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.

Blessed Rani Maria stands out for many other reasons as well. She is on the road to sainthood today, which makes her life all the more endearing, memorable, and inspiring. She was born on January 29, 1954, nine months after I was born. She was given the baptismal name Mariam, after Mother Mary, the mother of Jesus.
She chose to be a nun of her own volition. Her family would have been happier if she had studied, managed to get a job, got married, and had children and grandchildren. She wanted to be a nun and follow in the footsteps of Saint Teresa of Kolkata, who wanted every nun to ‘be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.’
Blessed Maria wanted to work in His vineyard, and that is how she reached Uttar Pradesh, where she earned a name as a passionate missionary who would run when she was asked to walk. Her real life started when she reached the diocese of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and she got involved in the people’s lives. She knew that there is no greater service than giving oneself to His cause.
The world was virtually taken by surprise when in 1985, Pope John Paul II visited the prison to meet Mehmet Ali Agca, who had tried to assassinate him two years earlier. He was not as close to his victim as Godse in Delhi was. He could only injure and not kill the Pope.
It was the first time in the history of the church that a Pope went to the prison, shook hands with his would-be assassin, pardoned him, and prayed for him.

The Vatican has given a go-ahead to start the beatification process for 35 people who were martyred for their faith during the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal in eastern India.
A message from Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli to Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar says the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints has granted “no objection” to initiate the process of beatification for the Servant of God Kanteeswar Digal and companions, “martyrs of Kandhamal.”
The letter shared with the media on October 15 was dated October 18.
It says the nuncio is pleased to forward to the archbishop an October 2 letter from the dicastery.
The dicastery was responding to Archbishop Barwa’s May 31 letter requesting the Vatican to consider beatification for the 35.
Archbishop Barwa’s proposal was approved and recommended to the Vatican by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India during its plenary assembly held January 24-30 at Bengaluru.
Rajendra Digal, son of the Servant of God, thanked the Vatican for the permission to start the process of sainthood of his father and others. “It is a proud moment for me that my father died for the faith in Christ. He is the true witness to the whole world of firm faith in God,” he told Matters India. The 35 martyrs are 24 men and 11 women. They are: