The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) must restructure itself to make the Church “relevant and responsive” to the people of Asia, a top-ranking cardinal said.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, a member of Pope Francis’ kitchen cabinet, stressed there was a great need to restructure the Asian bishops’ federation and model it on CELAM, the Federation of Latin American Episcopal Conferences — the FABC’s Latin American counterpart.
The cardinal was speaking at the opening of FABC golden jubilee programs in Bangkok on Oct. 12, where he said suggestions for the restructuring of the FABC have the approval of top Vatican officials, including Pope Francis.
By the end of the two-week meeting on Oct. 30, along with its final document, “plans for a restructured FABC will also have been finalized, or at least a direction for them set,” Cardinal Gracias said.
“I cannot stress how vital our role at this general conference is. We are undertaking to become and remain a prophetic, relevant, and responsive Asian Church at the service of the people of Asia,” he said.

Miao diocese in Arunachal Pradesh has ordained its first priest of indigenous origin.
Salesian Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao on October 11 ordained Father Vincent Rangwang, belonging to the Ollo tribe, at his home parish at Lazu in Tirap district
Auxiliary Bishop Dennis of Miao was present along with a large gathering of priests, wo-men religious, friends and relatives from across east Arunachal Pradesh.
Congratulating Father Rangwang on becoming the first tribal priest of Miao diocese, Bishop Palliparambil said, “This indeed is a proud mo-ment for the Ollo community and for everyone in the dio-cese. However, Father Vincent now belongs not just to the Ollo community but to the whole world.”
Father Rangwang has been ordained for the Congregation of Missionaries of Compassion (MOC), based in Aliabad, Hyderabad.
“Even though you have your strong tribal roots, now the whole world is your family. May you sanctify yourself daily to lead all the people to God,” the bishop told the new priest.

An international consultation began on October 10 in Thailand’s Chiang Mai city to seek a Christian response to health and healing ministry in Asia. Around 60 people, including medical professionals, pastoral care providers, and leaders of Churches, ecumenical councils, and health-related organizations as well as institutions from across Asia, are attending the October 10-12 consultation organized by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA).
The consultation on the campus of Payap University in Chiang Mai is addressing the theme “Faith, Health and Healing: Christian Response in Contemporary Asia.” At the end, it is expected to formulate and adopt an ecumenical declaration on health, healing, and the right to life.

Daya Bai, a renowned social activist, launched an indefinite satyagraha to demand justice for the victims of endo-sulfan pesticide on October 2, the International Day of Non Violence and the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The use of endosulfan pesticide has killed hundreds of people and maimed and deva-stated the lives of thousands living in and around cashew nut plantations in the Kasargod district of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Daya Bhai, who is in her 80s, sat on hunger strike in front of the Kerala state secretariat in the Kerala capital of Thiruvananthapuram. Around five of her supporters have also joined the protest.
They have demanded the federal government to consider building an All India Institute of Medical Science in Kasargod to provide medical treatment to the victims, for scientific research to assess the physical and mental deficiencies of the victims.

The Indian Christian Women’s Movement (ICWM), an ecumenical forum, has resolved to admit trans persons and LGBT+ persons as members and engage with social and Church issues with “the lens of feminism, liberation and gospel values.” The resolution emerged at the third ICWM convention held September 29-October 2 at the United Theological College in Bengaluru, southern India.
“After braving two years of pandemic, as caregivers, voices against injustice, supporting victims or survivors of violence, abuse and va-rious atrocities it was energizing to meet again,” says a statement issued after the convention.
The convention addressed the theme, “Who will Roll the Stone Away,” alluding to the various “stones” that bar the path of women towards full equality in all areas of their lives. Aruna Roy, president of the National Federation of Indian Women and founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, pointed to the various ways where women could work to remove the “stones” in different areas of their lives.

