Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, has urged his priests to pay full salaries of March and April to those working in archdiocesan institutions.

“After consulting our bishops and the Finance Office, I am directing that the March and April salaries be paid in full even though our workers have not been coming due to the lockdown. We will review the situation in May,” Cardinal Gracias said in an April 27 video message to all the priests in the archdiocese.

The cardinal told the priests that he was addressing them during an “extraordinary period” when the government-imposed nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic. “The end of the lockdown is approaching, but please prepare yourself for a possible extension,” said the prelate who has been leading the Indian Church’s efforts to bring relief to people affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first imposed the lockdown from March 25 to April 14, then extended it to May 3. Many say it could be further extended as pandemic shows no sign of abatement.

“Looking at the number of reported cases in our Archdiocese and the number of containment zones, it does not seem likely that the restrictions will be lifted. And even after these are lifted, I would expect that permitting of religious assemblies will take more time,” the cardinal said.

Bombay archdiocese covers Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra that tops the number of Covid-19 cases in India.

Cardinal Gracias urged the priests to be prepared for “an extended period” of church closure. Even after the lockdown is lifted, it would be several months before the country would overcome the coronavirus.

He reminded the priests that funeral is the only religious service they are allowed to perform in the lockdown period.

A large number religious women is in the forefront of the Catholic Church’s humanitarian works among those affected by the nationwide lockdown.

Amrat Talitha Kum India, or just Amrat, is one of the largest networks of women religious engaged in anti-human trafficking activities. It has members from 76 women religious congregations working in various parts of India.

Its members have left no stone unturned to reach out to the people at this time of unexpected and ill-equipped lockdown.

They went to serve the poor and the needy without any hesitation.

They told the local administration that they are part of the Church, which is in forefront of relief works among people caught in the lockdown.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown from that midnight. When the time was over, he extended it further until May 3.

The Amrat members, who work in 23 Indian states, risked their lives to rush out to help the needy. “What will happen to our people, if we do not launch out to help them at this precarious juncture,” was the uppermost thought in all of them.

Abuse of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities in India drew the attention of a federal religious freedom watchdog in its annual report released on April 28 by U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

USCIRF is a bipartisan federal commission that studies religious persecution and adverse circumstances facing religious minorities around the world, and makes policy recommendations to the State Department.

India’s Hindu nationalist BJP party won elections in 2017 and again in 2019 to gain a majority in the national legislature. The government then “used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national-level policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims,” USCIRF said.

USCIRF released its annual report on Tuesday, documenting progress and setbacks for religious freedom in 29 countries around the world during the previous year. The commission recommended that India be designated by the State Department as a “country of particular concern” (CPC)—a designation reserved for the worst violators of religious freedom or the countries where the worst abuses are taking place and the governments do not stop them. USCIRF has not recommended India for the CPC list since 2004. Of concern is the country’s new policy of fast-tracking citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from neighboring countries which, combined with a National Register of Citizens, could leave many Muslims without legal protections and saddled with burdens of having to prove their citizenship.

Catholics in Odisha have mourned the death of Malakias Nayak, a renowned poet who wrote Odiya liturgical hymns and prayers.

Nayak died on April 24 in his residence at Bodopada of Gajapati district of Odisha. He was 75.

He hailed from Aligonda parish of Berhampur diocese.

The writer had under-gone a brain surgery a few months ago and was undergoing treatment since January.

The poet was survived by his wife Jahida Khan, a Muslim-convert to Catholicism, four sons and three daughters. His second son, Jesuit Father Mahesh Nayak, conducted the funeral Mass at 4 am on April 25 in their parish church.

“It is heart breaking news for me because he was my favorite teacher in all respect,” says Martin Pradhan, a student of Nayak. “He was not only a teacher but also a good writer, poetics and dramatist,” Pradhan told Matters India over phone on April 25.

Amravati, April 22, 2020: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, on April 20 announced that all places of worship in the state would be given 5,000-rupee assistance.

He made this announcement during a video conference with the District Collectors and Muslim religious leaders on the measures being taken to contain COVID-19. He thanked the religious leaders for accepting his request to urge the community to offer prayers at homes during the holy month of Ramadan.

Reddy said despite the financial constraints — loss of 1.5 billion rupee revenue a day — due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, the government would provide 5,000 to every mosque, covered during Ramadan last year.

The mosques not covered last year, and churches and temples would also be provided with the aid.

The chief minister said his government belonged to all sections of people and had been implementing schemes for the welfare of people irrespective of religion, caste and region.

He said despite the financial issues the government had given Rs 1,000 to each family and providing ration thrice a month.

The Archdiocese of Bombay has asked its priests to follow the directives of the municipal commissioner and cremate Covid-19 victims rather than bury them.

“In a video message to priests, Cardinal Oswald Gracias suggested in view of the extraordinary circumstances they would respect the call of the municipal commissioner and cremate any novel coronavirus victims,” Father Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bombay, informed the Times of India.

Early this week, municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi had issued a directive under the Epidemic Act, 1897, stating all victims of Covid-19 would be cremated and, if a family insisted on a burial, then it would have to be done outside the city.

The circular was, however, immediately withdrawn after Minority Affairs minister Nawab Malik objected to it. An amended circular issued a few hours later said burial would be allowed if the burial grounds were large enough so as not to create the possibility of the virus spreading in the neighbouring areas. Father Barrett said in view of the amended circular, a family would be granted a burial if they insisted as long as they followed WHO guidelines.

Meanwhile, former Congress minister Naseem Khan, in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, noted the anger in the Muslim community over a Covid-19 victim not being allowed burial at Malwani on April 1. He said the government must earmark a portion in all kabrastans across the state for victims of the pandemic.

Christian charities in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state have been forced to abandon their food distribution among the poor after the state tightened up social distancing norms to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The state government imposed a curfew in capital Bhopal on April 6, stopping all social workers, including church groups, from distributing free food to the poor and daily wage workers.

Thousands of daily wage earners, street dwellers and migrants lost their income to buy food after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown until April 15, shutting down all public activities and transport.

Christian charities helped Bhopal’s poor with food. “But now we are forced to stay at our homes as we cannot go out to distribute the food,” said Sister Lizy Thomas. The curfew came after a sudden spike in positive cases in Bhopal, where at least 12 people tested positive for Covid-19 on April 7, taking the city’s count to 74, the state’s chief medical officer Sudhir Dehariya told media.