The Conference of Religious Women, India (CRWI), has released its strategic plan for 2024-2029 with a stress on networking and partnerships. Sister Jane Wakahiu, head of Catholic Sisters Initiative under Hilton Foundation, released the document at Bengaluru on March 19 in the presence of Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini, head of India’s more than 130,000 women and men religious. Releasing the document, Sister Wakahiu, a member of the institute of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis, Kenya, referred to it as “roadmap to Christian ministries by the women religious in India, characterized by inter congregational collaborations. “This plan is a testament to our commitment to human dignity, social justice and environmental stewardship”, said Sister Nirmalini, adding the strategic plan would harness partnerships, dialogue and innovation to manifest the goals. “Through this plan, we will leverage inter-congregational collaborations, research, and outreach to empower the marginalized, and drive systemic change,” she added.
She said the plan’s priorities include the empowerment and well-being of the Catholic nuns by setting up a grievance cell, supporting their holistic development through training and counselling, addressing current challenges like old age care, and decreasing vocations. The plan aims to unify women’s congregations across India, continue their ministries of teaching, healing and missionary journey in a collaborative spirit, and affirm women’s rightful place in the Church by promoting equality, participation and gender justice.
The plan also underlines the need to promote inter religious harmony and inter cultural collaboration, and promoting a livable ecosystem. In the next five years, CRWI will strengthen nuns’ skills, knowledge, and leadership abilities to enhance ministries, and support the health and mental well-being of religious sisters, and deepen the national network of sisters. Equipping and empowering women religious, fostering leadership through dialogue with major superiors, and implementing innovative programs for holistic development of sisters and their congregation also will be considered as top priorities in the coming five years.

A Catholic bishop has refuted a media report about indigenous Christians in his northeast Indian diocese reverting to their indigen-ous faith. “It appears to be a ploy to sensationalize religious con-version and target Christians,” said Bishop Paul Mattekatt of Diphu diocese in Assam state.
The news of about 150 men and women participating in “rituals symbolizing their reversion to Barithe Dharma, their original religious practice,” appeared in the Organizer on March 20.
The weekly mouthpiece of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent outfit of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the rituals were held on March 18 in Diphu, the headquarters of Karbi Anglong district.
The event was hailed as a “new chapter in the ongoing ghar wapsi [homecoming] movement in the state” of Assam. Ghar wapsi is the name given to a nationwide campaign run by the RSS through its affiliate organizations to convert tribal Christians to Hinduism or indigenous faith.
However, Bishop Mattekatt said he had personally verified the authenticity of the report and found no conversion or reconversion of indigenous Christians in his diocese.
“This kind of false news is to create confusion and mistrust among ordinary people who do not understand the reality of such claims,” the prelate said. He said it is wrong to presume that tribal Christians are shallow when it comes to their faith practices. “It is true our people are poor. That doesn’t mean that their faith is shallow and they easily give it up,” the prelate said.
“Until recently they made claims of reconversion of Christians to Hinduism, but now they say return to ‘ancestral roots’ when it comes to indigenous people,” he pointed out.
The RSS and its affiliate organizations claim the indigenous faith systems as part of Hinduism.
Brooks said the Hindu groups will continue to target Christians and their institutions in one way or another.
“The malicious campaigns will continue because the government in power is not taking action against the perpetrators” he added.

The cultural and literary society in Kochi, Kerala, came together on March 13 to bid farewell to Father Paul Thelakat who stepped down as the longest serving editor of the leading Catholic weekly in the southern Indian state. Father Thelakat “has achieved immortality through words, writing and philosophical thinking. He is an honest writer who contemplates life’s reality,” said M. K. Sanu, a literary figure in Kerala who has maintained long years of association with the priest, while inaugurated the meeting. The 97-year-old writer, popularly known as Sanumaster, described Father Thelakat as a humble priest who always felt disturbed while contemplating the events in society and the Church. He also said Father Thelakat has contributed immensely to the culture and literature of Kerala, besides theology during his 37 years of service as the editor of “Sathyadeepam” (Light of Truth) weekly published by the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
Sebastian Paul, a former Member of Parliament and a veteran journalist who chaired the meeting, said Father Thelakat’s absence will be felt keenly in the cultural evenings of Kochi. An autobiography of Father Thelakat titled “Kathavasesham” (The Story After) was released on the occasion. Noted poetess Vijayalakshmi released the book presenting a copy to Johny Lukose, a veteran journalist. The poet spoke with great emotion about the enlightenment she received through Father Thelakat, her spiritual guide. Lukose, who wrote the preface of the book, noted that Father Thelakat’s philosophical life created in minds the urge to seek truth and justice in a revolutionary way.

