Pope Francis has appointed an Indian prelate serving Ethiopia in East Africa as the new bishop of Balasore diocese in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
The Vatican on May 10 announced the appointment of Monsignor Varghese Thottamkara, a member of the Congregation of the Missions. The 64-year-old prelate is currently serving as the vicar apostolic of Nekemte in Ethiopia.
The diocese of Balasore was lying vacant after Bishop Simon Kaipuram died of a massive heart attack on April 22, 2019. Father Isaac Puthenangady is the current administrator of the diocese.
“Getting a new bishop is good news for the diocese of Balasore,” says Father Jadu Marandi, former vicar general of Balasore. He told Matters India that they diocese has been waiting for a shepherd for the past four years.
Bishop Thottamkara was born on May 23, 1960, at Thottuva under the Ernakulam-Angamaly Syro Malabar Archdiocese in the southern Indian state of Kerala. After matriculation at G V H School, Koovapady, he joined the Congregation of the Mission’s minor seminary in Gopalpur in July 1976.
He was ordained a priest on January 6, 1987, at his home parish, St. Joseph’s Church, Thottuva, by Cardinal Antony Padiyara. He began his priestly ministry as the assistant pastor of Muniguda, a town in Odisha’s Rayagada district.
He holds a licentiate in moral theology. He was the assistant pastor and hostel warden of Christnagar (Allada) during 1988-1990. In 1990, he was sent to Ethiopia to teach in the minor seminary at Ambo managed by the Vincentians of Ethiopia. In 1992 he served as a visiting professor at the major seminary at Addis Ababa.
The following year, he was transferred to Addis Ababa as the first rector of St. Paul’s Major Seminary of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nekemte.
He also served as the judicial vicar of the vicariates of Southern Ethiopia. In 1997 was appointed rector of the Vincentian Major Seminary at Addis Ababa. In 2003, he was elected assistant provincial of the Southern Indian province and in 2004 he was appointed rector and superior of St. Vincent’s Mission House, Aluva, Kerala.
The Vincentian superior general appointed him procurator general both his congregation as well as the Daughters of Charity. He was also the archivist at the general curia in 2005.

A Catholic nun has approached the Gujarat High Court for action against alleged derogatory remarks on nuns and the Pope during an event organized by a rightwing Hindu group.
Sister Manjula Tuscano, a member of the Missionary Dominican Sisters of the Rosary, on April 17 confirmed to Matters India that she had filed the petition in the Gujarat High Court four days earlier.
She, however, declined to divulge the details of the petition saying, “It is now before the court and therefore, I would not like to comment on it.” A video circulated on social media platforms shows an unidentified speaker at a function organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Kadi, a town some 45 km northwest of Ahmedabad, exhorting people to take Christians to task and to banish them from Gujarat, a western Indian state.
Sister Tuscano’s petition seeking registration of the first information report against the speaker is likely to come up next week.
The nun from Vadodara, a major city in the state, has stated in the petition signed by more than 100 that the police authorities of Mehsana district have ignored their March 28 plea for criminal action against the speaker.

Church leaders in a southern Indian state have called on visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of the concerns of the Christian community and talked about a possible papal visit to India.
Leaders from seven Church denominations met Modi on April 24 in a private hotel in Kochi, the financial capital of Kerala. Modi arrived in Kochi on a two-day official visit of Kerala.
Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Kerala-based Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church, termed the meeting with Modi “very successful.”
In a video released on Shekinah News, a Catholic news channel based in Kerala, Cardinal Alencherry said the delegation discussed burning issues of violence against Christians and reservation quota for Dalit (former untouchables) Christians with Modi.
The meeting comes amid allegations that ever since Modi came to power in New Delhi in 2014 attacks against Christians have increased, particularly in northern states, most of them ruled by Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Modi is also accused of being silent against Hindu violence against Christians.
Dalit Christians in the country have been demanding social benefits given to lower caste people but Modi’s government has been opposing it saying Christianity has no castes.
Catholic fishermen in Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram, had resorted to a massive strike against an upcoming port facility last year.
The prime minister has promised protection to all people irrespective of religious affiliations, the cardinal said in the video.
Modi responded positively to hosting Pope Francis in India, added the cardinal. He had earlier invited Pope Francis to visit India during their meeting in Rome on Oct. 30, 2021.

