The head of the Catholic Church in India on March 20 urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to invite Pope Francis to visit the country. “The Prime Minister reacted positively to this desire of the whole Catholic community,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), told media persons after his meeting with Modi.

The Cardinal, one of the eight top advisors of Pope Francis, was elected the CBCI president, during the biennial plenary of the conference in early February at Bengaluru. This was his first meeting with the Prime Minister in his new capacity.

Cardinal Gracias described the meeting was “open, cordial and frank” and it helped the two leaders to know each other better.

The Cardinal had a one-to-one session with the Prime Minister, said Monsignor Joseph Chinnayyan, CBCI deputy secretary general, who accompanied the Cardinal. “This was the first time a Church leader has such meeting with the Prime Minister. Normally, we meet the Prime Minister or the president in groups,” he added.

The Prime Minister promised to find a suitable time slot for the Pope’s visit as scores of world leaders plan to visit India this year.

Pope Francis had expressed his desire to visit India several times last year. He repeated it in March when a minister from Kerala called on the Pope.

Cardinal Gracias also brought to the Prime Minister’s attention the growing anxiety among Christians over “sporadic attacks on minority institutions and personnel in different parts of the country.” “We are small community but our contribution to nation building is between 15 to 20%” the Cardinal repeated what he told the preminer.

A recent article in a Vatican magazine on widespread exploitation of nuns in the Catholic Church has found many takers in India, home to the world’s largest number of women religious. “A welcome statement but late in coming,” Sister Teresa Kotturan, former vice president of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, reacted to the March 1 article in the monthly, “Women, Church, World.”

Fr Paul Thelakat, who has arbitrated several disputes between nuns and priests in Kerala, southern India, too says the “cry of the magazine from Rome is too late.”

Nevertheless, the fact that an official Vatican publication has “come out with some painful truth within the Church” has cheered Presentation Sister Shalini Mulackal, the first woman to head the male-dominated Indian Theological Association. The article in the monthly women’s magazine of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano is based on the comments of several unnamed nuns. It describes the drudgery of nuns who work as cooks, cleaners, waiters on tables for cardinals, bishops and priests. It also narrates how some work in the residences of “men of the Church, waking at dawn to prepare breakfast and going to sleep once dinner is served.”

They also keep the house of priests and bishops in order and clean and iron the laundry for them for “random and often modest” remuneration. The situation is no better in India where patriarchal norms and culture in the Church and society shackle women religious, says Sister Kotturan, who once headed the Indian province of the congregation based in Kentucky, United States. She is currently the NGO Representative at the UN Sisters of Charity Federation.

The Syrian Mar Thoma Church and the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church on March 22 lashed out at the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala for deciding to open closed liquor vends.

The Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Conference (KCBC) had also slammed the “liquor policy” of the Vijayan government.

The Church heads have said that the government was operating on the sly to open new liquor vends, bars and toddy shops, riding on the Supreme Court verdict.

In 2016, when the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government demitted office, there were two dozen bars that operated in five-star hotels, while around 700 bars in the three-and four-star hotels were shut down.

Chandy’s policy envisaged prohibition in Kerala by 2023.

In the Vijayan government’s tenure so far, under the Supreme Court directives, there are close to 200 outlets, including four-star hotel bars and wine and beer parlours open in the state and according to reports from the state excise department another 150 bars are going to open soon.

The Thiruvalla headquartered Syrian Mar Thoma Church chief Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan said that it is unfortunate that the very same people who spoke about practicing the policy of abstinence are doing exactly the opposite.

With a sizeable Mar Thoma community in Chengannur constituency, Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan said that he will direct his community to exercise their franchise according to their conscience.

Mor Coorilose Gee-varghese, head of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Niranam dio-cese, said that he failed to understand the logic of this Left government in coming out with this sort of policy, when there is a crucial assembly by-election coming up.

Stung by a very strong response from the Catholic Church to its liquor policy, the Kerala government on March 18 made it clear that they are open to any sort of discussion on it to make their stand clear.

Talking to media persons here, state Excise Minister T.P.Ramakrishnan said that he is willing to speak to any person or organisations who have doubts about the new liquor policy.

“We are going forward on the liquor policy that we spelled out in our manifesto. We assure all that we will not open a single new bar, liquor vend or toddy shop. All what we did was to follow the Supreme Court’s directives, which we are bound to do.

“No one need to have any concern and our policy on liquor is to foll-ow the policy of abstinence and not head towards prohibition… that’s what we have said in our election manifesto,” he said.

On march 17, heads of various churches attached to the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) slammed the Left Democratic Front government’s liquor policy, threatening it would work against its candidate in the upcoming Chengannur by-poll.

Various Church leaders accused the Vijayan government is operating on sly to open new liquor vends, bars and toddy shops, riding on court verdicts.

The state government’s offer for dialogue came, as along with the KCBC, both the Congress and the BJP began attacking the Left government ahead of the Chengannur assembly by-election, winning which is a prestige issue for the government.

On the yellow mud paths of villages and the tarred roads of Rajkot town, people often spot a Catholic priest rushing on his cycle.

After almost a decade’s work in Rajokt’s Junagadh parish, Father Vinod Kanatt is now nicknamed “cycle priest” in the diocese managed by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate congregation.

