The first Asian Ecumenical Women’s Assembly (AEWA) opened on November 22 at Hsinchu, Taiwan, acknowledging the power of women as the major factor to determine the Church’s future direction.

“I see the reality of our global Christianity, especially in Asia, that the Churches have been transformed into ‘churches of women.’ The power of women is extra-ordinary in determining the future direction of Christianity,” asserted CCA Moderator Archbishop Willem T.P. Simarmata, who opened the assembly at the Presbyterian Bible College auditorium.

The assembly organized by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) has the theme “Arise, Be Awake to Reconcile, Renew, and Restore the Creation.” More than 250 women from different denominations and Churches are attending the assembly.

In his welcome address, CCA general secretary Reverend Mathews George Chunakara said, “Improvements in the status of women are evident in different fields, and these transformations have been made possible by strengthened institutions and legal systems, demographic transitions, and a more dynamic civil society. However, we are on the trajectory towards a less inclusive and more unequal world.”

Chunakara said the assembly’s expected outcome is “not merely to address or talk about gender representation within Churches, but to reflect and strategize ways in which the Church and society can be further sensitized.”

He reminded the participants that their collective task to create conditions for identifying, motivating, building, and enabling a diverse range of women leaders to hone their talents and bear formidable challenges.

“To reconcile is to renew and restore relationships. AEWA offers the space to interpret the multiple meanings of the theme and apply them practically in our contemporary contexts,” Chunakara added.

The opening worship was led by participants from various Asian countries, together with members from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, the host. Reverend Henriette Hutabarat Lebang, chairperson of the PGI (Persekutuan Gereja di Indonesia, Church Fellowship in Indonesia) and former CCA general secretary, delivered a homily based on the text Isaiah 32:9-20.

Suspecting foul play in the increasing baby-selling charges against Missionaries of Charity nuns, a Catholic bishop in eastern India has demanded a high-level probe into the role of a government agency.

Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi made the demand on Nov. 20, days after state police raided a convent in his Jharkhand State in connection with three cases of baby selling registered against the nuns.

He wants India’s top investi-gating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, to probe the role of the government’s Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in the cases.

“Police have been registering false cases against innocent nuns for helping beleaguered unwed mothers,” Bishop Mascarenhas told ucanews.

The November 18 raid on a Missionaries of Charity convent in Dumka town was “the latest in a series of calculated attacks on the nuns,” the bishop said.

The police, working under the state government of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), were “fabricating” the cases, he alleged.

Pope Francis on November 18 received Indian nun Sister Lucy Kurien, who has worked more than 20 years sheltering destitute women, men and children in her country. Pope Francis knows Sister Kurien personally as they had met before in the Vatican because of her work to provide love, care and shelter to battered, exploited women, destitute men and street children.

Sister Kurien’s is the founder director of Maher (maternal home), she set up in 1997 at Pune, the second largest city and the cultural capital of Maharashtra.

The organization was born out of a terrible event which left an indelible mark on the Catholic nun’s life. Some years earlier a pregnant woman came to her seeking shelter from a violent husband.

Sister Kurien promised to find her somewhere to stay the following day, but in the meantime, the woman returned to her abusive husband. That very evening, the man set his wife on fire, killing both the woman and her unborn baby.

Fast forward to 2019 and this community and interfaith organization has grown dramatically and now has a number of short-stay and long-stay homes in the Indian States of Jharkhand, Kerala, and Maharashtra.

Maher’s mission is to “create secure and loving homes for women, men and children and enable women to discover their power within and develop self-reliance.”

“Most of the women and children who come to our door, they come with a lot of pain…so naturally we have to make them feel they are very comfortable with us,” Sister Kurien says.

Some 30,000 Indian Catholics, including three cardinals, joined a Mass and public function to give thanks for the life and work of newly canonized St Mariam Thresia at her tomb in a Kerala village on Nov. 16.

The Kerala-born nun was canonized in the Vatican on Oct. 13 along with British Cardinal Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian nun Dulce Lopes and Italian nun GiuseppinaVannini.

Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, led the Mass of national celebration along with Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, president of the Indian bishops’ conference, and Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, major arch-bishop of the Syro-Malankara Church. More than 30 bishops and about 600 priests and nuns joined the national celebration in Kuzhikkattussery village, which houses the nun’s tomb. The area now comes under Irinjalakuada Diocese of the Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church.

Police have filed a third baby-selling case against Missionaries of Charity nuns in India’s Ranchi city, making church leaders demand an impartial probe into the allegations.

Police in Jharkhand State, ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), filed the case on Nov. 9 based on the complaint of a couple.

The complaint said nuns and a staff member of Nirmal Hriday  care home for unwed mothers, run by Missionaries of Charity in state capital Ranchi, sold off the couple’s baby after the woman gave birth in the home.

It was the third such case against the home, less than two weeks after police began an investigation into a second allegation on Oct. 30.

In the first case, police arrested Sister Concelia Baxla, who ran the home, in July 2018. A childless couple complained that staff member Anima Indwar took money after promising to give them a baby but failed to do so.

The nun remained in jail for more than a year until Sept. 27 when she was given bail. The second complaint came just three weeks after the 62-year-old nun was released.

The second complaint came from a schoolgirl who said she delivered a child in 2013 after being admitted to the home when she was six months pregnant after being raped. The home sold the baby without the consent of her or family, she said.

The latest complaint from the couple said their child was born out of wedlock but they wanted to keep the baby now because they have decided to marry. But they claimed that Indwar said this would not be possible..

The couple’s statement to police said nuns of the home, Indwar and two staff of a government hospital joined together to sell their baby.

Church leaders are upset about the series of complaints against Missionaries of Charity nuns and say they aim to tarnish the image of Christians in the state.

“These complaints coming one after another are a conspiracy to tarnish the Christian community and their services,” Father Anand David Xaxo, public relations officer of the Archdiocese of Ranchi, told ucanews.

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.”