A top court in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has granted bail to 10 Protestant Christians who have been languishing in jail for nearly four months for allegedly inciting violence.
The Bilaspur High Court on April 19 released on bail the pastors and evangelists and directed them to cooperate with the police probe against them.
Chhattisgarh is among several states that have reported increasing persecution against Christians.
Son Singh, a lawyer who argued the Christians’ case, confirmed to Matters India on April 20 the latest high court order. The court had earlier granted bail to three others arrested along with the ten.
The ten would be out of prison in a day or two after completing the legal formalities, the lawyer added.
“They were implicated in a false case in which they had practically no role,” Singh explained.
They faced serious criminal charges such as rioting, rioting armed with deadly weapon, voluntarily causing hurt to public servants on duty, criminal intimidation and assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty.
In case of conviction, they could get maximum punishment of 10-years in prison.

Hundreds of people on April 23 flocked to a remote village in eastern India to participate in the first pilgrimage that commemorated the 62nd death anniversary of the first Servant of God from the Adivasi community.
Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi led the Mass assisted by 75 priests at Sargaon, the birthplace of Sister Mary Bernadette Kispotta, 32 km northwest of Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand state.
The archdiocese of Ranchi organized the pilgrimage to increase devotion and publicity of Sister Kispotta, the founder of the Daughters of St Anne of Ranchi.
Mother Bernadette was declared a Servant of God on August 7, 2016.
The archbishop, in his homily, urged the congregation to observe April 16, the actual death anniversary of the saintly nun, as a day of prayer pilgrimage. He said God works wonders through humans and he did that with Mother Mary Bernadette, as the nun is popularly known.
The archbishop also thanked God for his blessing to Chhotanagpur’s tribal Church, starting with Belgian Jesuit missionary Father Augustus Stockman, who came to Chaibasa from Calcutta on November 24, 1868. His work led to the baptism of 28 people from eight families, including four children, in 1873 at Khuntpani village near Chaibasa.

Dalit Christian groups in Tamil Nadu have welcomed a resolution passed in the state legislative assembly to grant Scheduled Caste status for their people.
“We are very grateful to the chief minister for the resolution that was passed in the assembly as the matter is being heard in the Supreme Court. It is an inspiration for other states to follow,” says Father Lourdusamy, former secretary of the Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.
Mathew Gnanapragasam, convener of the Tamil Nadu Dalit Christians Collation, too thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin for proposing to the federal government to grant Scheduled Caste status to his community. It is indeed a big boost for social justice and a happy day for the Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu and all who fight for justice for them, he added.
The Tamil Nadu state assembly on April 18 passed the resolution, introduced by Stalin, to grant the Scheduled Caste status to the Dalit Christians.
Moving the resolution, Stalin said the privileges being enjoyed by the Adi Dravidars should not be denied following their conversion to Christianity.
“They would be socially uplifted if reservation benefits are extended to them in education and employment. Denying them all the benefits merely because they have converted to another religion is not fair. This is our stand,” Stalin said.
He contended that people have a right to follow the religion of their choice but distinguishing them on the basis of caste is social evil.
“I propose in this Legislative Assembly that we need to heed a special attention to the Scheduled Castes who were converted to Christianity. Because they still experience caste discrimination such as untouchability,” Stalin said.
Many members in the assembly supported the proposal and demanded the removal of the Constitutional Order of 1950 issued under Article 341 of the Constitution that limited Scheduled Caste benefits only to Dalits be-longing to Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh religions.
“It has been a 72-year-old struggle for the Dalit Christians in India to fight for their Constitutional rights. There have been continuous protests, rallies and campaigns all over the country demanding the SC status,” Gnanapragasam explained.

