As India prepares to welcome its newest saint, a controversy over his name and its relationship with the Hindu caste system has come to the fore.

A Vatican decree announced a miracle had been approved for Blessed Devasahayam, clearing the way for his canonization.

However, when Devasahayam was declared a Blessed in 2012, the name used was Devasahayam Pillai.

The discrepancy is due to protests that Devasahayam allegedly never used Pillai – which signified his caste – after his conversion from Hinduism in 1745.

After his conversion, Devasahayam suffered severe harassment and persecution – including beatings and imprisonment – until he was finally shot and killed in 1752. His body is now at Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral in the Diocese of Kottar.

Earlier this year, Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville visited India to express his thanks and gratitude to the families and religious order superiors of the 11 Indian priests living and serving in his diocese.

“Since I’ve been bishop, every priest from India has invited me to go to their home country and experience India and see their Catholic homeland,” Bishop Spalding said. “Out of respect for their good work and service in the diocese, I made the decision to go.”

“I wanted to visit with the families of the priests serving in the Diocese of Nashville and thank them for their sharing of their son, their brother, their uncle,” the bishop told the Tennessee Register, Nashville’s diocesan newspaper.

He also wanted to visit with the superiors of the religious orders of the Indian priests in Nashville. Six of the priests are members of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, four are members of the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales, and one is a Franciscan.

“The presence of all our foreign-born priests allows us to do a lot of things in a lot of ministries,” Bishop Spalding said, including having them in the two diocesan high schools as well as serving as chaplains for various ministries and Catholic Organizations, he said.

“Three, I wanted to see Catholic India,” Bishop Spalding said.

His visit on January 15-29 took him to the State of Kerala, which has the largest Catholic population in India and is where St Thomas the Apostle landed when he first brought Christianity to the country.

Catholics make up little less over 1 percent of India’s total population, but 22 percent of the population in Kerala, explained Father Thomas Kalam, a Carmelite of Mary Immaculate, who is associate pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He helped Bishop Spalding by arranging his itinerary for the trip and served as his guide.

An advocacy group for progressive Catholic religious nuns, brothers and priests in India has asked top Church bodies to oppose openly laws that try to divide citizens in the country.

“The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) are divisive, discriminatory and draconian,” the Forum for Justice and Peace, known as Forum, stated on Feb. 24 at the end of their 14th national convention in Varanasi. Around 50 members of the 500-strong group of priests and nuns working among grass-roots groups met on Feb. 22-24 at Vishwa Jyoti Gurukal to address the theme, ‘Prophetic Response to the Signs of the Times.”

The group describes the citizenship laws as unconstitutional and “obviously part of a larger strategy” to establish a fascist state based on the ‘Hindutva’ ideology. It says the controversial laws have caused discontent forcing hundreds of thousands of women, men and youth to protest all over the country. The CAA, the group says, uses religion that goes against the “secular fabric” of the country.

One of the six members of Pope Francis’ advisory Council of Cardinals has acknowledged a bias among the members of the Catholic Church’s all-male hierarchy against giving women more leadership roles, saying he and his peers must “shed this prejudice.”

In an NCR interview, Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias called himself a “convert” to the cause of women seeking more opportunities for responsibility in the global institution.

Mentioning women through-out the world “who are doing so much” for the church, the cardinal said women “want an apostolate, want to work for evangelization, want to give leadership in the church parish community.”

“We have not applied our mind to it,” said Gracias, adding: “I admit there’s been a prejudice against giving them greater responsibility, and we must shed this prejudice.”

“I hope we are able to examine carefully, discuss carefully how they can have greater responsibility,” the cardinal continued, before quickly correcting his choice of words.

An archbishop in India is denying the accusations of a Hindu nationalist organization that “forced conversions” are taking place in the northern State of Uttar Pradesh.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) – meaning Universal Hindu Council – announced it had identified 30 places in eastern Uttar Pradesh where alleged “forced conversions” by Christian missionaries are taking place.

