Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated Don Bosco College Bongaigaon on 4 November 2019. This is the fourth Don Bosco College in Assam after Azara, Diphu and Golaghat, at Chapaguri in Chirang district.

The Chief Minister in his inaugural address congratulated the Don Bosco Fathers and Brothers for providing quality education to the student community, and for nurturing talents and for inculcating discipline in the students.

He said, “I am a product of Don Bosco School, Dibrugarh and I know the type of quality that Don Bosco offers to the people all over the world.”

He did not hesitate to add, “Don Bosco has set up this college for you and you must promise to do your best.” He also made the students to promise that they will become the best in the region and even in the country.

The college building was blessed by Bishop Thomas Pulloppillil of Bongaigaon who thanked the Salesians for setting up the college in his region and particularly in his diocese.

While praising the Salesians for the great work they are doing in the Northeast and the bishop told the people to take advantage of their services.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government in Andhra Pradesh has decided to increase financial aid to Haj and Jerusalem pilgrims in the state in a cabinet meeting on Oct. 30.

The decision will affect Muslims travelling to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform Haj and Christians visiting different holy places in Jerusalem every year. After being elected in the state in the recent Assembly elections, CM Jagan Mohan Reddy also visited Jerusalem with his family members.

According to the move, the government decided to increase financial aid from Rs.40,000 to Rs.60,000, for those whose annual income is below Rs 3 lakh. Pilgrims whose annual income is above Rs 3 lakh will get Rs 30,000 as opposed to the Rs.20,000 guaranteed under the existing scheme.

The State Government will also allocate a budget of Rs.14.22 crore for the pilgrimages.

Meanwhile, Narendra Modi-led government in the Centre discontinued subsidies to Haj pilgrims and instead directed the funds toward the empowerment of minority women.

A group of parishioners has supported Bishop K.A. William of Mysore after 37 priests of the diocese wrote to Pope Francis demanding the prelate’s dismissal. The parishioners on November 5 shouted slogans in support of Bishop William when a laity group from Mumbai, Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC), came to Mysuru (formerly Mysore) to protest against the prelate.

The local Catholics questioned the veracity of the allegations and held a meeting at the Bishop’s House on Mother Teresa Road. Tension prevailed after they tried to prevent media persons from recording the meeting but police intervened and pacified them, reports The Times of India.

The bishop also said every-thing said about him and Father Morris was “a complete lie. If you examine this, you will under-stand it is a concocted story.” “If given to a producer, a film can be made of this.”

He said an “unhappy group” was behind the allegations to malign the Catholic community’s image and that he was willing for any discussion.

Sister Shanti Priyal, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany, is the director of Bethany Social Service Centre (BSSC), Paradip, a port city, some 105 km east of Bhubaneswar, State capital of Odisha.

She is a professional social worker who is committed to the causes of the poor and marginalized. AT BSSC, she is passionate about the empowerment of women and working for their financial self-reliance and promotion of gender justice. Matters India Special Correspondent in Manila, Santosh Digal, conducted an email interview with Sister Priyal about her work, experiences and BSSC.

“I am one of the passionate social workers having a Master of Arts in Social Work with 15 years of experience among the Sisters of Bethany Congregation in this field. I have accepted social work as a mission to fulfil my religious vows seeing Jesus in the faces of the poor and marginalized.”

“The centre and its members currently do face a challenge to help the women establish market linkage. BSSC is empowering women. Why is it so important for them and society at large?

Well, I believe, women empowerment is the best process for self-reliance and holistic development. Once they are empowered, gradually their problems (individual and group, community) will be solved by them. They lead them to work for sustainable development.”

Catholic bishops are not fully utilizing Church Law to maximize the role of women in decision making capacities, Cardinal Oswald Gracias said on October 23.

While acknowledging that women are unable to hear confession, say Mass, or administer confirmation, “she can do practically everything else,” said Gracias. “Women can even be in charge of a parish according to Church Law.”

