Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany, an Indian catholic religious congregation, on Jan. 23 added four Tanzanians to its fold.
Novices Clara Mariamu, Anitha Fadhila, Bernadeta Nonkondo and Veronica Mamue pronounced the first vows at a function in Divine Mercy Church in Mwanga, a town in northern Tanzania at the foot of the north Pare Mountains.
Sister Rose Celine, superior general of the Mangalore-based congregation, also known as the Bethany Sisters, received the vows from their first Tanzanian members during a Mass officiated by Bishop Rogath Kimaryo of Same.
Local priests joined those from India’s Mangalore diocese who have been working in the diocese of Same for decades concelebrated the Mass.
The ceremony coincided with the 146th birth Anniversary of the congregation’s founder, Servant of God Raymond Francis Camillus Mascarenhas. The gathering of about 300 people danced to the rhythm of Bethany Anthem during the entrance procession according to the custom of the Tanzanian culture.
Also present were Sister Lillita, a general councillor of the congregation, and many other religious sisters.
After the profession, the congregation sang the Magni-ficat, the song Mary from the Bible, thanking God for their gift to Bethany and to the Church.
Sister Celine said the new members are the fruit of the labour of their sisters in Tanzania Mission, which was started in 2013.

Christians in Jharkhand state’s Dumka town on January 15 took out a candle light procession to pray for Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, who has completed 100 days in a Mumbai prison.
They prayed and walked with posters demanding the release of the member of the Jamshedpur Jesuit province.
“We demand his release as he is innocent,” said Daniel Hembrum, a lay leader who joined the procession. We believe he was falsely accused by the vested interested people as he worked for the welfare of the tribals in Jharkhand,”he added.

A group of Hindu hardliners on January 26 stormed a Catholic media centre in the central Indian city of Indore for allegedly conducting religious conversion program.
“By 6 pm, the premises were completely free of the trouble makers and it’s peaceful now,” says a message from Divine Word Father Babu Joseph, director of Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra (Centre for the Light of Truth).
Father Joseph, who was a former public relations officer of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, says things were brought under control with the presence of the police.
Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra, a regional media center, is managed by the Indore province of the Divine Word Society. It broadcast on YouTube channel Radio Veritas Hindi programs, besides training in media and media related masters.
Narrating the day’s incidents, Father Joseph said a group of people were holding their prayer service at the center.

The Supreme Court of India has ordered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to suspend three controversial farm laws that stirred up nationwide protests by farmers.
The top court on Jan. 12 ordered the formation of a committee of experts to hold talks with the federal government and farmers to end the stalemate as the main protest on New Delhi’s outskirts entered its 48th day.
“The Supreme Court order gives some hope to the farmers who are protesting in very adverse conditions,” said Bishop Alex Vadakumthala, chairman of the Indian bishops’ office of labour.
“The government should find an amicable solution and end the protest as it is not good for any country to let their farmers struggle in the open for their genuine demands,” the prelate told.
Thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana states marched to New Delhi on Nov. 29 demanding the government repeal laws that they say work against their interests. When authorities blocked their entry to the capital, they sat on the highways to block major entry and exit points to New Delhi.
They want the Modi government to withdraw three laws passed last September — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. The government, led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), disregarded opposition to pass the bills, saying they are necessary to reform the farm sector and help farmers have the freedom to sell their products in an open competitive market and gain maximum profit.
Farmers’ unions say the laws take away the minimum support price (MSP) or the government guarantee for their products besides giving private businesses unrestricted opportunities to purchase and store produce.
Critics say the laws were designed to help multinational companies and would lead to the collapse of government-controlled markets and leave farmers at the mercy of big business houses. Government lawyers told the court that the new laws were drafted and implemented based on two decades of studies and disagreed with the farmers’ demand for their repeal.

When Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal ordains Father Gangmei Pheigathuaipou Daniel on December 30, the Jesuits will get their first priest from Rongmei, a major Naga tribe in the northeastern India. Archbishop Lumon will ordain Father Daniel in St Ignatius Church Bishnupur, a Jesuit parish in Manipur State. Father Daniel is the first priest from the Bishnupur parish that was established by the Jesuits 35 years ago.

An Austrian magazine has listed a Catholic nun from India among 100 people, who influenced the world the most during the crises-ridden 2020.
The “OOOM” has placed Sister Lucy Kurien, founder director of the Pune-based Maher, 12th in the list, just above the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis.
The magazine says 2020 was a year no one ever expected. “The world today is different than it was 12 months ago. Which people have inspired, motivated and excited us most in this 2020 crisis? To whom do we owe leadership on the way to a better future? For the fifth time, OOOM presents the large ranking “OOOM 100: The World’s Most Inspiring People.”
“The OOOM editors and a prominent jury – including star designer Stefan Sagmeister, London’s Serpentine Galleries director Hans Ulrich Obrist, world-class geneticist Josef Penninger, gallery owner Thaddaeus Ropac and wallpaper manager Gilles Massé – contributed to the ranking. Every ranking is subjective. But it shows which people actually impressed us over the past year.”
The list is topped by Ugur Sahin, a German scientist and developer of the Covid-19 vaccine co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, who gave the world a new hope. His vaccine is a key component in the battle against a virus that has already claimed 1.7 million lives. The research he conducted with his wife Özlem Tureci has led to the most important medical development of our time. The second in the list is Kamala Harris, future Vice President of the United States, followed by Joe Biden, 46th President of the United States.
She said the Covid-19 lock-down was a challenging time for her organization. She said approximately 40 women, some with children, arrived at Maher seeking asylum as the lockdown began in India on March 25.
“We have to take care of four walls in this period — physical strength, emotional strength, mental strength and spiritual strength — to counter any exter-nal threat to our well-being,” the member of the Sisters of the Cross of Chavanod told.