“I deny this report, that forced conversion is taking place in Uttar Pradesh or anywhere in India. Any conversion is voluntary, and everyone has the freedom to follow the religion of his own choice,” Bishop Gerald John Mathias of Lucknow told Crux.

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous State in India, with nearly 200 million people. However, only about 350,000 Christians live in the state, a miniscule 0.18 percent of the population. By comparison, Christians make up nearly 2.5 percent of the whole of India’s population.

Uttar Pradesh, like the national government, is run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization.

The VHP is also one of the many organizations affiliated with the RSS.

Hindu nationalists often accuse Christians of using forceful and surreptitious tactics in pursuing conversions. They then storm into villages and lead “reconversion” ceremonies – called Ghar Vapsi, or “back to home” – in which Christians are compelled to perform Hindu rituals.

Mathias told Crux that “forcing people with organised Ghar Vapsi programs are forced conversion, and this must be stopped.”

In November, Uttar Pradesh proposed an anti-conversion law, imitating several other states in India. Christians say such laws violate India’s secular constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.

“Christians in India have constitutional guarantees to practice our faith, share the Good News and the message of Christ, which is for all humanity. This is not conversion nor is anyone forced,” Mathias said.

“I categorically deny the false allegations of forced conversion.”

Goa Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao urged the central government to revoke the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), calling the law “divisive” and “discriminatory,” state BJP general secretary Narendra Sawaikar on Feb. 10 urged him to stop claiming benefits under Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, which protects minority educational institutions from government discrimination.

“If CAA is discriminatory than Article 30 of Constitution of India is more discriminatory. Don”t claim benefits at taxpayers money by claiming minority status! CAA, Archbishop,” Sawaikar, a former Lok Sabha MP tweeted. As per Article 30 (ii) of the Constitution of India “the state shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.”

A group of Catholic religious has expressed solidarity with the women protesters of Shaheen Bagh in the national capital.

Around 25 Catholic priests and nuns from Delhi led by Presentation Sister Anastasia Gill on February 2 spent a day with the women who are protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)

“The Christian community rejects CAA as this piece of legislation that is against the spirit of the Constitution of India,” said Sister Gill while addressing thousands of women gathered at the south Delhi suburb for more than 50 days.

The nun, who is the Christian member of the Delhi Minorities Commission, said as “citizens of this great nation, Christians are in solidarity with the protesters as they defend the idea of India cherished by the father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhiji and Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

The Catholic religious sang with the protesters ‘Abide with me,” a favourite hymn of Mahatma Gandhi, and the popular hymn “Hum honge kaam yaab” (we will succeed), an anthem of many civil rights movements.

Shaheen Bagh protesters following the passage of Citizen-ship Amendment Act in both the houses of parliament the women spontaneously and peacefully began to demonstrate at Shaheen Bagh from Dec. 15. The women intensified their protest with the police brutality against the students of Jamia Millia Islamia.

A group Catholic priests and nuns working among the poorest and most marginalized communities in Maharashtra has opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as unconstitutional.

“The CAA is the first instance of religion being overtly used as criterion for citizenship under Indian nationality laws and therefore fundamentally discriminatory and divisive in nature,” says a press release from 36 representatives of 16 Catholic congregations that oppose the act.

The group called Justice Coalition of Religious that met in Mumbai recently also opposed National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

They said these laws are at odds with secular principles enshrined in the Constitution and contradict Articles 13, 14, 15, 16 and 21 that guarantee to every citizen the right to equality, equality before the law, and non-discriminatory treatment by the State.

The group attended on January 16-18 a capacity-building workshop titled, “Rights-based Advocacy in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).”

These religious work with urban and rural poor, Dalits and Adivasis, street children, women in prostitution, homeless populations, persons with disabilities and other poor and marginalized communities.

“As citizens deeply committed to a just and rights-based implementation of the SDGs, we strongly oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act as unconstitutional and therefore counterproductive with respect to SDG 16,” their statement asserts.

It expresses their deep concern about the negative fallout the proposed all-India-level National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) will have on the people of the country, “disproportionately harming the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized and thereby nullifying efforts toward SDG 10 among others.”