Millions of internal migrants – most of the day labourers with little savings – were trapped far from home with little money when the lockdown was declared on March 24 with just a few hours’ notice. There have been over 118,000 cases of the corona virus reported in India, with over 3,500 deaths. The hardest hit State is Maharashtra, which has over 41,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths.

In the State’s capital Mumbai, the St Catherine of Siena School and Orphanage has been distributing lunch and breakfast to the stranded migrants, the poor and the homeless in and around the suburb of Bandra, a traditional Christian area of the city.

Brother Joseph Sebastian, the director of the institute, said this was in keeping with the founder, Father Anthony Elenjimittam (1915-2011), who affectionately called the destitute and orphan children under his care “Angels in Rags.”

A Catholic bishop in a southern Indian diocese has set an example of social responsibility even during the lockdown.

Bishop Prince Antony Panengaden of Adilabad in Telangana State rushed to Mittapally, a village in the Mancherial district, when he heard that a fire had destroyed the house of Shankarayya, a paralytic and father of nine.

The fire incident occurred on May 19 and the bishop came to know it the following day when he called the residents of Mittapally as part of his pastoral duty of inquiring about his faithful.

The village has only ten Catholic families and the bishop visits them often.

Bishop Panengaden knew Shankarayya, the father of six girls and three boys, could not go for work because of his physical disability. The family survives on the earnings of the sons, who are daily wagers. On May 20 itself, the prelate visited the village, 18 km away from his residence, to study Shankarayya’s condition.

On his return from Mittapally, the prelate formed a team of priests, youth and other villagers to help Shankarayya.

“Fire incidents are common in those villages mainly due to the faulty electrical wiring,” Bishop Panengaden told Matters India over phone on May 24.

He said he formed the team as the diocese has no funds to build the house. He then suggested the team to help Shankarayya through physical work.

“Our diocese has no money, so we can’t provide any monetary help to people. What we could do is to help them through our physical work,” he added.

The bishop went with his team to the village in the early morning of May 22 and started the house’s foundation work. Besides the bishop, the team comprised five priests, seven young people and a few local villagers.

Hafiz Mohammed Naseerudin says that after a police officer assaulted him for being a Muslim and blamed him for spreading the coronavirus, he was left lying on the road for almost an hour.

Naseerudin, 44, had gone to pick up some vegetables from his friend’s house in Humnabad, in the southern Indian State of Karnataka, when he says an officer stopped him on his scooter.

Other vehicles were on the road, Naseerudin says — he believes he was stopped because of his religion.

“I am an Imam, so I look and dress very Muslim. I also have a long beard,” he says. “The cop started hitting me and saying that it is because of me and my community that this disease is spreading.”

Nagesh D L, police superintendent of Bidar district where Humnabad is located, says the officer has been suspended while an inquiry was conducted into the incident. Naseerudin says he called the police from hospital to make a statement, but Nagesh claims they did not receive any complaint.

Aaseerudin is not alone. As fears of a widespread coronavirus outbreak mount in India, some of the country’s Muslims, who make up roughly 200 million of the country’s 1.3 billion population, have been targeted in Islamophobic attacks on the streets and online, and accused of spreading the virus.

In the capital, New Delhi, for example, volunteers distributing ration kits to Muslim families say they face harassment from police and are scared to go out. In Punjab, Muslim milk producers say they have been threatened by villagers, their houses have been raided by police, and people are scared to buy their produce.

At the centre of the recent Islamophobia is a gathering of a conservative Muslim missionary group in New Delhi in mid-March, and led to a large, highly publicized cluster of coronavirus cases.

The silver casket that houses the relics of Saint Francis Xavier is set to go to Italy for restoration.

However, an impasse has arisen over the responsibility to conduct the restoration. The Church authorities want to over-see the work, which was disputed by the Archaeological Society of India that manages the Bom Jesu Basilica in Old Goa where the casket is kept since 1637.

It was in that year the saint’s mortal remains were first taken away from public view and ensconced in a silver casket. It is kept atop specially constructed mausoleum within the basilica.

The silver casket has shown serious sign of distress and experts have said that it will become irreparable if no action is taken within the next few years.

“We have been wishing to send it to Italy, where they have offered to do it for free. How-ever, the ASI New Delhi put paid to such plans and has instead said that this can be done by the ASI’s chemical institute in Aurangabad,” Fr Patrício Fernandes, the rector of basilica, said.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias said his “heart wept” upon hearing the news that 15 migrant workers were crushed to death on May 8 after falling asleep on railway tracks in Aurangabad, which is in India’s Maharashtra State.

One more person was hospitalized in the incident, and four others were treated for shock. The police said the migrants, who were headed to Madhya Pradesh in central India, apparently chose to walk on railway tracks to avoid the highway, where they risked getting stopped by authorities enforcing India’s COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown. Police said the men likely thought the trains weren’t running, due to the lockdown.

Millions of internal migrants – most of the day labourers with little savings – were trapped far from home with little money when the lockdown was declared on March 24 with just a few hours’ notice. “I received this news with immense sorrow,” Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay and President of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI), told Crux.

The Diocesan Social Service Society (DSSS), a developmental wing of the Archdiocese of Imphal, distributed dry rations to 2898 families in 42 villages within seven districts of Manipur.

Father Biju Luckose, director of DSSS, Father Thohrii Joseph, assistant director and Father Dale Joseph, financial administrator of the Archdiocese of Imphal and the staff of DSSS spearheaded the relief aid distribution.

The relief work was carried out for five days in these seven districts which include Imphal East, Imphal West, Chandel, Churchandpur, Senapati, Tengnoupal, and Kangpokpi.

The COVID-19 relief aid was the initiative of the Archbishop Dominic Lumon, the head of the Catholic Church in Manipur to reach out with a little helping hand to some of the remote villages of Manipur during this pandemic crisis.

In this time of crisis not only prayer alone but goodwill action, gesture and solidarity to our suffering and struggling brothers and sisters is the need of the hour, the Archbishop said.

The villages in the far-flung areas expressed their deep sense of gratitude and happiness for taking an initiative to reach out to them despite the rain and road conditions.

Jharkhand’s Minister for Finance and Public distribution Rameshwar Oraon on May 5 made a surprise visit to the Ranchi Archbishop’s House to thank the Catholic Church’s works among those affected by the nationwide lockdown.

The minister met Jesuit Archbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi and his Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas and hailed the Church’s “tremendous and wonderful humanitarian activity.”

He said the government was impressed and grateful to the Catholic community for its selfless and dedicated service to suffering humanity.

The Minister was accompanied by his son Rohit. The Church in Ranchi has collaborated with Deputy Commissioner Rai Mahimapat Rai and the district administration to bring relief to the poor during the Covid-19 crisis.

The priests and nuns of the archdiocese have opened 14 shelters each with a capacity for 200 migrants in Church-managed schools. The Church meets the expenses for the shelters.

The district authorities have commended the centres as model shelters with excellent management. They also portray the merciful human face of service, the administration agrees.

The Church’s community kitchens in Ranchi have so far served more than 40,000 meals.

The Church has distributed some 270,000 rations to more than 5,000 families in the poorer areas of the city and 23 villages in the Namkum, Mandar, Angara, Bero, and Ranchi Blocks.

The Church also distributed 600 PPE (Primary Protective Equipment) kits containing reusable gloves, reusable masks, sanitizers and soaps to the frontline workers in the containment area of Hinpiri.

Beneficiaries included ambulance drivers, sweepers and police personnel. The archdiocese also distributed PPE to 600 police personnel serving on roads and streets.