A cine actor in the southern Indian state of Kerala has ob-served Maundy Thursday differently: he washed the feet of his wife and five children at home.
A video posted April 7 on YouTube shows Sijoy Varghese kneeling before his wife and children seated on chairs. He washes their feet with water, wipes them with a towel and kisses them while a hymn is played in the backdrop.
The actor starts with his wife and goes to each child, from the eldest to the youngest. At last he washes the feet of the fifth child seated on his wife’s lap.
Varghese’s gesture symbolizes Christ washing the feet of his 12 disciples at the Last Supper. The Church commemorates it on Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday that fell on April 6 this year.
Churches across the world conduct the feet washing ritual during Maundy Thursday Mass.
Pope Francis on April 6 washed the feet of 12 young men and women, inmates at a juvenile prison in Rome, during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
The Pope presided over the Mass for more than 80 inmates, family, staff, and guards in the chapel of the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center on Rome’s outskirts
In an off-the-cuff homily, Pope reflected on the meaning of Christ’s choice to wash the feet of his disciples. “Washing the feet was a habit at that time,” he said. “But who washed the feet? The slaves.”

The Kerala government has allowed Church groups and NGOs to resume religious and counseling services for prisoners in the jails of the southern Indian state.
The government revoked the March 31 order of Kerala Jail Director General of Police Bal-ram Kumar Upadhyay banning these groups from prisons following a meeting of Cardinal Baselios Mar Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Council of Kerala (KCBC), with state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
A press note from KCBC spokesperson Father Jacob Palackapilly says the Jesus Fraternity that functions under the conference will conduct Maundy Thursday services in various jails in Kerala.
The police order had shocked the officials of the Prison Ministry India officials and Jesus Fraternity that have for decades visited jails to conduct religious services for prisoners and to offer them psychological help.
The police order came two days before the Church began the Holy Week rituals this year.
The press note says the chief minister has already informed Upadhyay the government decision.
Cardinal Cleemis on March 5 telephoned the chief minister twice to inform that it was injustice to deny prisoners’ right to seek help for psychological and religious needs.
Father Palackapilly termed as unjust the ban on the voluntary groups that offered help for the prisoners’ inner conversion and religious life.
The priest also said the Jesus Fraternity volunteers’ services have helped the growth of prisoners psychological and spiritual and encouraged them to return to normal life.
Earlier, the Prison Ministry India officials had expressed shock over the police order.
Father Martin Thattil, who coordinates the ministry’s services in Kerala, said they had per-mission to visit jails in the state until July 4.
Father Francis Kodiyan, national director of the Prison Ministry India, regretted the police order issued without assigning any reasons. However, it was applicable only to Kerala, he explained.

The newly appointed bishop of Mizoram says his main priority is to bring Barak Valley’s diverse ethnic communities together through focused pastoral care and help them work together overcoming all their challenges.
“I will visit every parish and in the Barrak Valley and work for peace and harmony among the people,” Bishop-elect Joachim Walder told in his first-ever interview after the announcement of his appointment.
Pope Francis on March 30 appointed the 67-year-old priest as the Aizawl diocese’s auxiliary bishop. The diocese covers the entire state of Mizoram and Assam’s Cachar, Hailakandi and Kaimkanj districts in northeastern India.
He is currently the episcopal vicar of Barak Valley region that covers Assam’s three districts.
Bishop Stephen Rotlunanga of Aizawl said the new bishop will address the pressing needs of the Barrak Valley. He recalled the Church’s several attempts to find a definite solution to the valley’s various issues.
The bishop-elect says he is willing to witness Christ in all challenges.

The Supreme Court of India has asked the federal government to formulate a national model for all states and Union Territories for managing menstrual hygiene for girls in schools.
The apex court on April 10 also termed the issue as of “immense importance” and urged the government to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala appointed secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as the nodal officer to coordinate with the states and UTs and collect relevant data for formulating a national policy.
“At the present stage, we are of the considered view that Centre should engage with all the stake-holders for implementation of the Uniform National Policy with a leeway for the states and UTs to modify the scheme as per their local needs”, the Bench said.
It directed all the states and UTs to submit their menstrual hygiene management strategies and plans which are being executed either with the help of federal government funds or their own, to the Mission Steering Group of the National Health Mission.