to the Jesuits who deserved the most for their total dedication. Hundred years back the Kolkata Jesuits’ mission reached Rourkela. We are the fruit of their mission,” said Tirkey, a former member of the Rajya Sabha.
As many as 1,500 people, including bishops, priests, religious, and laity, participated in the event.
The celebration was kicked off with a solemn Mass presided over by Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar. Jam-shedpur Jesuit provincial, Odisha Jesuits, and priests in and around Bhubaneswar concelebrated.
Jesuit Father Augustine Ezhakunnel, the superior of the Loyola School Community, welcomed the gathering before the Mass and declared the opening of the platinum jubilee celebration of the Odisha region.

India’s top court has called forced and deceitful conversions “a serious matter” and sought assistance from the federal government’s top law officer in seeking steps to stop them.
“Religious conversions by force, allurement, etc… if that is happening then what should be done? What are the corre-ctive measures?” the Supreme Court bench of Justice M R Shah and Justice C T Ravikumar observed on Jan. 9 while discussing a petition.
The court also requested Attorney General R. Venkata-ramani to act “as amicus curiae or otherwise in any form” in the matter. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, a lawyer and member of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seeking a national law to check religious conversions through force and other fraudulent means.
The judges brushed aside questions about the maintain-ability of the petition and the credibility of Upadhyay raised by P. Wilson, government counsel of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Wilson said the petition for a national anti-conversion law was politically motivated.
“Leave this matter to the legislature. There is no threat of conversion in our state. This is a politically motivated litigation. He [Upadhyay] has made Tamil Nadu, the state govern-ment, a party,” Wilson said, according to The Hindu.
The Court also directed the federal government to step in and make efforts to tackle the “very serious issue” of proselytization through deception, allurement and intimidation.
(See Focus)

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered former president, Maithripala Sirisena, as well as top defense ministry and intelligence officials, to pay compensation totaling 310 million rupees (US$ 885,670) to victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.
The Jan. 12 order from the top court pointed to a “reckless” intelligence failure, reported The Hindu. “A Victim Fund must be established at the Office for Reparation, which must formulate a scheme to award the sums ordered as compensation in a fair and equitable manner to the victims and families,” the order noted.
Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara, former Ministry of Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former head of State Intelligence Service Nilantha Jayawardene, and former National Intelligence Chief Sisira Mendis are among those ordered to pay.
Sirisena was ordered to pay 100 million rupees ($273,300) while the other officials were to pay a total of 210 million rupees ($574,000). The compensation has to be paid from their personal funds.
“The mastermind behind the attack has not yet been traced”
The Supreme Court has also ordered the federal government to pay one million rupees as compensation to each of the victims.
Father Sarath Iddamalgoda, one of a dozen petitioners in the case, said political leaders think they can do anything illegal but the judgment was a reminder that nobody is above the law.
The priest told UCA news that he couldn’t have wished for a better gift on his 78th birthday on Jan. 12.
“As a priest, I tried to seek justice for the victims. But the mastermind behind the attack has not yet been traced. We are waiting for him to be caught,” Father Iddamalgoda said.

In the nine days leading to Christmas, Cristine Pascual goes to bed early as she needs to rise at around 2:30 am instead of 6:00 am like the rest of the year.
Pascual, 42, a Catholic mother of three children aged 14, 13, and 9, finishes her household chores quickly and rushes to the St. James the Great Church in Cavite in the southern part of the Philippine capital Manila.

Catholic Church leaders have sought an “unconditional apology” from the Indian government for the custodial death of Father Stan Swamy after a US based digital forensic firm has found that the late Jesuit was falsely implicated in a sedition case.
“At least at this stage, the government and its probe agency should tender an unconditional apology to people for the unjust arrest, inhuman incarceration and custodial death of Father Swamy for no fault of his,” says Jesuit Father A Santhanam, convener of the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests (NLFRP).
Earlier, the Arsenal Consulting, a digital forensic laboratory based in the United States, had found that Father Swamy was framed after hacking into his computer hard drive and planting incriminating documents as evidences to implicate him.

