A Salesian priest was conferred with 12th International Human Rights Award for his contribution to peace with media reforms by the Delhi-based All India Council of Human Rights Council.
Father C.M. Paul of the Calcutta Salesian province, currently working as Vice Principal at Salesian College, Siliguri in West Bengal, was presented with the award on December 10, the International Human Rights Day, at the Lodhi Road Islamic Centre Auditorium in New Delhi.
Accepting the award, Father Paul said, “This award is for all those who suffer injustice human rights violation silently.”
Speaking at the panel discussion prior to the award function, a veteran in the field of communication, Father Paul said, “If you have been a victim of human rights violation and injustice, only then you can be a voice for the voiceless. Let us join hands to pledge to protect human rights in our neighbourhood, society and country at large.”
Fr C M Paul on the extreme rightThe native of the southern Indian state is the founder director of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, and Salesian College, Sonada. He is also the founder director of Radio Salesian 90.8 FM in 2016 and Salesian TV (YouYube) in 2018 at Salesian College, Darjeeling.

The Covid-19 pandemic which began at the end of 2019 has caused “serious hardship” relating to domestic violence, sexual abuse, increased child labor exploitation and mental health to children and adolescents, particularly girls, says a new study by nuns from four congregations.
The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, the Comboni Missionary Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions collaborated on a study entitled “How are the girls?”
All four congregations have been working for decades in support of children and girls in the most vulnerable communities in resource-deprived countries, and is at the core of their mission. The study looks into how Covid affected the lives of girls in Ecuador, Peru, South Sudan, Kenya, India and Nepal. The quantitative research involved 3,443 adolescent girls in those six countries, selected among participants in the congregations’ programs.
The findings of the study were released at the headquarters of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome December 7.
Social dimension problems
A key highlight that emerged from the study is the significant difference in the incidence of child labor. More than 20 % of girls under 15 years of age versus 5% of girls between 15 and 18 report having being engaged in child labor. While generally, for one out of six girls, there has been a decrease in the number of daily meals since the beginning of the pandemic, currently about 10 % of girls live eating less than two meals a day.
Less than 30 % of girls report having witnessed at least occa-sional conflicts at home during the Covid-19 lockdown, and more than half of them say that this has changed with respect to before the pandemic. More than 60 % of girls reported a sense of worry, and half of them have experienced sadness.
The results show that more than 35% of girls experienced serious or very serious hardship during the pandemic, with 100% of girls having experienced a serious or very serious hardship being 15 years or older.
Among those who experienced very serious hardship, 80% live in Africa (Kenya or South Sudan), and 64% live in rural or remote areas.

Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal Archbishop Leo-poldo Girelli has exhorted Christians to give Christ the central place in their lives and obey His command to go forth and make disciples of all nations.
The nuncio was celebrating Mass at Bom Jesu Basilica on December 3, on the occasion of the feast of St Francis Xavier. He was assisted by Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, archbishop of Goa-Daman and more than 50 priests.
The theme of the weeklong celebration was in keeping with the Synod “Following Jesus like St. Francis Xavier let us foster communion, participation and Mission.”
Archbishop Girelli pointed out that although St Francis Xavier was not a Goan by birth he became one by heart, and proclaimed the kingdom of God in Goa.
“St Francis is known as one of the greatest preachers of apo-stolic zeal, since the time of the apostles and had the great vision to bring the Word of God to all people. The saintly priest walked the streets of this great city giving solace to many persons and im-parting to them the values of the Kingdom of God,” he added.

