Cardinal Oswald Gracias said he thinks Pope Francis may not be able to visit India as planned at the end of 2017. The Archbishop of Bombay said that while he is optimistic the pope will visit India at some point in the future, discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government about a visit this year have taken longer than expected.

“I am beginning to lose hope about 2017,” the cardinal, who was in Rome for a meeting of the Council of Cardinals on which he serves, said in an interview with NCR June 15. “We are already in June,” said Cardinal Gracias. “Even if suddenly they said, ‘Come,’ it is a pastoral visit … [and] will take several months for the dioceses to prepare the people.”

“It should not just be a flash in the pan, he comes and goes,” he continued, explaining that for Pope John Paul II’s visit to the country in 1999, the Indian bishops “planned for almost a year before he came to make it effective.”

During the half-hour conversation, Cardinal Gracias touched on a wide range of other topics including the Council of Cardinals’ desire to ensure lay people are consulted on bishops’ appointments and his hope that the Vatican will decentralize more authority to local bishops.

Francis first announced his intent to visit India in October 2016, saying in a press conference he was “quasi-sure” he would visit the country along with Bangladesh in 2017. Vatican officials are known to have been working on a visit for November or December, when temperatures in the region are normally coolest.

Should the India visit be postponed it would be the second expected papal visit for 2017 to be delayed, following the Vatican’s announcement May 30 that Francis will be unable to visit South Sudan this October as previously planned.

An inter-denominational Christian organization in northeast India has welcomed an ecumenical prayer initiative launched by a retired Catholic archbishop known for his relentless efforts for peace in the restive region.

Archbishop emeritus Thomas Menamparampil, of Guwahati (Assam state) and former apostolic administrator of Jowai (in Meghalaya state) has proposed a “special ecumenical prayer for peace and harmony among communities” at the start of each month, starting in August, by all Churches and friends, following an act of vandalism in the Catholic cathedral of Bongaigaon.

The initiative to calm tension in north-eastern India, one of the most restless regions of the country, has been enthusiastically welcomed by the United Christian Forum North East India (UCF NEI), a grouping of Christian, Catholic, Presbyterian and Baptist organizations.

Archbishop Menamparampil told Asianews that from August, the prayer that he composed would be recited throughout the region.

Church leaders have expressed solidarity with ethnic Gorkha people who are on an indefinite strike protesting for a separate homeland in the Darjeeling area of eastern India.

Since June 8 Darjeeling district in West Bengal state has witnessed violent clashes between local people and the police.

Street protests, stone throwing by the public as well as violence from both sides intensified since June 12 when the popular local organization Gorkha Janmukti Morcha called for an indefinite strike demanding for Gorkhaland — the creation of a separate homeland for ethic Gorkha people. At least three people have been killed in the violence so far.

“The church is not directly involved in the protest. But the church is with the people,” Bishop Stephen Lepcha of Darjeeling told ucanews.com explaining that local people are demanding for the right of self-governance as West Bengal state, under which the region falls, does not attend to the needs of local people.

“The problem arises here again because people do not see the government helping with any development in this hilly region. People suffer unemployment and poverty. The administration has failed miserably,” said Bishop Lepcha, a native of Darjeeling.

Outlawed fundamentalist groups have the support of political and religious leaders, and are not punished for violence against minorities. The economy excludes the most vulnerable groups in society. “Vegetarian terrorism” is unleashed against killing cattle. The retired abp Menamparampil said in an interview:

“The details of the incident are widely known. What we notice also in this case is a reco-gnizable pattern in the attack. The central area of worship is targeted, the holiest objects are dishonoured, the aim apparently is to publicly humiliate a minority community. The impression left behind, however, is one of robbery. No definite conclusions can be drawn. Officials put it to anti-social elements; they say that Hindu temples and Muslim masjids are also being robbed. What they do not say is that anti-social elements are being cultivated by fundamentalist groups, irresponsible politicians, and of late, even by corporations.

The police become helpless when lawless groups enjoy patronage from political ‘strong men’ or are linked with emotion-driven religious leaders. These groups are organized into senas and dals (armies and squads), brain-washed, and initiated into various forms of reckless social interventions, e.g. to act as moral police, or as self-appointed protectors of women, to defend cultural values, and humiliate minority communities. Assam seems to be free of such elements at this stage. But there is evidence that that groups may be under training.”

The Archdiocese of Bhopal organized a peaceful sit-in to highlight various problems Christians face in Madhya Pradesh state as well as in India.

Representatives of various Churches on June 20 spoke on topics related to Christians at the meeting held at Ambedkar park in Bhopal’s Tulsi Nagar area. The program began with a prayer.

The program was organized in the backdrop of recent arrest of a Catholic nun who accompanied some tribal women in a train. Madhya Pradesh in central India witnessed two similar incidents within a month. Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal noted that all missionary institutions employ people of all castes and religions. “Missionary organizations work on secular thinking, and respect all religions. But some fundamentalists always try to defame these institutions and attempts to give communal colors to any event occurring in these institutions,” the archbishop bemoaned in a message that was read out at the meeting.

Bishop Sebastian Francis of Penang in Malaysia says his maiden visit to India’s Trichur archdiocese would help him rediscover his ancestral roots.

Bishop Francis, who was given a rousing welcome in the Kerala archdiocese, told reporters that his grandparents had emigrated to Malaysia (then Malaya) in 1890s when the British ruled the two countries. The bishop’s family belonged to the Mechery family of Ollur in Thrissur district.

