An Indian Catholic priest who quit his pastoral ministry “to clean up” the Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church remains defiant despite his diocese imposing a set of new restrictions on him, four months after he was suspended from priestly ministry.
Father Thomas (Ajimon) Puthiyaparambil has a new set of restrictions imposed on him by Bishop Remigiose Inchanananiyil of Thamarassery diocese in southern Kerala state through a Nov. 10 letter.
The priest though has vowed to continue with what he termed as his “prophetic mission” to cleanse the Church, especially the Syro-Malabar Church based in Kerala, saying it had deviated from the teachings of Jesus Christ.
“No one has the authority to prohibit a human being from his basic human rights. It’s against the will of God,” Puthiyaparambil said.
Speaking on Nov. 27, he asserted that there was no reason for dismay and depression “as Jesus is always strengthening and consoling me.”
“I accept this humiliation without much difficulty,” the priest added.
Puthiyaparambil has been restrained from conducting Mass, receiving Holy Communion in public, or administering confe-ssion to people unless in case of the death of a person. Other restrictions include curbs on inter-actions with the public, including through media and social media platforms.
The priest is also ordered to stay in the home meant for the retired priests and asked not to stay anywhere else. He is only allowed to interact with his parental home, religious and Cannon law experts.
The prelate suspended the priest on July 18 after he refused to take up a new assignment when he was transferred as the vicar of a parish on April 29. He had made a public announcement to quit pastoral ministry on May 12.
Thamarassery diocese on Oct. 6 announced the formation of an ecclesiastical tribunal to initiate judicial proceedings against him.
The new set of restrictions imposed on Puthiyaparambil is part of these proceedings, according to a diocesan official.
“We expect the priest to comply with them until the tribunal completes its proceedings and declares a verdict,” he added.
The priest, however, refused to heed the restrictions, saying that “many of them are directly in violation of the Indian constitutional provisions of fundamental rights.”
“I still do not want to enter into any legal fight over such restrictions as I am not against anyone including the bishop,” Puthiyaparambil said but added that the restrictions on him are “inhuman and illegal.”

In India, women are also discriminated in terms of organ donation, this according to a report published by The Times of India, based on data collected on transplants between 1995 and 2021.
In particular, of the 36,640 interventions carried out in the country, about 29,000 involved men and only 6,945 women. Overall, four men get organ transplants for every woman.
For the authors of the investigation, more men contribute as dead donors, in a continent where the practice has struggled to be accepted, fuelling the black market and organ trafficking. Conversely, most living organ donors are women.
A study published in 2021 in the Experimental and Clinical Transplantation Journal analysed organ transplants in 2019, showing that women represent 80% of living organ donors, mainly wives or mothers, while 80% of recipients are men.
One reason for women to be living organ donors is likely their greater vulnerability to “pressure” towards “sacrificing” them-selves and donating a body part to save their husband, children or siblings.
“Gender disparity in organ donation is a reality not just in India, but the world over, studies and experts indicate,” said Dr Pascoal Carvalho, an Indian doctor and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, speaking to AsiaNews.
“Cultural and societal norms often view women as caregivers and nurturers, a fact attributable to our society’s mindset and patriarchal society,” he explained.
“We need to find out the reasons for the existing gender imbalance and check it for matters of fairness and undue pressure or coercion on the women for organ donation.”
In the past, the Indian Church has worked hard to promote organ donation, in a country – and more generally a continent – where reluctance to support the practice was and is still strong in many groups.
In 2016, dozens of Indian nuns from different congregations pledged to donate corneas upon their death, as part of a programme promoted by the Claretian Fathers of the Indian Institute of Spirituality in Bengaluru (Bangalore).