The Church in India has mourned the death of Jesuit Father Abraham Adappur, a renowned thinker and writer who drafted Pope Paul VI’s address to India.
Father Adappur died De-cember 3, the feast of St Francis Xavier, at Christ Hall, the head-quarters of the Jesuits’ Kerala province in Kozhikode, a major town in the southern Indian state of Kerala. He was 97.
The body of the Kerala Jesuit province was kept at the Christ Hall for the public to pay their respects at 4 pm December 5. The funeral is scheduled at 10:30 am on December 5 at the Christ King Church cemetery near Christ Hall.
“With the passing away of Fr Abraham Adappur … the Catholic Church in India, especially in Kerala, has lost not just a Jesuit writer and intellectual, but the most seasoned voice of the Church that had the reputation of an authentic Christian thinker, theologian, speaker, and activist,” says Father E P Mathew, head of the Jesuits’ Kerala province.

The Kerala High Court has ordered the state police to provide protection to the Vatican-appointed administrator of a strife-torn archdiocese in the southern Indian state.
The apex court in Kerala on December 5 ordered police protection for Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the apostolic admini-strator of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in response to the prelate’s petition.
The prelate’s petition has stated that he fears for his life especially from Father Sebastian Thalian, convener of the Arch-diocesan Protection Committee and Riju Davis, secretary of the Archdiocesan Move-ment for Transparency (ATM), and added them as respondents.
The court also sought replies from the duo and the matter was posted for hearing on December 8.
The prelate has also sought an order from the High Court for his free access to the Archbishop’s House and the St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica where he is denied entry by the priests and laity who oppose the Synod approved uniform mode of Mass.
On the contrary, the priests and the people in the archdiocese want to continue with the mode they have followed for more than six decades where the priest faces the congre-gation throughout the Mass.
The court ordered the police to help the archbishop access the Archbishop’s House and the cathedral. It also ordered the police to remove those inside the Archbishop’s House.
The priests and people of the archdiocese have been camping inside the Archbishop’s House since November 21 and denied Arch-bishop Thazhath’s entry. The archbishop had asked the cathedral vicar to facilitate him to offer the Synod Mass on November 27.

The liturgy dispute in a Catholic archdiocese in Kerala took an ugly turn November 27 when its administrator was prevented from forcibly entering the cathedral church to offer Sunday Mass.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the administrator, came to St Mary’s Basilica Cathedral Church escorted with police to offer Mass in the synod-approved format that is being opposed by the majority of Catholics and clergy in the archdiocese.
Those opposing the administrator had already filled the basilica compound and locked the church gate preventing the prelate to enter the church.
Sensing trouble, the police officials accompanying the archbishop did not allow him to get out of the car. After waiting for almost 10 minutes in front of the basilica, the prelate returned to the nearby Archbishop’s House along with the police and his supp-orters.
The administrator’s supporters broke open the Archbishop’s House’s main gate so that the prelate could enter. They also destroyed a television set, chairs, and photo of former Metropolitan Vicar Archbishop Antony Kariyil among other things in the building.
However, the police officials chased Archbishop Thazhath’s supporters as they continued to indulge in violence.
In the meantime Archbishop Thazhath sat in his car outside the main gate of the Archbishop’s House with the police escort.
A couple of his supporters, who broke open the Archbishop’s House’s main gate, were seen in many video footages urging Archbishop Thazhath to enter the building.
The latest developments took place a day after a three-member panel appointed by the Syro-Malabar Church’s permanent synod agreed to convey the demands of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese to the apex body and promised to find a solution.
The Church’s permanent synod of bishops on November 24 appointed the panel after it realized that Archbishop Thazhath was leading the archdiocese to a breakaway point.
On November 25, the panel led by Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt of Kottayam had a cordial meeting for three hours with the representatives of the priests and laity of the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. The other members in the panel are Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry and Bishop Jose Chittooparambil of Rajkot.
However, Archbishop Thazhath ignored the panel’s promises and tried to forcibly enter the cathedral to offer the Synod Mass.