Archbishop Geevaghese Mar Ivanios, the first head of the Syro-Malankara Church, advanced on the sainthood path on March 14, 2024 when Pope Francis elevated him as a Venerable.
Archbishop Ivanios, who is known as the Newman of the East, is currently a Servant of God, the first stage in the four-phase canonization process. A statement from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints says the Pope has accepted the heroic virtues of the archbishop, who founded the Order of the Imitation of Christ, also known as Bethany Ashram, for men, and the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ, (Bethany Madhom) for women. The archbishop died July 15, 1953, aged 70, in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala. Archbishop Ivanios was declared a Servant of God in 2007.
Archbishop Ivanios led a spiritual move-ment in the Syrian Orthodox Church that was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on September 20, 1930. He is thus considered the father of the Syro-Malankara Church, one of the 23 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome.
The Malankara Church sees a parallel between the “Reunion Movement” of the 1920s and the Oxford Movement of the 1830s led by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who is now a saint. Like Cardinal Newman, Archbishop Ivanios was part of a broader grouping that sought to discover the sources of unity in their own traditions, Anglican and Orthodox. When the time came, though, it was not a corporate unity that was possible but an individual conversion.
The 1920s saw a “Reunion Movement” in the Malankara Orthodox Church, and Mar Ivanios, who took that name upon being consecrated a bishop, was appointed to lead it. The movement towards corporate unity with Rome faltered, and Mar Ivanios found himself increasingly alone. In 1930, he and four others – a bishop, a priest, a deacon and a layman – entered into full communion with Rome.

As a child, Ma Wai practiced Buddhism, the predominant religion in her Myanmar village. But a few months ago, aged 50, she joined the Catholic Church.
Ma Wai began to “get a sense of Christianity” in 2008 after she married a Catholic when she was 34. That was 16 years ago after she fell in love with Stephen Soe Htet Aung.
She was born the eldest of five children of her Buddhist parents, who belonged to a mix of Bamar-Karen tribes in a village on the outskirts of Hinthada township in Irrawaddy division, southern Myanmar.
Most of the 200 families in the village are Buddhists, with a few Christians.
“I knew that Christians revere Jesus Christ, but I had no idea about Catholicism,” the woman said.
Marrying Soe, she said, opened her “eyes to the world of Christianity,” particularly to Catholicism.
Interfaith marriages are common in Myanmar, forming at least half in Catholic parishes, mostly Catholics and Buddhists, a Church source estimated.
In such marriages, the non-Catholic person need not change religion. However, to have a Catholic marriage, Church law insists the bride and groom agree to baptize their children in the Catholic faith.
Ma Wai said her husband “never pressured” her to change her faith.

A national conference on synod has called for restoring the space denied to Dalit Christians in the Church and society.
The February 16-17 conference on “Synodal Church: Voice of the Marginalized in India,” studied the Dalit Empowerment Policy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, 2016, that mandates an end to caste practices and promotes inclusive communities. The policy also focuses on the denied space of Dalit Christians in the Church and society.
“The very focus of the Synodal Church is mission, communion, and participation,” asserted Cardinal Anthony Poola, archbishop of Hyderabad, who presided over the conference held at the Indian Social Institute in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
The first cardinal from the Dalit community said everyone should be included in the mission of the Catholic Church so that no one feels left behind. “The marginalized should participate in the Church where their voice should be heard,” he asserted.
The program was organized by the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in collaboration with the Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
The participants were Dalit Catholics from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
The conference prepared a memorandum that reiterated the need to give to the Dalit Christians in India their denied space and taking steps to empower them.

India’s Supreme Court has granted interim bail to a Christian educator, who was arrested in December on a slew of complaints including attempts to murder and violating an anti-conversion law.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, on March 4 ordered the release of Rajendra Bihari Lal, vice-chancellor of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHAUTS).
The British-era institution was established in 1910 and is based in Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, in northern Indian Uttar Pradesh state.
The state police arrested Lal on Dec. 31, 2023, following a complaint from Diwakar Nath Tripathi, a local leader of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which runs the state government.
Earlier, Lal’s bail pleas were turned down by a local court and the state high court.
“We direct by way of an ad interim order that the petitioner be released on interim bail,” the Supreme Court order said.
Police have registered several cases against Lal under the state’s strident anti-conversion law that criminalizes religious conversion without prior sanction from the government.
In the latest case registered in Naini police station in Prayagraj district, Lal is accused of attempting to kill the complainant, Tripathi.
Tripathi’s complaint said two men who accompanied Lal in a vehicle opened fire at him while he was returning home after a morning walk.
“It is a baseless and fabricated case,” a close ally of Lal told UCA News on March 5.

