A new church built beside a destroyed one, where a Protestant Christian was burnt alive in Kandhamal – the epicentre of the 2008 anti-Christian riots in eastern India’s Odisha state – is a sign of hope and renewed faith, say Church leaders. The Catholic Church of Archangel Michael in Gudrikia, a substation under the Padangi parish in Kandhamal district, was blessed on May 26 by Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar. The new church was built near an old church, which was attacked during the 2008 anti-Christian riots. The rioting Hindu mob destroyed the church after burning alive Mathew Nayak, a school teacher, for refusing to give up his Christian faith. “The new church is a sign of hope and faith among Christians, as it comes following the worst anti-Christian violence,” said Father Sebastian Thottamkara, the parish priest in Padangi.

A court in India’s national capital has upheld the termination of a Christian army officer for “indiscipline,” after he persi-stently refused to lead a weekly religious parade, considering it against his faith.
Officer Samuel Kamalesan “has kept his religion above a lawful command from his superior. This clearly is an act of indiscipline,” said the Delhi High Court in its May 30 order. The court upheld the termination.
Kamalesan, a Protestant Chri-stian, was terminated in March 2021, four years after he joined the army, without providing him any benefits, such as a pension or gratuity. He joined the force as a Lieutenant and was appointed the troop leader of a squadron com-prising Sikh soldiers.
As the leader of his troop, Kamalesan was required to lead the troop in a weekly parade to a Gurudwara, a Sikh temple, and join prayers inside the innermost temple, its sanctum sanctorum, with temple priests. Kamalesan refused, stat-ing that his Christian faith does not permit him to do so, according to court records.
Kamalesan’s petition in the High Court challenged his termination and sought rein-statement.
The federal government opposed the petition. Government attorney told the court that Kama-lesan’s refusal was “only on the ground of his religious beliefs” and it “has an adverse effect on the morale and motivation of the troops he commands.”
The court ruled Kamalesan’s “persistent refusal to fully parti-cipate in weekly regimental reli-gious parades, despite extensive counseling and opportunities for compliance, justified the action taken by the respondent.”
Kamalesan said that several Christian troop leaders, including himself, have led and continue to lead troops to the regiment’s Hindu temples, and conduct prayers, offerings, and the Arati as ritual worship inside the inner-most temple. “Without the army uniform, I may be a Catholic. But with the uniform, I’m part of my regiment and will follow the disciplines of the force. Our regimental identity is above reli-gion, caste, and community,” he told on June 2.

Indian Christians have sought President Droupadi Murmu’s intervention to end the rising religious persecution against them by hardline Hindu groups in many parts of the country. Christians of different denominations, united under the banner of the national front Rashtriya Christian Morcha, handed a memorandum addressed to Murmu to the district collector of Jabalpur in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on June 9. Atul Joseph, who led the 50-member delegation, said the top district official assured them that he would forward their petition to the president for her consideration. “We were forced to write to the honorable president as Christians continue to face violent attacks and false cases of conversion in different parts of the country daily,” Joseph told on June 10. The four-page memorandum stated that Christians, who comprise 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, “always upheld the constitutional values” and “secular and democratic principles” of the country. “Despite this right-wing Hindu groups constantly targeted us to the extent that in many states, even holding a routine prayer meeting has become troublesome for us,” it said. The memorandum further highlighted the plight of Christians of Dalit (former untouchables) and indigenous origins, saying, “they have been discriminated against and forced to bear increasing hostilities and violence.” The Christians also sought Murmu’s intervention in stopping the gross misuse of anti-conversion laws in many states, such as Uttar Pradesh in northern India, and central states like Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Christian churches and prayer gatherings are targeted by hardline Hindu mobs by wrongly labelling them as religious conversion activities.

