Initially placed in charge of vocations and youth movements, in 1969 he obtained a license in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University following a period of study of the English language in London. He was then sent to India where he was assigned an assistant in the parish in Mumbai and attended the theological faculty of the Pontifical University of Pune. Unable to obtain a permanent visa for India, he was transferred to Hong Kong. For several years he was assistant cooperator in Tsuen Wan.

In 1981 he returned to Hong Kong, first as parish priest of Yuen Long, then, in 1986, he was appointed Director of the HK Press Office and of the AsiaNews Agency.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attended the Christmas night services on December 24 at the Cathedral Church in Kolkata. On her first visit to the cathedral for Christmas, Banerjee inaugurated the crib – traditional nativity scene of Jesus birth.

Banerjee has served as the eighth and current chief minister of West Bengal since 2011, the first woman to hold the office. She founded the party All India Trinamool (grassroots) Congress in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its chairperson.

Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta presided over the Christmas night services at the cathedral. “Jesus is born for all people of good will, to bring them love, peace and joy,” said cathedral parish priest Father Siluvai Pitchai recalling the message of angels who announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds.

The traditional nativity scene at the church entrance this year wore a modern look with an art work depicting the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Prayers for peace and understanding marked Christmas this year in the midst of subdued celebrations in light of the prevailing situation in the country and state.

A Christmas message from the Assam Christian Forum said it all: “We humbly pray that peace returns to our land, and every tear is wiped from the eyes of everyone who has suffered or lost their dear ones, and may the ruling dispensation understand the pain and anxieties of its citizens before trying to impose laws that is (are) bent to divide us.”

The Forum had earlier expressed its concern in the interior areas of the state, where the bulk of Christians reside, heading to churches in groups for the midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

Spokesperson for the Forum, Allen Brookes, put to rest the apprehensions on Christmas day when he said, “Reports from different places were positive. There were no untoward incidents and everything went off peacefully. Police pickets had been posted. Anyway, we advanced the prayer service in Upper Assam due to the situation and the cold wave.”

On the Christmas spirit, Brookes said, “The faith part of Christmas went off as usual but the larger celebrations were toned down more in solidarity with what was happening in the country. As a community, we are also part of society, which is facing an onslaught at the moment. The festive spirit was subdued. We would have gone a little further but there were apprehensions.”

In the city, however, things looked to be almost normal as the services in different churches went on till midnight and the day service also passed off normally. People started to come out since late morning and the crowds swelled as the day progressed. By early evening, the areas near churches were chock-a-block with people from different communities and age groups.

Church leaders have appealed for peace in northeastern India, where police shot dead two people as violent protests spread against the federal government amending the law on citizenship. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, passed by the national parliament on Dec. 11, is seen as discriminatory on religious grounds. It gives citizenship to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan if they are not Muslims.

The bill also reduces the requirement of residence for these migrants from 11 years to six years if they arrived in India on or before December 2014. Street protests against the law turned violent in several northeastern states. Police fired at thousands of people who defied a curfew in Assam’s State capital Guwahati, killing two.

Indigenous groups in the region believe the law gives citizenship to millions of immigrants who came from neighboring Bangladesh following its independence in 1971. Regardless of religion, they believe the move will change the demographics of their region.

Church leaders such as retired Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati say the controversial law was needless.

“It was passed discriminating some groups,” said the prelate, who is a member of Assam Citizens’ Forum. “We, along with the people of Assam, regardless of faith, call for calm and peace during these difficult times. We want all to be united.”

The Salesian bishop said political leaders should have taken the people into confidence. He said the law threatens small ethnic groups in the region “who have lived here for centuries.”

The Congress party, which opposes the ruling pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the situation in the region was “extremely disturbing.”

Sister Lissy Vadakkel, main witness in the case of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of sexually abusing a nun at a convent in Kerala, said pressure is being budged on her to retract her statement. She said they are forcing her to withdraw her statements over phone and in person. Sister Lissy said that she is living in the midst of stress and isolation and some are trying to make her a mental patient. She said that she is firm in her statement against the former bishop and will not change it. She said that is to a TV news channel.

Sister said that the trial of the case should be conducted as early as possible. Some are trying to influence me saying that if I say anything against the bishop it will harm the church. She said that some from her evangelization team are budging pressure on her to retract the statement. Some nuns of the convent are trying to make me a mental patient, she said.