Madhya Pradesh State in central India has replaced its more than 50-year-old anti-conversion law with a new and more stringent one that can criminalize even conversion for marriage.
The law notified on Jan. 9 says any attempt to convert a person from one religion to another through misrepresentation, allurement, use of threat or force, undue influence, coercion or by marriage is a punishable offense.
Violators can be jailed for up to 10 years under the new law called the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance 2020. Those abetting or conspi-ring such conversions can also be punished.
The new law replaces the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion act of 1968. However, it allows the reconversion of a person to one’s parental religion without violating the law’s provision.
Leaders of the state government-run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hold that Hinduism is the parental religion of religious minorities in the country such as Christians and Muslims.
In effect, the law allows Hindu groups to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. But those Hindus who convert to Islam or Christianity for marriage can be punished along with their spouses, who can be accused of abetting and conspiring the con-version.
“This law is one-sided and against fundamental rights guaranteed in the Indian constitution,” said Father Maria Stephan, public relations officer of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh.

Police in an Indian state have directed officers to keep a watch on prayer gatherings after five Christians were arrested on a charge of religious con-version. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a hard-line Hindu group, handed the five Christians to police in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh State, which is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“It is just an allegation from the fanatic groups and if they are sure about it, let them prove it. People are free to express their views in a democratic country,” Father Harold D’ Cunha, vicar general of Bareilly Diocese, told.
“As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, it does not promote or propagate religious conversion in the diocese as well as in the country.
“Occasionally, these groups blame us for conversions, but until now there is no record of any religious conversion where the Church is involved.”
He said the Church is engaged in many charitable works that can be construed as allurement to conversions, “but it is not true.”
S. Anand, superintendent of Shahjahanpur police, told the Press Trust of India that after the alleged religious conversion activities, officers have been asked to keep a watch on religious gatherings.
“We have directed concerned police officials to take strict action if anyone is found guilty of religious conversion activities,” he said.

But in recent weeks, jail authorities in India have been called out for being especially cruel to prisoners, particularly the govern-ment’s critics who are described as “human rights defenders” by international rights groups.
Earlier this month, the Bombay High Court reminded officials of Mumbai’s Taloja jail that they needed to show some “humanity” while dealing with the needs of inmates.
“We need to conduct workshops for jailers. How are such small items denied? These are all human considerations,” Justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik said.
The “small items” here were spectacles that jailed activist Gautam Navlakha had been denied.
The judges’ comment came after his family told the press that his spectacles were stolen in prison and that when they sent a fresh pair, the authorities refused to accept them.
“He was allowed to call me on 30 November, three days after his glasses were stolen. He’s 68, he needs a high-powered lens and without them, he’s nearly blind,” his partner, Sahba Husain, told me.
Since the start of the pandemic in mid-March, India has stopped all visits by family or lawyers to jail. Inmates are not even allowed to receive parcels.
Husain says Navlakha told her that he had spoken to the jail superintendent and had been assured that he would receive his spectacles.
Husain, who lives in Delhi, quickly got a new pair made and posted them on 3 December.
“I checked three-four days later and realized that the parcel had reached the jail on 5 December, but had been refused and returned.”
It was only after the judges read out a lesson in “humanity,” and subsequent outrage on social media that jail authorities provided a new set of spectacles to Mr Navlakha.
A former secretary of the non-governmental organisation People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Navlakha is no ordinary prisoner. He’s spent a lifetime working for civil liberties and is respected globally.
He’s been in jail since the middle of April in connection with what is known as the Bhima Koregaon case.
He’s among 16 activists, poets and lawyers who have been arrested over the past two years on charges of instigating caste violence at a Dalit rally in Bhima Koregaon village in the western State of Maharashtra on 1 January 2018. They all deny the charges against them.

With differences between Orthodox and Jacobite factions in widening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will talk to both groups to find a lasting solution to some issues, said Mizoram Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai. The governor, also hailing from Kerala, said he had briefed the Prime Minister about all issues and sought his intervention to help solve them. He said leaders of both factions will be met separately and later to joint meeting will be called. Pillai also said he will also discuss the issue with Home Minister Amit Shah.
The growing friction between the two factions has invited enough embarrassment for the community and often created big law and order problems in the state. Earlier Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also tried to broker peace between two but failed to make much headway as both sides stuck to their stands.
“There is a complaint that central funds for minority welfare are not distributed proportionately between different communities in the state. The Church has been raising its concern in this regard for quite some time. So the PM will hear their woes also,” Pillai said.
“We hope the PM’s intervention will help us get justice,” said Jacobite Church trustee Joseph Mar Gregorios. “We are ready to go by any agreement that is bound by law of the land and decision of the apex court,” said Orthodox Church secretary Biju Oommen. Recently, a tiff between the two spilled over to the streets inviting enough embarrassment for believers.