“He always surprises us. I have never seen a priest cycling home to exchange birthday greetings,” said 65-year-old Tony Dias after welcoming the priest came to his house in January. The priest came to wish his daughter Flora Mascarenhas on her 40th birthday.

The 52-year-old priest offered a white envelop carrying a birthday card and offered greetings to Flora Mascarenhas has been mourning the death of her husband. He then prayed over the woman for the gift of her life, changing the melancholic atmosphere in the house.

Dias said the priest make it a point to visit the house every Catholic in his parish on their birthdays. “It is very hard to find such a priest, when priests hardly visit houses once once a year under obligation,” Dias said.

Fr Kanatt visits every Catholic family on all important occasions…and the priest will be the first outside the family to know if anyone is sick. And, in some cases, he takes the sick to hospital and family members get to know of it only later,” Flora said.

A top leader of Jainism from India has invited Pope Francis to an international Inter-religious meeting in New Delhi.

“Your Holiness, I am here to invite you for an international Inter-religious meeting, in which my organization has invited the president and prime minister of India and supreme heads of all religions of India,” said Acharya Dr Lokesh Muni in a written message to Pope Francis delivered in person in the Vatican on March 7.

Dr Lokesh Muni continued, “I am deeply happy to inform you that in the past we have organized many international inter-religious programs that have graced many international faith and social luminaries.”

In his invitation on behalf of Jain religion Lokesh Muni continued, “This invitation is close to my heart, as I know you are champion of peace and harmony and tirelessly working for bonding and love between religions. I am hopeful that you must grace this program according to your suitability of time.”

We are really optimistic and I am humbled if you can say two words of nonviolence. I am really grateful, if we can meet alone and discuss a few very important issues, which could bring our religions closer.”

Pope in his broken English said “I like and hope to come.”

A Lenten campaign is bringing together two churches that at first glance might seem worlds apart.

The Church in Germany is one of the wealthiest churches in the world, and at the heart of Europe; the Church in India is one of the poorest and exists at what Pope Francis calls “the peripheries.”

This Lent, Caritas India and Misereor – the German bishops’ international development agency – are joining together to bring awareness to climate change, with the theme “Have you Changed the World Today?”

“We are going around schools and parishes meeting children and people talking about India and the need to change our lifestyles as per the Laudato si’ of Pope Francis,” Father Frederick D’Souza, the executive director of Caritas India, told Crux.

Laudato si’, published in 2015, calls climate change “a global problem with grave implications,” adding that “its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades.”

“In India, Misereor’s partners work to ensure a good life, in particular for those who are forced to live on the fringes of society,” said Franz Gulde, Misereor’s Head of Development Education and Pastoral Work.

The Catholic Church in India says it cannot accept any proposal to introduce passive or active euthanasia.

“Legalizing euthanasia would place the lives of vulnerable people at risk, including those whom others might be tempted to think would be better off dead,” warns Father Stephen Fernandes, national secretary of the Office for Justice Peace and Development under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

The Church official was reacting to the Supreme Court of India allowing passive euthanasia, stating that human beings have the right to die with dignity.

The March 9 order was passed by a five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan. The apex court’s order came on a plea by the NGO ‘Common Cause.’

However, the Supreme Court set out strict guidelines for the mercy killing.

The top court also allowed an individual to draft a living will specifying that they not be put on life support if they slip into an incurable coma in the future. In a ‘living will,, a person can state in advance that their life should not be prolonged by putting them on a ventilator or an artificial support system.

Although the judges gave four separate opinions, all of them were unanimous that a ‘living will’ should be allowed, because an individual should not be allowed to continue suffering in a vegetative state when they don’t wish to continue living.

Father Fernandes says the “Church rejects any proposal concerning active euthanasia as well as passive euthanasia.”

Britain will raise the issue of alleged persecution of Christians and Sikhs in India during the April meeting of the Common wealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London and Windsor, following demands by MPs to take it up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During a lengthy debate at the Westminster Hall of the House of Commons on ‘Freedom of religion or belief’ last week, MPs cited details of alleged persecution in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere, and demanded that ministers discuss it when Commonwealth leaders are here for CHOGM.

A ministry of external affairs officer in India said the ministry would need to see the transcript of the debate before making any comments on the issue.

Martin Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party) mentioned the detention in Punjab of his constituent, Jagtar Singh Johal, allegedly without charge, and claimed that “members of the Sikh community across the UK have become gravely concerned that they, too, may be detained on the simple premise of being a member of the Sikh faith”.

Fabian Hamilton (Labour) raised the issue of alleged persecution of Christians. Hamilton, who visited Kerala recently, recalled the ancient roots of Christianity in India, “Kerala is home to the largest minority of Christians in India; many are from a Catholic background.” He mentioned reports alleging that India was now one of the most dangerous countries to practise Christianity.

Foreign Office minister for Asia, Mark Field, said “some profound points about Prime Minister Modi and about Christian and Sikh minorities in India” were made by the MPs. “We will do our best to raise some of those in an appropriate manner at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in mid-April, to ensure that Parliament’s voice is properly heard,” adding that Modi “will appreciate that diplomacy sometimes needs to be done behind closed doors, rather than with megaphones.”