A group of Catholic bishops in India has met with a state official about a series of incidents involving the harassment of Christian services by right wing activists accusing churches of trying to forcibly convert Hindus. The Church in India says it takes strong measures to assure.

Seven bishops from the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh have met with the chief minister of the state to discuss the recent disruptions of Christian places of worship in the state.

In recent months, right-wing activists from the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) have stopped services and harassed worshippers in the state, which is India’s largest, accusing churches of trying to convert the local Hindu population to Christianity. The HYV was founded by the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, in 2002.

“We expressed a few concerns, seeking security and safety to the minority and especially to the places of worship, we also asked the honorable Chief Minister to look into the matter, where people take law into their own hands,” said Bishop Gerald John Mathias, the Bishop of Lucknow.

Mathias told Crux the chief minister assured them he would not permit vigilantism, and expressed his support for the work of the church in helping the poor and education.
“However, he told us that he was against ‘conversions,’ but we could go on speaking about Prabhu Yesu (Lord Jesus), and have respect for others faiths, and live in good will with all.”

The Syro-Malabar Church, one of the three rites of the Catholic Church in India, has issued a note to its clergy, saying that “Yoga is not a means to experience the divine, although it may contribute to physical and mental health.” In the statement, the Church’s Synod of Bishops recognises the important role yoga plays in Indian culture, but adds that it “must be considered as a physical exercise, a posture to concentrate or meditate.” By contrast, “the divine experience does not need any particular posture.”

For former Synod spokesman Fr Paul Thelakat, yoga is “acceptable and useful for concentration, meditation and for the holistic well being of body and mind. However,” he told AsiaNews, “the Synod does not consider yoga as a mythic or esoteric short cut to the spiritual life.”

In India, yoga is a required subject in schools. Every year, on International Yoga Day of (21 June), education in schools takes a back seat to yoga events and initiatives.

In the recent past, some Indian activists and intelle-ctuals have claimed that the observance is mandatory, forcing students to sing Hindu hymns and mantra. This limits freedom of worship among minorities and represents a lack of “sensitivity” towards Christian and Muslim students.

The note, signed by Card George Alencherry, head of the Synod, clarifies the position of the Church in the matter. The “God in whom we believe is a personal God,” it reads. “God is not some-one who can be reached through a particular post-ure.” For this reason, “It is not quite right to think that the experience of God and the personal encounter with the Lord is possible through Yoga.” In view of this, “every one should take utmost care to avoid getting into those prayer groups and spiritual movements which are against the Catholic faith and do not recognise the official teachings of the Church.” In fact, the “Synod does not consider yoga as a mythic or esoteric short cut to spiritual life,” Fr Paul Thelakat added. The “Catholic Church teaches the ways of self-purification and union with God are found in asceticism and prayer.”

A Christian prayer meeting was cancelled in the country’s IT capital Bengaluru on Apr 8 after complaints were lodged that this could facilitate forced conversions in the city which was to host two American preachers for this event. The cancellation came just about 12 hours before the prayer meeting was to be held. Nearly 1,000 people were expected to attend the meetings spread over April 8 and 9. It was cancelled in the wake of protests lodged by Hindutva groups like the Bajrang Dal.

In Bengaluru, the first complaint was filed by one Girish Bhardwaj, who wrote to the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office — a police wing that tracks foreigners visiting Karnataka — that two American evangelists were in India for “religious conversion,” in violation of their visa norms.

“The two foreigners had applied for Indian visa only to attend religious campaigns. Clearly, they are misleading the Indian Consulate,” he alleged.

Later Bajrang Dal convenor Keshav Nayak filed a police complaint that this progra-mme was “aimed at converting innocent Hindus, was being held daringly in public, where cash would be offered to the converts. As such, it hurts the religious sentiments of the Hindus.”

The Assam government on April 9 announced a draft population policy which suggested denial of government jobs to people with more than two children and making education up to university level free for all girls in the state.

“This is a draft population policy. We have suggested that people having more than two children will not be eligible for any government jobs,” Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference in Guwahati. Any person getting a job after meeting this condition will have to maintain it till end of his service, he added.

“For employment generation schemes like giving tractors, offering homes and others government benefits, this two-children norm will be applicable. Besides, all elections such as panchayats, municipal bodies and autonomous councils held under the state election commission will also have this norm for candidates,” Sarma said.

Sarma, who is also the education minister, said the policy also aims to give free education to all girls up to university level. “We want to make all facilities free, including fees, transportation, books and mess dues in hostels. This step is also likely to arrest the school dropout rate,” he added.