The cardinal’s remarks came during a press briefing as the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon nears its final conclusion, where the role of women in the Church has been a repeated theme as the Church considers how to better respond to the pastoral needs of the Amazon region.

“We must use all of this,” Cardinal Gracias added, noting that Pope Francis “very [much] wants decentralization,” and for bishops to enact changes where they can already do so without the permission of the Holy See.

In addition to being the archbishop of Mumbai, Cardinal Gracias serves on Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinal Advisers.

The role of women in the Church dominated much of the press conference with several of the other representatives from the Amazon speaking for the need for concrete and tangible action, while steering clear of addressing the question of women’s ordination to the diaconate, which is anticipated to be addressed in some form in the Synod’s final document.

Bishop Ricardo Ernesto Centellas Guzmán of Potosí, Bolivia, who heads the country’s bishops’ conference, also called for a change in “mind-set” when it comes to women in the Church.

“We all have to change our mentality to make sure participation of women becomes authentic and that is equitable and fair,” he said.

At present, he said the role of women who are involved in decision-making power is “very low,” adding that in some places it is “almost invisible.”

“Things must change by starting with the smaller things,” he said, noting that work in the parish level and local communities is the place to start. He specifically called out pastoral councils that only give women consultation status, without any real decision making abilities. Inculturation, said Cardinal Gracias, “flows from the Incarnation. Our Lord became incarnated.”

The current trends of ideo-logical dogmatism are posing “danger” to India’s scientific temper, said the Association of Christian Philosophers of India (ACPI).

“India’s contribution to science has been immense. There has been a scientific temper down the ages, which is in danger of being diluted by current trends of ideological dogmatism, whereby the distinction between fact and fiction, history and mythology are blurred,” an ACPI statement said.

“Indigenous sciences and democratized applications of the same need to be encouraged. The spirit of a healthy scientific tem-per needs to be protected from vested corporate interests and the dysfunctional influences of caste, gender, class and religion,” the statement read.

The press statement was issued at the end of the 44th annual research seminar of the ACPI at the St Joseph Vaz Spiritual Renewal Centre in Old Goa, on Oct. 23 to 25. As many as 87 participants attended it.

About 100 Catholic women religious in India have called for a place at the table in church leadership and asked that canon law be amended to make it more relevant and inclusive.

They stressed these and other points at a “Women in the Church” consultation held on October-4-6 at Ishvani Kendra Pune, the cultural capital of Maharashtra.

The participants said in the statement that the consultation helped them embark on “a journey to challenge ourselves to bring about transformation in ourselves and in the church in keeping with the vision of Christ.”

They have resolved to restore equality in the church and create a consciousness to negotiate partnership in the church.

The meeting also stressed developing “feminist consciousness” to read the signs of the time, critically evaluate current structures, values and practices and build solidarity across gender, class, caste and other divides to help transform lives.

The women religious noted that caste and class along with “toxic masculinity and femininity affect the church consciously and unconsciously.”

Patriarchy, the basic organizing principle of society, thrives by dividing men and women, giving power and status to the males and leaving caring and nurturing to females, the statement notes.

Incidents of violence and discrimination against minorities, including attacks on Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes, are not in keeping with India”s legal protections for minorities, a top US diplomat told a Congressional subcommittee on Oct. 22.

“Incidents of violence and discrimination against minorities in India, including cow vigilante attacks against members of the Dalit and Muslim communities, and the existence of anti-conversion laws in nine states are not in keeping with India”s legal protections for minorities,” Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice G Wells told Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Non-proliferation of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

She said the US calls upon the Indian government to “fully” uphold the universal right to religious freedom and protect vulnerable individuals, “including the 1.9 million people in Assam at risk for statelessness because of questions about their citizenship; condemn all incidents of violence; and hold perpetrators accountable.”

Last May, 68% of eligible Indian voters went to the polls for an historic election, Wells said, adding Indians of every religion, caste, sect, and socioeconomic background participated in the remarkable display of parliamentary democracy, which also witnessed a record turnout of women voters.