Some 200 women, representing mostly slums in the eastern Indian city of Patna, celebrated the International Women’s Day by pledging to protect the country’s Constitution and democracy.
The March 6 program was inspired by the “Kittur Declaration” that urged Indian women to fight for the land and rights of people of the country, women’s dignity and livelihood.
The declaration was issued by more than 3,500 women from across the country who gathered at Kittur town in Karnataka on February 21 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Rani Chennamma, a folk hero in Karnataka and the 19th century queen of Kittur princely state who revolted against the British.
At Kittur, some 460 km northwest of Bengaluru, the women’s organizations launched “Naanoo Rani Chennamma” (I too am Rani Chennamma), a nationwide campaign to secure the rights as enshrined in the Constitution, to preserve the social fabric, restore communal harmony and to stand up for the rights of citizens to Reclaim India and reject authoritarianism.
The Kittur declaration was released at Patna too. The participants gathered at Aashray Abhiyan (campaign for shelter), an NGO managed by a Catholic nun in Patna, with the theme, “Role of women in saving the Constitution and democracy of India.”
Felicitas Roelofsen, a cancer surgeon from Germany, was the chief guest, and the special guest was Mukund Singh, spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party. Uma Dafftarur from the Am Admi Party also attended.

Social and religious divisions are crystal clear in the politics of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the first list of 195 candidates released by the party’s election committee, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chief decision maker, there are only two names from religious minorities — one Muslim and one Christian.
Both minority candidates in the list released on March 2 will be contesting from the communist-ruled southern Kerala state, where the pro-Hindu BJP hardly has any presence.
Anil Antony, a Catholic will be the BJP’s candidate from the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency with nearly 40 percent Christian voters. The pro-Hindu party is banking on them to wrest the seat from rival Congress, whose Anto Antony Punnathaniyil has represented it in India’s parliament for three terms since 2009.
Anil is the son of veteran Congress leader and former defense minister A. K. Antony, an octogenarian and self-professed agnostic. The father has often advocated the philosophy of Kerala’s foremost social reformer Sree Narayana Guru — a champion of equality and justice.
However, while it has propelled a Catholic in the southern state, the BJP has dropped John Barla, a tribal Catholic, who is serving as a junior minister for minority affairs in the present Modi cabinet.
Barla was elected in 2019 from Alipurduar constituency in West Bengal and has been championing the rights of tea garden workers in West Bengal and Assam states in eastern India.
Barla’s exclusion from the list of candidates came as a surprise to many in Delhi’s political circles as he was Modi’s go-to man in times of crisis, especially amid rising attacks on Christians and their institutions over the past few years.

The High Court in India’s northeastern Manipur state on Feb. 22 deleted a paragraph from a controversial order that reportedly resulted in unprecedented ethnic riots in the state, killing some 175 people mostly Christians.
The Manipur State High Court deleted part of the March 2023 order that directed the state government to send a recommendation on ‘Scheduled Tribe’ status for the Hindu Meitei community, which triggered protests from the Christian majority Kuki tribal people.
The ethnic violence that began in May 2023 killed at least 175 people and injured some 1,100. Some 30 people are also reported missing. The rioters burned down or vandalized some 380 religious structures including temples and churches, according to reports.
The violence between Meitei Hindus and Kukis and Zos (Christians) also left more than 70,000 people displaced.
A panel of  experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, who did not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said they were especially concerned “that the violence seems to have been preceded and incited by hateful and inflammatory speech.”
“The March 2023 High Court ruling was bad in law. It entitled Hindu Meiteis to the same economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education as the minority Christian Kukis. Finally, after a review petition was filed, the impugned order has been set right,” says analyst Ashutosh Talukdar.
The court move “may help bring normalcy in violence-hit Manipur state,” he added.
According to the 2011 census, Manipur is 41.29 percent Christian, mostly tribal people, while 41.39 percent are Hindus.