A leading Indian churchman has called for a full and definitive agreement between India and Pakistan for lasting peace following the latest clashed involving the two nations, says a report. “It is time to put an end to ancient resentments,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias told the Vatican’s Fides news agency. “Ours is a heartfelt appeal for peace in Kashmir. We hope for a full and definitive agreement, which would be important not only for India and Pakistan but for peace in the world,” said the retired archbishop of Bombay (Mumbai), capital of Maharashtra state in western India. India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire on May 10 following four days of retaliatory attacks. The conflict was triggered by a terrorist attack in the disputed Kashmir region on April 22 that left 26 civilians dead, mostly Indian tourists. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for harboring terrorist groups and orchestrating the attack, which Pakistan denied. The resulting conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals left about 70 people dead. Muslim-majority Kashmir became part of India following an agreement between its Hindu maharaja and the Indian government after the British partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Both India and Pakistan claim the territory in full and have fought two wars over the region. It is now divided into Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered territories separated by what is known as the Line of Control. Pope Leo XIV welcomed the ceasefire on May 11 and hoped that “a lasting accord may soon be reached.” Cardinal Gracias echoed the call and said that “it is time for peace.”

The Vatican has declared Eastern Rite Indian Bishop Matthew Makil a venerable, bringing him one step closer to canonization. Bishop Makil (1851–1914), the first vicar apostolic of Kottayam vicariate in south-ern India, led the Syro-Malabar Church almost a decade before the Vatican established the Church’s hierarchy in 1923. Pope Leo XIV, on May 22, signed the decree declaring him venerable along with two other Servants of God – Sister Inés Arango Velá-squez and Bishop Alejandro La-baka Ugarte, reported the Vatican News. Makil, born in Manjoor village in Kerala state, is also the founder of the Sisters of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The launch of the women’s congregation signifies his social commitment, as he founded it in 1892 for the education of girls, just three years after becoming the Vicar General of Kottayam in 1889. His vibrant pastoral ministry led him to become the Apostolic Vicar of Changana-cherry in 1896. The Syro-Malabar Church was experiencing histo-rically turbulent times as his leadership role emerged a few years after Pope Leo XIII sepa-rated the Syro-Malabar Church from the Portuguese-led Latin hierarchy in the area in 1887. Although Pope Leo XIII esta-blished the Apostolic Vicariates of Trissur and Kottayam for Syro-Malabar Catholics, French Jesuit Bishop Charles Lavigne was appointed as the head of the Kottayam vicariate.
In 1889, Bishop Lavigne appointed Makil as the vicar general for the Knanaya Christian community, which had been clamouring for a separate identity and diocese. Makil steered clear of controversies and sought ways to resolve the conflicts arising from the differences between the two factions of Syro-Malabar Catholics – the “northerners,” who traced their faith to Saint Thomas the Apostle, and the “southerners” Knanaya commu-nity, which considered themselves the successors of migrant Meso-potamian traders. Makil visited Pope Pius X at the Vatican and submitted a joint memorandum signed by the three other apostolic vicars to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Kottayam dedicated exclusively for the southerners.
In 1911, when a new Vicariate Apostolic of Kottayam was constituted exclusively for the southerners – the Knanaya Catholics who practice endogamy – Makil was transferred to Kottayam as its first Vicar Apostolic.
The status of a venerable is the step prior to beatification, the last one before canonization, which declares a Catholic’s life as worthy for other Catholics to emulate in practicing their faith.
The Church, by declaring Makil a “venerable,” officially acknowledges that he lived a life of heroic virtue and is worthy to be considered for beatification.

Refusing burial space to Christians has become a new trend in villages in central and eastern India to pressure Chris-tians into abandoning their faith and to discourage others from associating with missionaries, say Christian leaders. “Christians, irrespective of any denomination, are aware of repeated cases of denial of burial space to tribal Christians in their own villages. It has become a trend now and a serious concern,” Archbishop Victor Thakur of Raipur told UCA News on May 22. The latest reported case was that of Ankalu Ram Potai, who died on May 13 in the village of Havechur, in Chhattisgarh state’s Kanker district. Reports said villagers opposed his burial in the local graveyard because he was a Christian. Potai, who was 55 years old, had converted to Christianity a few decades ago, which upset the Hindu villagers. They kept watch outside the dead man’s home throughout the night on May 13 to prevent his relatives from burying him in the darkness, local media reported. In the last two years, Chhattisgarh and Odisha states alone have reported at least 25 cases of Hindu villagers refusing to bury Christians because of their faith, Christian leaders say. According to Christian activist Arun Pannalal, Chhattisgarh has reported at least 15 such cases since 2023. “It is aimed at forcing people to abandon their Christian faith,” he told. Odisha reported at least 10 cases in the past year, according to rights activist Father Ajay Singh of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar archdiocese.

