A violent crowed of tribal people vandalized a Catholic Church, a grotto of Mother Mary and the presbytery in Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh state on Jan. 2.
The crowed armed with sticks and stones forced open the main gate of the Sacred Heart Church, in the heart of district headquarters and started to pelt stone at the Church.
They then forced into the Church through the main door and destroyed everything including the crucifix in the altar.
The crowed also vandalized the presbytery and a grotto of Mother Mary inside the Church campus.
Father Jomon TD, the parish priest told Matters India, “nothing is left everything is destroyed”.
“The more than five decades old Church”, the priest said, “was rebuilt five years back and now everything inside is ruined”.
Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur has condemned the attack and sought action against those behind it.
“We are deeply saddened and pained by the destructive attacks on Christians and today’s atrociously vandalizing the Catholic Church and presbytery at Narayanpur in the Diocese of Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh,” archbishop said.
The crowed that attacked the Church was part of a protest under banner of Sarva Adivasi Samaj that is opposed to tribal people adopting other faiths especially Christianity and Islam.

Christians in India’s Assam state have decided not to cooperate with the police, who began a survey aiming to gather details of Catholics, their churches, institutions, and religious conversions.
“Catholic parishes and institutions have refused to give details because the government and state chief minister himself has disowned it,” said Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati on Jan. 5.
Archbishop Moolachira said Christians see the circular, issued by the police department in Assam on Dec. 16, as discriminatory as it singles out activities of the Church.
Following the Christians’ objection to the circular, the state’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma disowned it during a press conference.
The leader of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which runs the state government, said his administration did not want any survey of the activities of Christians in the state.
“I completely dissociate myself from the [police] circular,” Sarma told reporters.
Archbishop Moolachira told UCA News that since the chief minister had disowned the circular, the Church has advised Christians not to give any details to the police survey.
“We came to know about the circular during the Christmas season. Along with several other Christian organizations, we objected to it. Later, the government disowned the circular,” he said.
The police across all districts in the state were told to comply with the circular by Dec. 22.
It wanted to collect data on the number of churches established in the last year, instances of religious conversions in the past six years, and the prime factors leading to conversions.
The circular also wanted the police to identify the people who are working for religious conversions.
“It is strange that when we raised this issue with the state chief minister, he said he had no knowledge,” Archbishop Moolachira said.

Some 300 people from different faith groups have joined for a prayer meeting on the side of a street in New Delhi to express solidarity with tribal Christians who were forced to flee their homes due to the violence in central India’s Chhattisgarh state.
Leaders from Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Bahá¼í faiths prayed with lighted candles on Jan. 8 asking the government to end violence against Christians for their refusal to recant their Christian faith.
The Delhi Archdiocese’s Commission for Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue organized the program in front of its Sacred Heart Cathedral drawing attention to the plight of tribal Christians in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts, who were forced to flee their homes due to the violence.
Non-Christian tribal groups, backed by right-wing fringe elements, are reportedly insisting that tribal Christians give up their faith and return to their traditional animist practices.
Nearly 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 in Kondagaon were attacked, according to a fact-finding team.
The team, which visited the affected districts, said more than 1,000 people have been displaced due to the attacks and social boycotts which started in the second week of December in tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state.

The Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church in southern India has initiated a dialogue process to resolve a decades-old liturgical dispute that has led to division and conflict between its hierarchy and the priests and laity.
A five-member delegation of bishops led by Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry held pro-longed closed-door discussions with representatives of the priests and laity of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, who have been on a warpath over the mode of celebrating Mass in the southern state of Kerala, on Jan 10.
A majority of priests and lay-people in the archdiocese, which is the seat of power of the Church’s Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry, want to continue with the traditional mode wherein the priests say Mass facing the congregation. They refuse to accept the synod-app-roved form, in which the celebrant has to face the altar during the Eucharist.
“The initial talks were successful barring few contentious issues,” a Church source, who did not want to be named, told.
The contentious issues he mentioned include the demand for the removal of Apostolic Administrator Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, and reinstatement of the former Metropolitan Vicar Archbishop Antony Kariyil, besides allowing visiting bishops and priests to offer the synod-approved Mass in the archdiocese.

The Vatican has suspended an Indian bishop accused of cohabiting with five mistresses and fathering at least two children.
Bishop Kannikadass A. William of Mysore, who has also been investigated for kidnapping, embezzlement, sodomy, and the murder of four of his priests, has been asked by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization to take “a period of absence from the ministry.”
A letter signed by Abp. Felix Machado, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, announced that Bernard Moras, archbishop emeritus of Bangalore, would take over as apostolic administrator of the Mysore diocese on Jan. 7, 2023, at 6 p.m.
The letter, obtained by Church Militant, explained that the administrator would have the powers of “sede plena et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis” (full seat and at the behest of the Holy See) for “the ordinary administration and pastoral care of that local Church.”
Clerics from the Mysore diocese told Church Militant that Abp. Moras had left for Mysore and would be in the city on January 14  afternoon.
In WhatsApp groups, several priests from the diocese also highlighted the key role that Church Militant had played in exposing the rogue bishop, despite both the Indian Catholic media and secular media totally ignoring the story.
Father Gnana Prakash, one of the 37 priests who petitioned Pope Francis with evidence and photographs of William’s mistresses, illegitimate children, multiple bank accounts, kidnapping, assault and embezzlement, said he was assured that “truth had triumphed.”
Prakash told Church Militant that he wished to thank the Holy Father, apostolic nuncio Leopoldo Girelli, Cdl. Oswald Gracias and the apostolic commission that investigated William ”for strengthening the faith which was disturbed.”