Police stopped a church event attended by more than 150 people, including 10 American tourists, here after the right-wing Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) alleged that religious conversion was being carried out. The youth brigade, set up in 2002 by Yogi Adityanath who is now Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, filed a complaint against Yohannan Adam, the pastor of the church, accusing him of converting Hindus to Christianity, a charge the pastor denied.  SHO, Dathauli, Anand Kumar Gupta said no prior permission was taken for the meeting, which was held ahead of Good Friday. “We stopped the prayer meeting after a complaint was registered. A probe is underway and appropriate action will be taken if the charges are found to be correct,” he said.

Dathauli falls in Maharajganj district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. It borders Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency represented five times by Adityanath before he took over the reins of Uttar Pradesh. Gupta said mass was held there quite often but as this time foreigners were involved, the HYV suspected that conversion was going on.

The Supreme Court on Mar 31 issued notice to the Karnataka police and others on a plea by Bengaluru’s St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary against Karnataka High Court’s order quashing a criminal case against five accused in the sensational murder of Fr K.J. Thomas in 2013. Fr Thomas was the rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Institute in Malleswaram. A bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao also sought response from the accused, who were Kannada Christian activists, and named in the supplementary charge sheet filed more than two years after the incident. It was alleged that the father was killed on April 1, 2013 following a rivalry between him and Kannada Christian activists, who wanted primacy for Kannada Christians in the Catholic Churches in Karnataka.

Local authorities with support from Church have taken steps to ensure that the premises of the Malayattoor church in Kerala remain a green zone. The Ernakulum district collector has banned the use of plastic disposables and a green zone is being set up.

The annual Lenten pilgrimage to Malayattoor, believed to be the spot where St Thomas prayed, attracts devotees from across the State and outside, especially on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

The ‘Clean Malayattoor Pil-grimage’ campaign started on April 1. The Ernakulam Angama-ly diocese and the church authorities have taken a bold step to strictly adhere to the green protocol in the pilgrimage area.

With intensive planning and better participation from stakeholders, the church has taken up measures to rectify the problems faced during the pilgrimage season last year.
Discussions were initiated as early as in February involving the diocese, the church authorities, the district administration, the District Suchitwa Mission (DSW), the Forest Department, Malayattoor panchayat and voluntary organisations.

‘Clean, Green Malayattoor programme’ is the motto of the campaign. Steps are being taken to implement a better waste reduction system, to create awareness about reducing plastic waste and to ensure respon- sible pilgrimage at Malayatoor Kurishumudi.

Sister Rani Maria, Franciscan Clarist nun who was assassinated in central India 22 years ago, has been cleared for beatification by the Vatican on Mar 23.
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.
Rani Maria was 41 when Samandar Singh stabbed her inside a bus on February 25, 1995. Singh was hired by some landlords who were upset with the nun’s fighting for just wages and other rights of the labourers.
She was attacked while travelling to Indore on her way to her native place in Kerala. The attacker followed her when she ran out of the crowded bus and continued to stab her. She died of 54 stab wounds on the roadside at Nachanbore Hill near Indore.
She was buried at Udaingar in Dewas district where she had worked among poor landless agricultural laborers.  As part of her beatification process, on November 18, 2016 Bishop Chacko Thottumarikal of Indore supervised the opening of the slain nun’s tomb and shifted the mortal remains to a church.
Rani Maria was born on January 29, 1954, as the second of seven children of Paily and Eliswa Vattalil at Pulluvazhy, a small village near Kochi. She made her first profession on May 1, 1974, as Franciscan Clarist nun and chose the name Rani Maria. She began her mission in northern India in Bijnore in 1975 and came to Udainagar in 1992.
A documentary, “The Heart of a Murderer,” which depicts the murder and subsequent repentance of Singh, won an award at the World Interfaith Harmony Film Festival in 2013. The congregation’s website says the saintly nun’s courageous sacrifice and martyrdom has helped sow “the seed of love and justice and brotherhood in many hearts.”

Three Indian cardinals met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a possible visit to the country by Pope Francis.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Indian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay who head India’s largest archdiocese, and Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, met with the Prime Minister Feb. 7 in New Delhi.

“The Prime Minister informed [us] that the government holds a favorable attitude toward the Pope’s visit to India,” the bishop’s press release said without giving any further details of the meeting.

Federal External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had extended an invitation to the Pope to visit India when she visited the Vatican during Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s canonization in September 2016.

Pope Francis had said in October 2016 that he would “almost certainly” visit India in 2017. A source close to the Prime Minister’s office told ucanews.com that the meeting was of a “confidential nature” as it discussed sensitive issues such as government steps to secure freedom for kidnapped Father Thomas Uzhunallil.