Cardinal  George Alencherry was on Dec 6 elected the president of Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), an association of the Catholic bishops of all three rites in the state.

The head of Syro Malabar Catholic Church succeeds Abp Maria Calist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese. Bishop Varghese Chakkalakal of Calicut (Latin) will be the new deputy chairman of the council.  Bishop Joseph Thomas of Bathery (Syro-Malankara) is the new secretary general.

The KCBC meet regretted an increase in the vested interests in governance and the politicization of the education sector. KCBC has also reiterated that it will continue to try to resolve disputes between Orthodox and Jacobite Churches.

However KCBC’s move has drawn flak from a section of believers in the Catholic Church. Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (AMT), a collective that have been functioning as a corrective force within the Church, has criticized the KCBC decision to appoint Cardinal Alencherry as its new leader.

An ecumenical group of Christian women has condemned increasing incidents of violence against women in India and demanded making society safer for them. “In this dreadful situation of unbridled gender violence and sexual crimes, we demand a country that is safe and peaceful for Indian women and girls,” the Indian Christian Women Movement said in a press release on December 9.

The appalling manner in which women are subjected to horrendous sexual violence in India seems to be proving over and over again that this country is the most unsafe place for women in the world, the movement regrets. The perilous conditions in which Indian women live and the dismal record of steps taken to create a society where women and children are secure, explains why sexual crimes have become an everyday event.

What is very evident is the increasing climate of impunity against perpetrators; submerged in the deafening silence of those in power, the movement noted.

The movement listed recent incidents of attacks on women.

The horrific gang rape of a young woman veterinarian in Hyderabad.

Recently by chance, I met Father Kinley Tshering, former provincial superior of Darjeeling Jesuit Province in India, the first and only native Bhutan Catholic Priest. Bhutan is a close Buddhist theocracy with a population of less than a million, located in the Eastern Himalayas in South Asia, sandwiched between India and China. Bhutan is the second least populous nation after the Maldives. Bhutan and the Maldives were only two countries without Catholics. But about 10 years ago, the Bhutan government allowed freedom of religion, and at present, there are about 100 Catholics, mostly from Nepal or India.

Peaceful Bhutan with the best gross national happiness is the only carbon-negative country and the least corrupt. A place where smoking and damaging nature are banned. Never having been colonized, Bhutan was able to develop a distinct identity based on Buddhism introduced in the 7th century. Basic education and health care are free for all in Bhutan. Foreign missionaries are not allowed to live in Bhutan; only native Catholics or Christians can work. About 77 percent of the population is Vajrayana Buddhist and about 23 percent is Hindu. Less than 1 percent of the population follows other religions.

Born in the upper class in Bhutan, Father Kinley was amazed when he saw the little child in the manger in Christmas cards. When he went abroad at age 5 to a boarding school run by Jesuits in Darjeeling, he saw the crucifix in a convent, and the sisters explained to him the story of the little boy in a manger in relation to the man on the cross. At age 15, on May 18, 1974, he was baptized in secret. Despite the objection of his family, he aspired to be a priest; but due to the objection of nearby missionaries, he entered university, earned an MBA, and worked in a company for three years.

Five Catholic nuns in Kerala, who hit the headlines with their fight against rape, have joined another campaign demanding justice for two minor girls who were allegedly raped and murdered.

The nuns of Missionaries of Jesus joined a public protest on Nov. 18 in Kerala’s commercial capital Kochi.

It was part of an ongoing campaign in the southern Indian state that started last month after a district court acquitted all four people accused in the case. The girls from a socially poor Dalit family, aged 13 and nine, were allegedly attacked in 2017 inside their one-room house when their mother was away at work.

“We attend the protest to share our solidarity with the grieving mother of the two minor girls,” said Sister Anupama Kelamangalathu-veli, who spoke for the other nuns. The protest of the five nuns in September 2018 demanded the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, who was accused of raping their former superior. Their diocesan congregation functioned under the bishop’s patronage. The bishop was arrested and faces trial in court.

“We understand the pain of their mother, and we want justice for her even though her daughters would not come back to life,” the nun told ucanews on Nov. 19.