West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has handed over the letter of Approval of Autonomy for Salesian College in Sonada.
The event took place December 21 during the meeting of principals of 64 colleges affiliated to North Bengal University with the education minister.
College principal Father George Thadathil received the letter in the presence of North Bengal University Vice Chancellor Om Prakash Mishra, Inspector of Colleges Subrata Sanyal and Registrar Nupur Das (Officiating).
Salesian College established in 1933 in Shillong, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya was and translocated to Sonada in Darjeeling in 1938.
It is the third non engineering college in Bengal to become autonomous. Other two are St Xavier’s College Kolkata (1860) and Ramkrishna Mission College Narendarpur Kolkata (1960).
While thanking the West Bengal government for granting autonomous status, Father Thadathil, who is principal of the Salesian College Sonada and Siliguri for the past 22 years, said, “Being the first college in North Bengal to be autonomous, we now have the task of being trail blazer in higher education standards.”
The Salesian College, with its campuses in Siliguri since 2009 and Sonada in Darjeeling district is a government recognized, minority educational institution of the Catholic Church, managed by the Calcutta province of the Salesians.

The Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church remains a divided house as the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly launched year-long celebrations to mark its centenary.
Around 200 priests from the archdiocese concelebrated Mass led by Father Antony Narikulam, rector of the St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, on Dec. 21. No bishops attended it.
Father Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the council of priests, delivered the message of the celebrations that entail year-long events, which were unveiled at a public meeting later.
The inaugural Eucharist was held at a college close to Mount St. Thomas, the headquarters of the Church and home to its head, Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry.
The archdiocese is the seat of the Major Archbishop.
However, the cardinal, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, and other prelates were conspicuous by their absence at the opening Eucharist.
Father Jose Vithayathil, the senior-most priest in the archdiocese, lit the ceremonial lamp to mark the occasion and special candles were lit across all the churches in the archdiocese.
Father Mundadan told UCA News that since Ernakulam-Angamaly was the first archdiocese of the church, its centenary also becomes the centenary of establishing the Church’s hierarchy.
“But celebrations were restricted to the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese,” Father Mundadan told UCA News when asked about the absence of bishops.
“We did not invite the top hierarchy as they were dead against our traditional mass and we planned the inaugural mass in our traditional format,” he added.

The Apostolic Carmel Sisters organized a unique Christmas celebration with transgender community in Bengaluru, giving a message of gender equality and inter-religious amity.
The celebration held a week ago at the Apostolic Carmel Generalate in Jayanagar in collaboration with the Teachers Training Institute at the same campus attracted 57 transgenders, several teachers and general public.
The principal of the Sacred Heart Teachers’ Training Institute, Sr. Clarice welcomed the transgenders by offering them a rose. “Christmas is for all and the presence of trangender community has added more meaning to our celebration”, said the Apostolic Carmel nun who invited the special group this year.
According to 2011 survey in India, there are 487,803 transgender population in India. Bengaluru city alone has over 10,000 Transgenders among a 13 million population, most of them live by either sex work, begging or religious activities.
“We need to build a world of love including those who are rejected by the society”, said Fr. Joseph Naveen Kumar, the parish priest of the Christa Prabhalaya Church, Jayanagar who led a prayer of blessing on the occasion. Appreciating the initiative taken by the Apostolic Carmel Sisters to include transgenders for their celebration, he said this was in tune with the call of Pope Francis.

Giving up is not an option for a missionary said Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao diocese in Arunachal Pradesh celebrating hisRuby Jubilee of Priestly Ordination here on 19 December 2022.
As a missionary, making others live gives meaning to one’s life, said the missionary Bishop who became a priest on 1982 and since then has been serving mostly in eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh.
Addressing his friends and past pupils who came from different parts of North East India, Bishop George said, “In our efforts to make others live, we will encounter challenges of all kinds but the moment we give up we lose the meaning of our life as a missionary”.
Recalling his initial days of his work among the youth of Arunachal Pradesh, Bishop George said, “When I first visited Arunachal Pradesh in 1980 I was kept under detention for 18 hours. I did not know then the church will grow to be what it is today”.
Among many collaborates of the Salesian prelate present was Father Mathew Pulingathil, the first Rector who received and groomed the young boy George for the Arunachal Mission among the youth.
Recollecting how the Salesian congregation entrusted the responsibility of guiding Arunachal youth with Deacon George at Bosco Bible School (BBS) in Tinsukia, Father Pulingathil said, “I believe that decision was not mine but God’s. I say this having seen the result of what has been achieved.”

Raipur, Dec 22, 2022: Hundreds of indigenous people who follow the Christian faith have been driven out of their homes in the Maoist-infested Bastar region of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
“At least 300 families who lived in Narayanpur and Kondegaon districts were ousted from their homes in the past two months,” says Pastor Moses Logan, president of the Chhattisgarh State Christian Welfare Society.
The persecuted include women and children who were beaten up in public when they refused to give up their new faith.
“The persecution against Christian faithful has increased manifold in the past couple of months,” Pastor Logan told Matters India December 20.
He also pointed out many among the persecuted people are not Christians.
The attackers have destroyed Christian houses and forcibly taken away household items and other live stock. They also destroyed the Christians farms and crops.
“We used to face persecution earlier also but now it has reached a new height with people forced to give up their faith and those opposing such pressure are driven out from their homes,” Logan bemoaned.
Quoting from reports he gathered from his people ín villages, the pastor said, “At least 300 families were driven out from their homes and most of them have taken shelter in different places including government facilities.”
Church leaders in the state say organized violence against Christians has increased alarmingly as the state police and district administration remain silent spectators.
The police refused to register cases against the attackers, instead tell the Christians to make peace with their tormentors.