Emeritus Archbishop Jacob Thoomkuzhy of Trichur, former vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, founder of the Society of Khristudasis (Handmaids of Christ) congregation and founder chairman of Jeevan TV, has died. The death occurred at 2:50 pm on September 17 at Trichur. He would have turned 95 on December 13 this year.

The Major Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly paid tribute to the late Archbishop Mar Jacob Thoomkuzhy, remembering him as a great pastor who, through his distinctive leadership, imparted the simplicity of Christ and a new sense of direction to the Church and society, aligning with the needs of the times.

Throughout his priestly life spanning over half a century and his pastoral service across three dioceses, Archbishop Thoomkuzhy was dedicated to spreading the Gospel and clearly manifesting the witness of Christ to many. By harmonizing his profound life experiences with a loving lifestyle, he made the Church’s services more meaningful and welcoming. Mar Thoomkuzhy’s ministry was set apart by his vision that the Church’s mission should be grounded in real-life experiences, human-centred, and open to timely renewal, says a press release published by the Major Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

His leadership style in the dioceses of Mananthavady and Thamarassery, and Thrissur Archdiocese not only inspired the Church but also contributed to the moral and social development of the community. Mar Thoomkuzhy’s influence extended beyond the dioceses where he served; he made interventions that gave the entire Kerala Church a new sense of direction. Always close to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly in both his methods and thoughts, Archbishop Thoomkuzhy courageously embraced the prophetic role of taking a firm stand, consistently serving as a good shepherd to God’s people. His passing is an immense loss to the Church, particularly to the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese. The unique qualities he demonstrated in his life of service will serve as an inspiration for the present and future of the Church.

The violence and harassment against Christians persist unabated in India, with at least two cases of harassment and police arrests over the weekend. A Catholic nun and a group of girls were detained in Jharkhand on suspicion of conversion on Sept. 19, while police in Uttar Pradesh arrested 14 Christians for allegedly violating the state’s strict anti-conversion law and the national criminal code.

In the Jharkhand incident, a Catholic nun, two staff members of a non-government organization, and 19 girls were detained at a railway station in Jamshedpur, eastern India. Church sources say police action followed allegations made by some right-wing Hindu groups, as the girls were traveling to attend a training program, and the nuns came to the railway station to welcome them.

Father Birendra Tete, director of Catholic Charities in the Jamshedpur diocese, told that the girls, aged 13-19, arrived for a focused event on adolescent health and skill development scheduled for Sept. 20-21. The police checked the girls’ documents, including consent papers from their parents and national identity cards, but seven of them did not have these papers, and some Hindu activists began to make noise. Diocesan chancellor Father Sushil Dungdung stated that Hindu hardliners, who are working to turn India into a Hindu theocratic country, often make false accusations to harass Christians and portray them negatively. About 1.4 million of Jharkhand’s estimated 33 million people are Christians, mostly tribal communities.

The Commission for Migrants of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) will be hosting the National Jubilee for Migrants celebration at Our Lady of Good Health Basilica, Velankanni, from November 6 to 8, 2025. The event, themed “Migrants, Missionaries of Hope in the Heart of Mary”, aims to honour and celebrate the resilience, faith, and contributions of migrants across India. Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will inaugurate the celebration. The CCBI Commission for Migrants, the Scalabrini Congregation, and Caritas India are jointly organising the Jubilee celebration. Over 300 migrants, as well as members of the Commission and several religious congregations, have already confirmed their participation, highlighting the scale and significance of the event. In a press statement, Fr. Jaison Vadassery, Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Migrants, emphasised that the celebration will be a moment of grace, renewal, and communion. He encouraged participants from all across the country to gather in faith and hope at the feet of the Blessed Mother to celebrate the missionary spirit of migrants in the life of the Church.

The Supreme Court stayed the Madras High Court’s decision that marriage under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, constitutes automatic conversion to Christianity and leads to loss of Scheduled Caste (SC) status. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Prashant Kumar Mishra issued the stay order notice in response to a petition filed by Theroor Town Panchayat Chairman V. Amudharani, challenging the High Court ruling.