A group of Dalit Christians in the Purathakudi-Magizhambadi panchayat, Trichy district (Tamil Nadu), have complained about caste discrimination by non-Dalit co-religionists at the St.Francis Xavier parish church, this despite a 2015 high court order allowing them to participate in church activities, inclu-ding the annual festival.
The local parish comes under the Diocese of Kumbakonam and serves about 3,000 households, half of them Dalits and half non-Dalits. Dalit Christians complain that they have been excluded from the church’s annual festival.
“During the celebration, no flag, torch-light, or car processions are carried out in our streets. The dominant Christians do not allow us to touch cars or adorn them with garlands,” some local Dalits said.
“We are completely ignored in all religious and cultural activities of our church. Even after the peace committee met 14 times, there was no consensus to let Dalits participate in the processions,” they explained.
The local festival falls on 3 December. After the court’s ruling in 2016, it was celebrated by Dalit and non-Dalits only in 2017. The Madurai bench of the High Court this year again ordered the authorities, the bishop of Kumbakonam and the parish priest to take the most appropriate steps to involve Dalits in the annual festival.
The top clergy “has taken a stand in favour of the dominant Christians,” Dalits lament, a charge non-Dalit Christians reject, saying that logistical factors explain why the procession avoided some areas.
Father R Arockiadoss, vicar forane in the Lalgudi area, said the diocese is ready to implement the high court’s decision. “Our bishop did his best to bring both groups together to organise the car procession.”
“Although the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ordered to take the car procession in Dalit streets, this has not been done yet,” said Fr Raj, former national secretary of the Office for Schedule Castes & Backward Classes (SC/BC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).

Catholic nuns working agai-nst human trafficking in various parts of India have pledged to li-ve the values of the Indian Consti-tution and continue their mission with renewed vigor.
Around 170 nuns from 80 women religious congregations gathered November 24-26 at Proggaloy, Barasat, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, to share their adventurous and successful moments as well as the challenges they faced while combating hu-man trafficking.
The meeting was the 13th annual general body meeting of Amrat Talitha Kum India which is affiliated to Talitha Kum Inter-national.
Bishop Shyamal Boss of Baruipur, who led the inaugural Mass, reiterated the significance of working against human tra-fficking and appreciated the women Religious for their tireless and courageous efforts to check the social menace. He also hailed the nuns’ contribution in enhan-cing the Church’s effective pre-sence in the country and the world at large.
PM Nair, a renowned retired police officer who was the re-source person of the day, shared his personal interventions in rescuing children and his attitude of Christ-like compassion to the victims and survivors of Human Trafficking. He said he was “so happy to interact with so many sisters in the divine and universal Mission to work on preventing human slavery.”

Friends and associates of Sister Seli Thomas have congratulated her for winn-ing the inaugural Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards (SATA).
“On behalf of the natio-nal Conference of Religious India we congratulate Sister Seli Thomas,” says Apostolic Carmel Sister M Nirmalini, head of India’s more than 130,000 Catholic religious.
Congregation of Jesus Sister Cyntha Anna Mathew, who now works in the United Nations, wrote on her Facebook page: “Congratulations to my friend Seli whose work was recognized and awarded. May you continue to bring hope and joy into the lives of many more women and children.”
Sisters Thomas, a member of Sisters of Mary Immaculate in Krishnagar, West Bengal, received the award at a function in Lo-ndon on October 31 along with Sisters Patricia Ebeg-bulem from Nigeria and Francoise Jiranonda from Thailand. The three have been rescuing women from networks that profit from sexual and labor trafficking.
Among those paying tribute to the them were former British prime minister Theresa May, and British champion athlete Sir Mo Farah.
The host of the award program said the three “have demonstrated courage, creativity, collabora-tion, and achievement in the protection of their communities from human trafficking.”

Three global rights groups have urged the Indian govern-ment to stop targeting rights acti-vists by abusing counterterrori-sm and financial laws and called on a major terror financing and money laundering watchdog to intervene.
The Indian government is “weaponizing” the laws to detain and punish rights activists, Hu-man Rights Watch (HRW), Am-nesty International, and the Cha-rity & Security Network said in a joint statement on Nov. 3.
The counterterrorism law has been used to level “unfounded charges” against activists, said Aakar Patel from Amnesty Inter-national India.
“Authorities are using bogus foreign funding and terrorism charges to target, intimidate, harass, and silence critics, in clear violation of Financial Action Task Force [FATF] standards,” Patel added.
The FATF, which India joined in 2010, is a 40-member country body mandated to tackle money laundering, terror finan-cing, and other threats to the inte-grity of the global financial sys-tem.
The rights groups’ statement came just days before the FATF’s fourth periodic review of India’s record on tackling illicit funding on Nov. 6.