The Karnataka government has announced that it would include teachings of the Bhagavad Gita as part of moral education in schools from December this year.
B.C. Nagesh, the state’s primary and secondary education minister, said the government has amended its earlier proposal to introduce Gita as a separate subject in schools and decided to teach it as part of moral education.
However, some section of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has objected to introducing the Hindu scripture only as part of moral education and not as a separate topic in syllabus.
However, Nagesh said the government has already appointed an expert panel to give their recommendations and suggestions after consulting with various stakeholders.
The minister also hinted that some historical mistakes will be corrected in the textbooks like the lesson on Baba Dudan-giri, a holy place of Muslims in Chikmagaluru to ‘Inam Dattatreya Peeta,’ a Hindu pilgrim center in the same hills. The text books will have more information on some local kings and their kingdoms too, he added.
Last year, several school days were disrupted on account of the hijab row by Muslim girls and attacks on some Christian schools for propagating Christian principles in schools.
Father Faustine Lobo, the spokesperson of the Catholic Church in Karnataka, said he welcomes the government decision to teach Bhagavad Gita in schools as part of moral education, but it should not be aimed at promoting a single culture.
All regions teach moral principles and India being a multi-cultural country, it is not right to look at morality from only one angle, he pointed out.
“The government should be committed to include moral values from other religions too, if they are really concerned about a moral society based on ethical values and pluralism,” the Catholic priest asserted.

The Church in India has congratulated Dilip Tirkey, who was elected unopposed as the president of the Ho-ckey Federation of India.
“We extend our congratulations to Dilip Tirkey for this new top job in India. The Church of India is definitely proud of him,” said Divine Word Father Nicholas Barla, secretary of the Office of Tribal Affairs under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
Tirkey, a former India captain, on September 23 became Hockey India’s first player-president of the federation.
Hockey India elections were scheduled for October 1 but the results were de-clared in advance as there were no contestants.
Tirkey was elected after Uttar Pradesh Hockey chief Rakesh Katyal and Hockey Jharkhand’s Bhola Nath Singh withdrew their nominations.
Father Barla says Tirkey has come up from a rural set up in Sundargarh district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, considered the hockey garden of the country. “We expect him to provide opportunities for rural as well talented youth,” he continued.

The Christian community in India remembers Jan. 22, 1999, as the day Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines, who worked with leprosy patients in Odisha, and his young sons Timothy and Philip, were burned alive. It was on that day that the Western world really came face to face with the violence being meted out to the minuscule reli-gious minority by the Hindutva extremist groups collectively known as the Sangh Parivar.
The trio was sleeping in their jeep in a  clearing in the Manour-harpur-Baripada forest when they were surrounded by a mob led by Dara Singh, a local chief of the militant Bajrang Dal, who had gained a reputation as the scourge of cattle traders driving their animals through forest roads in the state on the east coast of India. Dara Singh had earlier slain a man called Rahman, a Muslim cattle trader.
The Staines family massacre remained international news, both in the West and especially in his home country, Australia, for a long time. The triple deaths were horrendous. The father and sons had been set on fire as they slept. As the flames rose, they tried to escape the vehicle but were beaten back into the fire by the mob with bamboo sticks.
The ups and downs of the trial in the superior courts were equally dramatic. It would seem the courts had not fully under-stood the murderous ideology of the killer group. The Supreme Court of India, which finally sentenced Dara Singh to a life term in prison, agreed with the High Court of Orissa (the state high court of Odisha) that the killers did not deserve the death penalty handed to them by the trial court.
The system was not shamed by the words of Graham Staines’ widow Gladys who told TV news reporters that she had “forgiven the murderers of her husband and her two young sons.” The criminal justice system was the job of the government.

An organization engaged in spreading awareness about Chri-stian contribution to the Indian society has urged the Karnataka governor not to sign a bill against religious conversions.
“It is nothing but a dictatorial bill,” says a letter the Reverend Ferdinand Kittle Foundation wrote to the state Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot September 17, a day after the Karnataka Legislative Council, the upper house of the state legislature, passed the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, (anti-conversion bill).
The bill that now awaits the governor’s signature to become a law “is undemocratic” and against the “spirit of secularism of India,” asserts the Bengaluru-based organization and pleaded the governor to consider points such as the bill’s harmful and detrimental impact on the Indian secular society.
“The Indian Constitution has given the right to practice and propagate one’s religion. And every Indian citizen has the right to choose his/her own religion,” asserted the letter signed by or-ganization president Anthony Vikram, vice president Solomon Raj and general secretary Dalith Francis.
They warn that bringing such a “draconian law” has created fear as it takes away people’s right to change religion “freely without fear of atrocities by self-proclaimed moral policing group.”