The controversy arose after the Madras High Court, in a verdict delivered by Justice L. Victoria Gowri, held that Amudharani, who married a Christian man in 2005 at St. Antony’s Church in Kulasekaramputhoor, ceased to retain her SC status under constitutional provisions. The High Court noted that voluntary submission to Christian marriage rites, including publication of banns, automatically changes a person’s socio-legal identity, irrespective of whether he or she has received formal baptism or not. This led the court to conclude that Amudharani now fell under the Backward Classes category and was ineligible to continue serving in the SC-reserved post of chairman of the panchayat.

The legal dispute began when petitioner V. Iyyappan challenged Amudharani’s eligibility for the post, arguing that her original status as a member of the Hindu Pallan community (SC) was nullified by her Christian marriage. The High Court emphasised that the Indian Christian Marriage Act does not allow civil interfaith marriages, and marrying under the Act effectively identifies both spouses as Christians for legal purposes. Citing the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and relevant precedents, the court directed concerned authorities to disqualify Amudharani from the post of chairman of the Theroor town panchayat and take necessary action against her under Section 50(1)(ddd) of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920. The Supreme Court’s intervention now puts the High Court ruling on hold, pending further hearings on the matter. The next hearing date is expected to be scheduled after the responses to the apex court’s notice are filed.

Jesuits in the four provinces of India’s western region are leading a quiet revolution by aiming to become energy self-sufficient using only sunlight, setting an example for others to follow for sustainable, clean energy to protect the environment. About 60 institutions “have achieved zero electricity bills for quite some time and demonstrated that it is a viable project to save the only home we have — the fragile Earth,” says Father Frazer Mascarenhas, coordinator of the Ecology Platform of Jesuit West Zone Provinces in India. One of them is Vinayalaya, a Jesuit-run training centre, in western Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The centre has completely switched to solar power to generate renewable energy. The project aims to install solar panels in all 110 Jesuit residences, schools, and institutions in the four Jesuit provinces of the Western Zone — Bombay (Mumbai), Goa, Gujarat, and Pune — that together have 1,340 Jesuit priests and brothers.

Sister Innocent Joseph Ayyankanal, a member of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate, has spent over 40 years promoting Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) and other forms of traditional medicine among rural and tribal communities in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu and the Wayanad district of neighbouring Kerala. Ayyankanal has conducted more than 2,000 awareness classes across India in association with the Catholic Health Association of India to promote Ayurveda in rural India. She also trained nuns, priests and other health care workers, who now promote these remedies in their areas. Born into a family of vaidyas (traditional healers), she has combined her knowledge of herbal medicine with her vocation as a nun. Ayyankanal continues her mission even at 78, helping people in need and collaborating with organizations such as Shalom TV to promote traditional medicine. She now resides at the Maryknoll Convent in Kunnalady in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, where she began her health care journey among tribal people in 1975.

Groups working to end human trafficking in northeastern India have forged a network among Churches in the region to tackle the social menace. “When the Church stands together in faith and action, we can transform migration from a story of vulnerability into a journey of hope,” asserted Rohit Bhalla, national convener of the People Uniting to Stop Human Trafficking (PUSH) at a national conclave held at Guwahati, Assam. Northeastern India, he pointed out, is rich in faith and culture, but remains vulnerable as a source region for unsafe migration and trafficking.

Besides PUSH, the August 26-27 event at Don Bosco Inspiration, Kharguli, was attended by a network of civil society organizations, Churches, and anti-trafficking crusaders. As many as 65 delegates from 12 Churches and Christian organizations attended the program. They spent the two days in prayer, worship, and strategic dialogue to promote sustainable solutions.

The Commission for Migrants under the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Don Bosco network highlighted the Church’s shared mission to safeguard migrants and uphold the dignity of work.