Cultural activists working for peace in northern India have organized a rally on harmony and reconciliation amid hate messages and violence against Christians, Muslims, Dalits, Tribals and women.
The five-day rally that covered the eastern region of Uttar Pradesh state concluded November 26, the Constitution Day, in Purvanchal Gramin Seva Samiti, the social service coordination center of the Catholic diocese of Gorakhpur.
The participants recited the Preamble of the Indian constitution and promised to protect the constitutional values and to fight against all odds to assure that fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution are enjoyed by all.
They also promised to live and practice the fundamental duties of the citizens. The rally was organized by the Vishwa Jyoti Communications, the media wing of the Indian Missionary Society, its theater wing Prerana Kala Manch and activists. It began November 22 at Gorakhpur, a major town in Uttar Pradesh, under the banner of Buddh Se Kabir Tak (BSKT, From Buddha to Kabir).
The rally was led by Indian Missionary Society Father Anand Mathew, director of Vishwa Jyoti Communications, and Vinod Mall, a re-tired director general of police of Gujarat, a western Indian state. Around 40 peace activists from Gorakhpur and neighboring towns and villages joined the peace really. BSKT Music Band joined the cultural activists of Vishwa Jyoti to sing songs of harmony, peace, love, forgiveness, reconciliation, unity and composite cultural diversity.
The rally covered the region where Lord Buddha preached his message of peace and love following a middle path and condemned religious superstitions.
It was the same region where 15th century Sufi saint Kabir Das sang songs of mystical and social love and condemned fundamentalism, superstition and sectarianism of both Hindus and Muslims of that time.

A top court in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has restrained the provincial government from prosecuting interfaith couples under a law that prohibits religious conversion for the purpose of marriage.
A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur its interim order on Nov. 14 directed that “till further orders, respondent [state government] shall not prosecute adult citizens if they solemnize marriage on their own volition and shall not take coercive action for violation of section 10 of the [Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion] Act of 2021.”
The bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Prakash Chandra Gupta said that “a strong prima facie case is made out by the petitioners” against any coercive action.

Christian leaders in north-eastern India on November 24 voiced great anxiety about “alar-mist news” being spread in co-nnection with the issue of con-version.
Such “painful developments” are “nothing but an effort to malign our community which has rendered yeoman service in the field of education, health and social development to all sections in society irrespective of caste, creed, or ethnicity,” said the leaders who met at Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam state and nerve center of north-eastern India.
“We have been the first to denounce any sort of “forced” conversion. At the same time, we also affirm the right of every citizen to choose any religion of his/her own choice that the Constitution guarantees, see Article 25-28,” asserts a press statement the leaders issued after the meeting.
They termed as “very wrong to make false allegations of ‘con-version’ by force, fraud or inducement with the intention of humiliating our community. We feel that such accusations are made with the deliberate intention of dividing our society.”
The leaders represented the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India, Church of North India, Presbyterian Church of India, North East Christian Council (All Protestant Churches), Evangelical Fellowship Of India (All Pentecostal Churches) and the Regional Catholic Bishops Con-ference of North East India (All Catholic Churchs of the region).

Members of eight tribal fa-milies who practice Christian faith in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh are now living in fear after people of their commu-nity thrashed them for not giving up their new faith. “We were beaten up on November 22 night with stick and slippers after for-cing into our houses,” said one of the villagers who follow the Chri-stian faith, but is not converted to Christianity.
The sudden attack led to inju-ries to around 15 people, includ-ing women and children. How-ever, only two women and a man are serous and they now w undergo treatment in a government hospi-tal in Kondagaon district. The villager, who did not want to be named, told, “We are fearing for our lives as the attackers had threatened to burn our houses if we continued with our faith in Lord Jesus.” He, however, insist-ed, “We will not give up our faith,” adding, “after coming to this faith we got peace in our lives.”
The Police reached the village on the same night of the attack, but did not initiate action against the attackers. Instead, they had friendly talk with them and left the spot.
Meanwhile Omkar Diwan, the station house officer (SHO) of Bade Dongar police station under which the violent attack took place denied the allegation that the police did not act upon the Christians’ complaints.