The Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala has planed a series of programs to celebrate the Nov. 4 beatification of Sister Rani Maria, a Franciscan Clarist missionary nun murdered in Madhya Pradesh 22 years ago.

Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly and the Franciscan Clarist Congregation are jointly organizing the programs with involvement of other two Catholic rites in the state—Syro-Malankara and Latin, said press release from the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. As part of the program relics of the nun will be brought to the Major Archbishop’s House in Ernakulam from Indore, where the ceremonies of beatification are palnned. It will be then taken in procession to Perumbavoor, her place of birth, on November 15. A thanksgiving Mass and related ceremonies will be held at Pulluvazhy on November 19.

Beatification is the penultimate stage in the four-phased canonization process in the Catholic Church. Rani Maria’s cause of canonization began in 2003 and she was declared a Servant of God four years later.

The nun was 41 when Samandar Singh, hired by some landlords, stabbed her inside a bus on February 25, 1995. She was on traveling to Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh State, en route her native place in Kerala, southern India. The attacker followed her when she ran out of the crowded bus and continued to stab her. She died on the roadside at Nachanbore Hill, near Indore.

The next Youth Day will take place in India in 2020, the second time the South Asian nation will be hosting the continental-level Catholic Church event since 2003. Card. Oswald Gracias made the announcement on August 5 at the end of the concluding Mass of the 7th Asian Youth Day (AYD7), which he presided over in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

The venue of the AYD8 will be discussed and decided upon by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, together with Indian Church officials and some of the Indian youth delegation received the simple bamboo AYD cross from their Indonesian counterparts for the next AYD to take place in 3 years’ time.

Differences cannot separate us. Among those who flanked Cardinal Gracias, the main celebrant, at the altar were Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila and Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta, who delivered the homily in Bahasa Indonesia.

“We do realize our differences: We are of different nationalities, different languages, different cultures, and so on,” noted the archbishop who is president of Indonesia’s bishops’ conference (KWI).

“However, in this event, we do realize and experience that those differences cannot separate us, but the differences show the richness of the united humanity instead. It proves that the power of faith, hope and love unites us.” Arch Suharyo wished that the AYD7 help the young people to “diligently and faithfully live out the Gospel so that we may be filled with the joy of the Gospel.” “Thus, our life could mirror the glory of the Lord, which changes our lives,” he said.

Catholic Church officials are backing a hunger strike in support of demands for com-pensation and rehabilitation for 40,000 families affected by a major dam project in central India’s Madhya Pradesh State. Protesters say increased water levels in the Sardar Sarovar Dam will submerge 912 villages while officials maintain that affected people have already been compensated and benefited from ‘rehabilitation’ measures.

Police on Aug. 7 ‘cane charg-ed’ supporters of 12 people on hunger strike since July 27 at Chikhalda, a village in Dhar district. Activist Medha Patkar was hospitalized as a result of the encounter.
Police also forcefully took six others to hospital as their health deteriorated, but more joined the hunger strike to replace them.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal, who is based in the Madhya Pradesh State capital, said the current situation is a matter of great concern as nobody should be deprived of his or her “right to life.” He called on the government to conduct a fresh survey to determine how many more people should be offered rehabilitation packages.

A leader of pro-Hindu BJP party wants morning prayer calls from mosques and sounds of bells from churches be replaced with shouts of nationalist slogans.

President of the Bihar unit of the party Nityanand Rai said “sound of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ (hail mother India) should replace azaan from mosques and sounds of bells from churches.” He was speaking at a BJP function in Patna Aug 8. However, he made U-turn soon, reported media.

After realizing that he has made a controversial statement, Rai corrected himself before the media and said: “I told that sound of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Vande Matram should come from mosque and church and did not mean in place of azaan and bell.”

The function, the Sankalp Sammelan of the BJP to honour all the 12 ministers of the party in the newly formed coalition government in Bihar, also turned controversial when Vinod Kumar Singh, state minister for Minister of Mines and Geology, made a similar demand.

Singh wanted all people to join him in loudly shouting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” However, when the media persons present did not shout “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” he expressed his displeasure and anger over it.

Christian intellectuals in India have called on the community to safeguard pluralism and fight fringe elements targeting Chri-stian, Muslim and other minori-ties. In an open letter to Catholic and Protestant leaders, 101 Christian theologians, academics and members of different orga-nisations expressed concern over Hindu nationalism “What used to be fringe, has now become main-stream,” the non-denominational letter said. It comes against a backdrop of increased attacks on Muslims, including several cases of lynching, by Hindu mobs in the name of protecting cows, which are revered by Hindus.