While Bhalla emphasized faith communities’ role in combating trafficking, Aashima Samuel shared legal and social protection frameworks; K.A. Jayakumar highlighted development and policy perspectives; Salesian Fathers Joe Prabhu and George Mathew explored skill-building and livelihood opportunities; and Jayakumar, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer, provided governance insights. The conclave underscored the power of ecumenical collaboration in protecting vulnerable communities, strengthening livelihoods, and advancing God’s Kingdom through justice and solidarity.

Seven Christians were jailed in a northern Indian state after Hindu vigilante groups disrupted Sunday prayer services in six places, alleging they were converting gullible people to Christianity. “This has become a pattern now to trap Christians in false conversion cases,” said Pastor Joy Mathew, who is based in Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s largest state ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The state’s police have registered more than 400 anti-conversion cases against Christians after a draconian law criminalizing conversion was enacted in 2021.

The law stipulates up to 20 years imprisonment for violators. The seven arrests were made on Aug. 24 from three places, said a Church leader who did not want to be named due to fear of retribution. He said six Sunday prayer services were disrupted on that day across four districts – Mau, Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Budaun. Among those arrested were Lalmuni Chauhan and Ashish Chauhan in Mau, two others from Jaunpur and three from Budaun, whose names were yet to be ascertained, the Church leader said. All seven, accused of organizing religious conversion activity, were produced before local courts and sent to judicial custody, he added. About 80 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s more than 200 million people are Hindus, while Christians make up less than half a percent. The state recorded 97 violent incidents against Christians until the end of July this year, and 209 incidents last year, according to the ecumenical body United Christian Forum.

Sister Lismy Parayil, “the camera nun of India,” has won the James Alberione Award for her outstanding contributions to media production. The Indian Catholic Press Association, the oldest Catholic media forum in Asia, announced on August 19 that it has selected the Carmelite of Mary Immaculate nun for the annual award, set up in memory of the founder of the Pauline Family.

She has a prolific collection that includes over 25 short films, 250 video albums, 150 documentaries, and 100 plus interviews, Sr Lismy has made a remarkable impact in the field of media ministry. The ICPA statement says the works of Sister Lismy, as she is popularly known, are “deeply rooted in social issues, aiming to inspire moral living and foster a sense of responsibility among viewers. This recognition celebrates her exceptional contribution to raising awareness of social morality through impactful and thought-provoking cinematic storytelling.” The award will be conferred on the 40-year-old nun on September 20, during the 30th National Convention of Christian Journalists, organized by the ICPA, at Pune, western India. Earlier, Sister Lismy was featured in the “India Book of Records” — the highest recognition in visual media in the country. She was the first Catholic nun to get the honour. A panel of chief editors of record books from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam, selected her. Her digital platforms, including Nirmala Media TSR, the Camera Nun YouTube Channel, and related social media pages, have collectively garnered over 8.3 million views worldwide, delivering uplifting and inspirational content to audiences across all age groups.

St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture scheduled for August 9, following protests from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization affiliated with the RSS. The lecture, titled “Migration for Livelihood: Hope amidst Miseries,” was to be delivered virtually by Father Prem Xalxo and organized by the college’s department of Inter-Religious Studies. It aimed to honour the legacy of the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist who died in judicial custody in July 2021.

In a letter to the college principal, ABVP Mumbai secretary Prashant Mali objected to the event, alleging that Father Swamy was a prime accused in the Bhima Koregaon case and had links to the banned CPI (Maoist). He was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terror law, and remained incarcerated despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other age-related ailments. He died at Holy Family Hospital after a cardiac arrest.

Father Stan Swamy belonged to the Jamshedpur Jesuit Province and had spent decades working alongside Adivasi communities in Jharkhand, advocating for their rights to land, forest, and livelihood. His death sparked nationwide calls for prison reform and drew attention to the treatment of elderly under-trial prisoners. This is not the first time events commemorating Father Swamy have faced opposition. In Mangaluru, another Jesuit run institution, withdrew plans to name a park after him following similar protests on October 7, 2021. The park was to be called the Father Stan Swamy Peace Park, located at the St Aloysius Institute of Management and IT in Kotekar, on the outskirts of Mangaluru.