Leaders of different faiths at the first-ever iftar organized by the Archdiocese of Delhi pledged to remain united amid sectarian violence and growing unrest in India.
The iftar or evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset was a symbolic gesture to show solidarity with members of the national capital’s Islamic community who are fasting during the holy month.
“Through this program we wanted to spread love and peace among all people,” Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi said at the interreligious event held by the archdiocese’s Commission for Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue on April 22.
The prelate said there was nothing to gain from what was happening in the country, where one community was pitted against the other in the name of religion, caste and creed.
“Let not the communal forces divide us,” said Archbishop Couto while urging all faith communities to come together and address the challenges before the country.

Emeritus Bishop Joseph Pathalil, the first prelate of Udaipur diocese in Rajasthan, died April 14 after a long illness. He was 85. The death occurred at 12 noon at Paras KJ Hospital in Udaipur.
A message from Bishop Devprasad Ganawa of Udaipur said his predecessor had developed some breathing difficulties in the morning and was rushed to the hospital. “Due to a cardiac arrest, he breathed his last,” Bishop Ganawa added.

Father Kuriakose Kachiramattom, the founder director of the nationally famous Christian music troupe – Angel Voice Gospel Music Group — died April 22. He was 79.
The death occurred in the after-noon at Lissie Hospital in Ernakulam, Kochi. Father Kachiramattom be-longed to Kothamangalam Syro-Malabar Eparchy.

Medak Diocese Bishop Reverend AC Soloman said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was safeguarding the secular fabric in Telangana by according equal importance to all communities.
The Medak Diocese Bishop along with MLC Rajeshwar Rao laid the foundation stone for a new church coming up at the new State Secretariat complex on April 28. Bishop Solomon participated in the ground-breaking ceremony of the new church and performed special prayers.

A top court’s refusal to intervene in the marriage of a Christian woman to a Muslim man has brought the curtain down on a snowballing controversy in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The father of Jyotsna Mary Joseph, who worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia, had filed a habeas corpus petition in Kerala High Court seeking a probe into his daughter’s “dis-appearance” after she walked out on her family and married Shejin, a communist youth leader belonging to the Muslim community, without their con-sent. The family leveled charges of suspected “love jihad,” a conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of targeting women from other religions for conversion to Islam by means of marriage, deception and force.
But the high court division bench of Justice V.G. Arun and Justice C.S. Sudha on April 19 declined to interfere in the couple’s decision to marry and disposed of the father’s petition. The court arrived at a decision after Jyostna appeared before it and categorically stated that she had married Shejin of her own free will and not under any compulsion.

More than 90 Catholic faculty members from 10 Don Bosco colleges in northeastern India spent four days reflecting on their role in higher education institutions. The ten participating Salesian colleges were Assam Don Bosco University Guwahati, Don Bosco Colleges of Maram, Bongaigaon, Gola-hat, Kohima, Siliguri, Sonada, Shillong, Tura and Government College Cherapunjee.
The program was held at Siloam Centre on Barapani Lake near Shillong, capital of Meghalaya state. Director of Siloam center Salesian Father George Palamattam complimented two principals and two vice-principals accompanying faculty members to the the program
Among the facilitators of the program were eminent resource persons from all over India including Archbishop emeritus Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, Archbishop Victor Lyngdoh of Shillong as well as youth leaders from Shillong.
The largest contingent of 27 participants came from Don Bosco (Autonomous) College, Maram, in Manipur.
The participants had immersion experience of major Holy Week liturgy.

The Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA) has urged authorities not to allow educational institutions to hold examinations on Easter Sunday. The organization also called on the government to declare Easter a public holiday.
In a press statement on April 4, BCA president Nirmol Rozario and secretary Hemanta Corraya called on educational institutions not to hold examinations on April 17.
“Easter Sunday is one of the major religious festivals of the Christian community all over the world. The day is an optional holiday in the official calendar but we have heard that some educational institutions will conduct exams on that day. Our demand is for students to be given leave to observe the holiday,” the statement said.
Shojib Minj, a 22-year-old Oran Catholic student at a private university, was unhappy about exams being slated for Easter Sunday.
“We are now third-year students and our exams are ongoing. According to the routine, our course exam is on April 17, the day of Easter. But my wish is to go to the village and celebrate with my relatives and parents,” Minj told.
He also urged educational institutions not to hold exams on that day and said the government should declare Easter a public holiday.
“We have been campaigning for a public holiday on Easter Sunday for almost two decades, but there has been no response from the government.”
Christians form a tiny minority in Bangladesh — less than half a percent of 160 million people in the Muslim-majority country. Of an estimated 600,000 Christians, the majority, about 400,000, are Catholics.
The Christian community in Bangla-desh has long demanded a public holiday on Easter Sunday, but the government has yet to comply.

Religion is back in business in India’s Nagaland state. The strongly perceived Christian identity of the indigenous Na-gas is making headlines.
Nagaland is a Christian and tribal-dominated province in the northeast where guerrillas are still seeking independence.
S. Phangnon Konyak, a Naga Christian woman who heads the local women’s wing of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha or upper house of parliament by her party. As expected, BJP leaders called it revolutionary and empowering for women, especially in the context of a state that has so far not elected a single woman legislator to the local legislature.
Phangnon is only the second woman parliamentarian from the state and the first female among Nagas to be elected to the Rajya Sabha.
However, the episode has gradually become a Hindu-versus-Christianity issue, at least for some individuals and political players. Curiously, one church leader has jumped on the bandwagon.
“The people’s government with Christian votes has shamed and destroyed the image of every Christian and that of the Christian state.”