The pioneer of the Claretians in India, Fr. George Vanchipurackal (79) died on December 25 after celebrating Christmas with his family members. His funeral will take place in Claret Bhavan, Kuravilangad at 2.30 pm on December 26.
Fr. George Vanchipurackal was a pioneering formator and mentor for the Claretian priests in India after he was ordained a Claretian priest in Rome in 1969. He was part of the second batch of students sent by the then Palai bishop Sebastian Vayalil to the Claretian seminary in Germany.

At 63, Biju Uthup is de-termined to continue litigat-ion stretching three decades seeking court intervention to stop his local Catholic diocese from discriminating against people based on “purity of blood.”
Uthup, a retired scientist from India’s Aeronautical Development Agency, began his struggle in 1989 when his diocese refused to recognize his marriage on the grounds that his grandmother belonged to the Latin rite.
His grandmother’s “impure blood” made him impure and hence, he cannot be a member of the diocese, he was told.
“It shocked me. But the Church leaders were not ready to change, forcing me to move civil court to fight this demonic idea,” Uthup said.
His archdiocese of Ko-ttayam, a diocese until 2005, was established in 1911 for an endogamous Catholic community within the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church. The group, known as the Knanaya community, would not accept those marrying from other Catholic dioceses, who they consider Catholics of impure blood.

Each time Father Shehzad Anwar visits Catholics living scattered in Quetta city on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, having a Baloch or Pushto-speaking guide is as important as carrying the Mass kit or having a car with a tank full of petrol.
The 36-year-old diocesan priest has learned the essential lessons in his pastoral ministry in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province dominated by ethnic Baloch and Pashtun people.
The ethnic Punjabi priest serves as a parish priest of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Loralai, a district famed for marble quarries, about 154 kilometres east of Quetta.
The mission in the mineral-rich and sparsely populated province, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is extremely challenging and threatening, Father Anwar says.
It is not just because of long-distance travel in the hilly, rugged terrain. For decades, the region has been a battlefield plagued by terrorism, a separatist insurgency and heavy-handed military operations. Deaths from shootings and bombings are routine affairs.
A local guide saves priests like Father Anwar from uncomfortable situations such as grilling from security forces and even gun-toting extremist groups.

What I will describe is a scandal of potentially huge proportions, which the Japanese media is failing to cover, and the news is mostly spreading via Twitter.
Police in the port city of Kobe recently detained a pastor on suspicion of using illegal drugs. Yasuhiko Mori, after a life in organized crime, founded the Kobe Disciple Church in 2010 — part of the Jesus Japan World Mission (started in 1995) — with many branches nationwide including Tokyo, where he currently serves as head pastor.
The 64-year-old former yakuza, whose resume includes criminal activities of all sorts, was ostensibly responsible for providing spiritual guidance and support to members of the church, as well as organizing services, delivering sermons and leading Bible studies.
As much as we would like to think this story came out of a script for a movie, this is not the case.

Kolkata, December 25, 2022 — Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Member of Parliament Abhisek Banerjee attended the mid-night mass at Cathedral of The Most Holy Rosary Kolkata, presided over by Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Kolkata, along with several civil and church dignitaries.
Other dignitaries present at the Christmas eve function were Vicar General Fr Dominic Gomes, ProVicar of the Cathedral Fr Franklin Menezes, and Kolkata Police Commissioner, Vineet Goyal.
Chief Minister inaugurated the crib and special exhibition on the life of Jesus curated by Don Bosco School Liluah Alumnus and Church Art Kolkata CEO Mr. Subrata Ganguly.
The 20 panels at the special exhibition, created by Church Art Kolkata, displayed in front of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary, narrate the story of the announcement of the Birth of Jesus till his Resurrection and the glorification of his Mother Mary.