The letter made a veiled reference to a perceived lack of coordinated action among Chri-stian churches against religious violence. The Christian commu-nity itself has experienced increased violence since the pro-Hindu Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. In the past three years there have been more than 600 incidents of violence against Christians.

The letter to Christian leaders stated that it was time to take bold initiatives, and join with civil groups, to prevent further erosion of human and constitutional values. “In unison with members of all faiths, ideologies, we should marshal India’s tremendous spiritual resources in consolida-ting peace, resolving conflicts and infusing a sense of values in the body politic,” it added.

Bishop Theodore Mascare-nhas, general secretary of the Indian bishops’ conference reacted to the letter saying: “Our doors are open to everybody. These leaders [who signed the letter] are most welcome to come and discuss.” He told ucanews.com that the church stands by its principles and are “against ideologies of polarization, hatred and violence.”

An expert on Islam told an inter-religious gathering here that “this is the best time” for Christians and Muslims to build relation as Pope Francis has been leading the Church for inter-faith actions from front.

Capuchin Father Michael D. Calabria, director of the centre for Arab and Islamic studies in St Bonaventure University based in New York, was addressing a July 17 seminar at India Islamic Cultural Centre in New Delhi.

Some 100 selected leaders from Christian, Muslim and Hindu religions attended the program organized by Interfaith Coalition for Peace, which also includes Catholic organizations and leaders.
Father Calabria told the gathering that he sees this as “best time” not only for “Christians and Muslims to come together” and but also for “inter-faith dialogues” because Pope Francis as leader of the Catholic Church encourages such action as no other Pope did in history.

If Fr Ralin de Souza is not celebrating a mass at the Shrine of our Lady of Fatima in the city, you can bet your last penny that he will be at the nearby basketball court.

A Salesian priest at Don Bosco, Fr Ralin has been heading the Goa Basketball Association (GBA) for four years and has now achieved a unique distinction: He is the best-quali-fied basketball coach from Goa and the third-best in the country.

“Basketball is now my vocation. I give it religious significance,” said Fr Ralin, who is the only Goan basketball coach to be listed on the FIBA-WABC website among 111 Indian coaches who are qualified after the intensive coaching program undertaken by FIBA and WABC in India.

From among all his passions, Father Ralin always gave special importance to basket-ball.

The tomb was alongside his wife Usha Narayanan in the non-denominational cemetery run by the Delhi Cemeteries Committee on Prithviraj Road. Chitra, the eldest of Narayanan’s two daughters and former IFS officer, in an email told Outlook: “The burial was done according to the wishes of her mother (Usha), a Christian.”

During his stint in Rangoon as an Indian Foreign Service Official, Narayanan had met his wife, a Burmese woman named Tint Tint, an Evangelist protestant. He married her in 1950 after the Centre gave its blessing. Tint Tint later adopted the name Usha.

“After the passing of Shri KR Narayanan, the State Funeral and cremation according to Hindu rites took place in Karma Bhumi near Rajghat,” said Chitra. “A small portion of the ashes were retained by his widow Smt Usha Narayanan, a Christian, to be buried alongside her. At her passing in 2008, this was done according to her wishes at the Prithviraj Road cemetery. This was an entirely private wish and should be respected accordingly.” “A part of the ashes was mingled with those of Shri KR Narayanan’s late parents. Shri KR Narayanan was a Hindu and respected equally all religions,” Chitra said.

The per-household religious contribution of Christians is the highest among all communities, as per data from the 72nd round of National Sample Survey (NSS) on Household Expenditure on Services and Durable Goods.

After Christians, it is the Sikhs followed by Muslims who contribute more to charity. But in absolute terms, Hindus contributed maximum in 2014-15, thanks to larger population, according to National Sample Survey data.

The data were recently extracted from the NSS’ raw findings by a team of researchers led by Sabir Ahamed of the Pratichi Institute and Zakaria Siddiqui, research assistant at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Austra-lian National University. The 72nd round was conducted in 2014-15, but could be accessed only in late 2016.

Religious contributions are divided under two heads: the contribution to institutions is ‘charity’ and the non-charitable part is under ‘priests and rituals.’ Hindus contribute 82 per house-hold per month to charities and 92 to the priests, while Muslims give 126 and 54 to charities and Maulanas respectively.

Contributions multiplied by each surveyed household of Hindus in the country indicates that the community contributes 15,600 crore to priests and charities. The actual contribution of Muslims is 2,580 crore.