The 65-year-old prelate said he knew some of his maternal relatives live in Chennai, capital of neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, but had little contact with them. Bishop Francis’ family in Malaysia comprises five brothers and four sisters, who are now full-fledged Malaysian citizens. They have never visited India until now since they had not links with their Indian relatives.

A Catholic priest, who went missing in Scotland three days ago, has been found dead, an Indian news portal reported on June 24.

According to unconfirmed reports in deepika.com, the body of Father Martin Xavier Vazhachira was found on a beach closer to his residence.

The 33-year-old priest, a native of the southern Indian state of Kerala and a member of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate congregation, served as the parish priests of St. John the Baptist’s church in Corstorphine since October 2016. The parish comes under Edinburgh diocese that he joined on July 15, 2016..

Although Father Xavier went missing on June 21, the news about his disappearance appeared in media only two days later. According to the Malayalam portal, the priest had contacted his relatives in Kerala by phone on June 20 evening. He was doing doctoral studies along with the pastoral duties.

Christians in Gujarat have demanded withdrawal of a school textbook that refers to Jesus Christ as a demon whose stories would be remembered forever.

The lesson appeared in the Hindi textbook for ninth grade under the Gujarat State Board.

The education minister and the chairperson of the textbook board have said that the error will be rectified soon. Officials said that the mistake was caused by a misprint.

The reference to Jesus Christ as a demon is made in chapter 16 of the book titled “Bharatiya Sanskriti Mein Guru-Shishya Sambandh” (the teacher-disciple relationship in the Indian culture).

On page 70, the line referring to Jesus Christ reads – “Iss sambandh mein haivan Isa ka ek kathan sadaa smaraniya hain.” Translated, it means that in this context, an incident of demon Jesus will always be remembered. The underlined sentence translates to “an incident of demon Jesus will always be remembered.”

Subramaniam Iyer, a lawyer who noticed the mistake, says that the error attracts section 295 (a) of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class. Speaking to News18, Iyer said, “Jesus is being portrayed as a demon to students. Quite clearly, this is a case that attracts section 295(a) of the IPC that pertains to hurting the religious sentiments of any class.”

Iyer said that the error may be unintentional, but it can create a rift between communities and cause a law and order problem. “This simply is unacceptable and should be removed immediately,” he added.

The news channel contacted Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama who said he was aware of the error and added that it will be corrected.

Nitin Pethani, chairperson of the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks, said that it was a typographical error. “The word “haiva,” a disciple of Jesus Christ, got misprinted as “haivan,” meaning a demon,” he said, adding that “Aadam Isa” and “Haiva Isa” were the two disciples of Christ and an “n” inadvertently got printed in the book.

Christians from across the city and district submitted a memorandum to the district collector over the class IX Hindi Textbook published by Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) that had printed adjective ‘hevaan’ or demon for Jesus Christ.

Christians from Syrian Church, Pentecost, Brethren Mission, Protestant, Roman Catholic and other denominations have expressed shock over the Textbook referring Jesus Christ as a demon.

Christians took out a rally and submitted a memorandum to district collector Mahendra Patel here on June 12.

Thousands of young people from Africa, many of them Catholics, migrate each year to major Indian cities, mainly to study, creating a new challenge for the Indian church. “The challenges are pastoral,” said Fr Martin Puthussery, secretary of the Commission of Migrants in Bangalore Archdiocese. He said Indian society is prejudiced against Africans, seeing them as wanton drug peddlers.

“It is difficult for them to rent accommodation because of the negative attitudes towards them and those who do find accommo-dation are almost always over-charged,” the Jesuit priest said.
Bangalore, where Father Puthussery is based, has at least 3,000 African students and a third of them are Catholic, he said.

Even though there are no official statistics on the number of Africans in the country, a rough estimate suggests that there are 50,000 Nigerians in India mostly in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

The prejudice against Africans in Indian society cannot be helped but Africans are encouraged to join in with parish activities, Father Puthussery said. “We deliberately try to integrate them and help remove social preju-dice,” he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, winding up a three-day visit to Kerala, gave a clear message to the state unit of the party—win the support of all non-Muslim minorities, especially Christians, and backward caste Hindus, in order to win more seats in the 2019 general election, according to people privy to the discussions.

State BJP leaders, who attended key meetings with Shah, said that he asked to focus on the reality behind getting only one seat rather than boasting about the increase in vote share for the party in the 2016 assembly election.

Kerala is crucial for BJP in its efforts to become a truly national party. The saffron juggernaut, which is on a roll in most Indian states, has not yet been able to make an electoral footprint in Kerala—one of the few states where the BJP has never won a parliamentary seat. However, the party was able to carve some success recently, arguably with the rise of Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the BJP. In the assembly election in May last year, BJP doubled its vote share to 16% and won its first seat.

“He has learned Kerala politics better than any state leader. Now he knows how to tackle it,” said BJP state president and national executive member Sreedharan Pillai, NDTV report-ed.

Kerala has a strong presence of Muslims and Christians, who together make up close to half of the state’s population, as per the 2011 census. “The Muslim Lea-gue has more or less consolidated the bulk of Muslim votes, and it may be a tough nut to crack. But he (Shah) believes the Christian votes, along with the backward caste Hindu votes, may swing in favour of the BJP,” said another state BJP leader, who did not wish to be named.

On June 3rd, Shah visited top Christian priests, including Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) major archbishop M.Soosa Pakiam and Syro-Malabar Church major archbishop.