India’s Supreme Court has quashed two criminal cases against a top Christian educator and his friend in northern Uttar Pradesh state, declaring the cases an “abuse of the process of law.” The May 24 order of the top court in the country said the lower courts need to exercise their powers to examine if “the criminal proceedings are being misused as instruments of oppression or harassment.” The order quashed two police complaints and the resultant criminal trial proceedings against Vinod Bihari Lal, the director of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Science, based in Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad. The cases were registered against Lal and his friend, David Dutta, another Christian residing in Allahabad, in 2018, accusing them of violating a state law banning gangster activities. The charges included economic offences, as well as engaging in activities that threatened “law and order” in society. The complaint states that Lal and Dutta comprise “an organized gang… proficient in the commission of economic crimes through fraud and deceit” and other criminal activities, according to court documents. The complaint said that through criminal activities, they both “accumulate wealth” and, due to the “fear and terror” surrounding them, “no one comes forward” to report their crimes or “muster courage to testify in court.” The Allahabad High Court, the state’s top court, on May 19, 2023, rejected Lal’s plea for relief and allowed the district court to proceed with the criminal trial. It forced Lal to appeal to the Supreme Court to clear his name of the allegations.

An influential Hindu orga-nization in India’s conflict-ridden Manipur state has called for an escalation in protests against the state administration, which Chri-stian leaders warn could jeo-pardize ongoing peace initia-tives in the region. The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), the top body of the majority Hindu Meiteis, ended a 48-hour protest on May 24. The protest demanded an apology from the state governor, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, for what they called an “insult to the identity of the state” to appease their rival, the Kuki-Zo tribal people. “The Meiteis are targeting the governor, practically challenging federal rule. They want to restore a popular government under their leadership,” a local Church leader told on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety, on May 27. In the latest protest, Meiteis held Bhalla responsible for insulting the state by concealing the state name – Manipur – written on the Manipur State Transport bus that carried media persons to cover a local flower festival – the Shirui Lily festival – in Ukhrul district, a tribal dominated area. They also decided to escalate their protest and called for a “civil disobedience campaign” against federal rule under Bhalla.

A joint fact-finding team has uncovered widespread human rights violations against Dalit and Adivasi Christians in the Nabarangpur district of Odisha state in eastern India. The team, comprising the members of the Odisha Lawyers Forum and activists, visited the region April 26 and 27 and documented multiple cases of families being barred from burying their dead according to their Christian faith. In several instances, the victims were allegedly coerced into either renouncing their religion or “converting” the deceased to Hinduism in order to gain access to burial spaces, the team reported. Many of the violations have occurred within the Assembly constituency of the state minister for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Minorities, it pointed out.

“The Catholics of Kash-mir are praying incessantly for peace. They pray in churches and homes. And they are marching the streets alongside other people of goodwill, carrying lit torches to shine the light of God and the flame of reconciliation and peace,” said Bishop Ivan Pereira of Jammu-Srinagar, Fides news agency reported on April 29. The diocese has about 9,000 Catholics in the Indian administered Kashmir. The disputed region is administered partly by India and Pakistan. Tensions and diplomatic rows sparked between arch rivals India and Pakistan after armed terrorists killed 26 Indian tourists on the Indian side of Kashmir on April 22. Both countries have withdrawn their diplomats, revoked visas, banned the use of their airspace, and asked armed forces to remain fully prepared. Media reports of exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani soldiers have been reported. “We are experiencing a moment of tension and fear that is affecting the entire popu-lation,” Pereira told Fides. “We know there are cease-fire violations in the border area. And according to widespread reports, the Indian police have destroyed several houses belonging to militants and terrorists. This is not an easy time for us here, and many are reliving the night-mare of conflict,” he said.