Christians and Muslims joined Hindus for an interreligious celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, Hinduism’s most sacred place.
“The lamp does not burn, but the wick does. Similarly, the external factors do not spread love, true love is unseen, and is ready to die for the other,” said Surendra Charan, a renowned Christian lawyer and co-founder of Kashi Qaumi Ekta Manch (United Forum of Communal Harmony in Kashi).
Kashi is another name of Varanasi and Diwali falls on November 12 this year.
The November 10 program at Hukulganj, a Varanasi slum where Muslims and Hindus live together was titled Chirag-e-Muhabbat (Lamp of Love) and it consisted of songs, drama and mushaira (poetry recitation) that conveyed the message of love, harmony and peaceful co-existence.
Taufiq Ansari, a peace activist working with Vishwa Jyoti Communications of the Indian Missionary Society, a Catholic congregation, said the best part of the program he liked was the lighting of earthen lamps in front of all the houses in the area.

Christian leaders have refuted a Hindu group’s claim that it converted more than 300 Christians to Hinduism in northern Uttar Pradesh state, where a sweeping anti-conversion law is in force.
According to Panchjanya, the mouthpiece of the pro-Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) helped 310 Christians from 36 families to reconvert to Hinduism in Sa-rsara village in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh on Nov. 5.
Hindus who once came under pressure or greed to become Christians are now back to the Sanatan Dharma (Hindu religion), the weekly quoted the Hindu council as saying.
Uttar Pradesh-based Pastor Dinesh Kumar said they are “aware of the reconversion in Jaunpur but the number given by the group is not correct. They have exaggerated it to get the attention of the government.”
The actual number is less than 30, Kumar told on Nov. 9.
The Hindu groups’ claim that those who attended the ceremony converted to Christia-nity decades ago also is not correct because “there are no official documents to prove that,” the pastor observed.
According to the Panchjanya, the Chri-stians opted for the “homecoming” and went through the “purification” process before they recanted their faith.
Christian activist Minakshi Singh asked the Hindu groups to substantiate their claims with valid proof.
The Hindu council spearheads a nation wide re-conversion campaign under the ba-nner Ghar Vapsi (homecoming).
The Panchjanya said people who under-stood the “greatness and importance of the Sanatan Dharma” returned to Hinduism.
The Hindu groups justify converting people to Hinduism saying they do not violate the law on conversions because they are in-volved in “re-conversion” and not “conver-sion.”

The Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church in India has conditionally allowed Catholic couples to have civil marriage before solemnizing it in the Church.
“This is not for everyone. It is meant for those who live abroad or who want to move abroad with their prospective life partner,” said Father Abraham Kavilpurayidathil, the Church’s chancellor told on Oct. 20.
Catholics, “who for serious reasons such as obtaining a family visa to foreign countries find it necessary to register their marriages under relevant civil law” before sacramental marriage can apply seeking permission for such registration, said a decree issued by Cardinal Geroge Alencherry, the major archbishop and head of the Church.
Indian laws allow a couple to move abroad as husband and wife only if their marriage is registered with the civil authorities.  Couples who get married in the Church later register with civil authorities to start the process of moving abroad.

Separate parliamentary and legislative seats, land for cemeteries and scholarships are among 20 demands Christian groups in Telangana have put forward to political parties in the southern Indian state.
The Telangana State Federation of Churches, Telangana Council of Churches and Synod of Telangana, representing the entire Christian community in the state, had met in the state capital of Hyderabad early October and decided to ask the parties to include their demands in their manifestos as the state gets ready for the November 30 assembly elections.
The demands are important enough to be added in the manifestos of political parties, said Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, who was in a delegation that met Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal in New Delhi on October 12 to hand over the Telangana Christians declarations for political parties.
“We are presenting this to all political leaders,” the brother told Matters India October 14.
Father Raju Alex, deputy secretary of Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council, told the Deccan Chronicle daily that the Christian community has always lacked the government’s encouragement and support. “The Christian community has a good chunk of voters in Telangana. We will support the parties which stand for us,” he added.
Christians in Telangana want parties to promise to pass legislation for the sub plan for their minority community. The plan should not be allocated in proportion to the population, but cover education, healthcare, employment, skill development, welfare schemes and burial.
The demands include allotting 5 percent of the weaker section’s housing to eligible Christians, and providing them 600,000 rupees as housing subsidies for those who own plots.