Missionary bishops and other missionaries from the Syro-Malabar Church working in Northeast India have decided to pray for Peace and Unity in their Mother Church and urge especially other missionaries of the same background to do the same.

They have also decided to make an earnest appeal to every section of the Syro-Malabar Church, Hierarchy, clergy, religious and faithful to forget all differences, whatever they be, and sincerely work for peace and Unity among the children of St Thomas.

They said they were proud of the heritage of the Great Apostle of India, their common Father, and of the immense contribution the sons and daughters of this Church had made to the growth of God’s Kingdom, especially in recent years. They said, they also rejoiced at the recent recognition that their Church had received at the World level.

However, they said, they were greatly pained at the recent incidents that have threatened the Unity of the Church which they love so much, and whose missio-nary zeal they would like to see growing daily.

“Human needs are growing and Christian anxieties are multiplying over the face of the earth,” Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati said.

“This is not the time to allow little differences to divide us and make our work ineffective.” He foresees common enemies taking advantage of their lack of Unity. The decision to make this humble appeal was made in Guwahati in a gathering of bishops, priests, and religious at the service of Ecumenism in Northeast India after they had reflected on July 12, under the guidance of Fr Gilbert Aranha, the CBCI Secretary of the Office for Ecumenism, on the causes of historical divisions in the Church.

They were very emphatic that they did not want to be judge-mental with regard to anything about which there are differences of opinion.

Christians in India’s Jharkhand State have claimed that a government plan to probe church land holdings amounts to persecution.

The state government is controlled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also rules nationally and has been accused of having an anti-Christian agenda.

“This is surely a vindictive action,” Kuldeep Tirkey, leader of the ecumenical Christian Youth Association, told ucanews. com. “It is the latest in a series of such probes and actions taken deliberately to target minority Christians.”

Tirkey said that since early July state chief Minister Raghubar Das has been talking publicly about the need for a probe to determine whether or not church groups legally own all the land they are occupying.

At issue is the implications of two state laws called the Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act of 1949 that prohibit outsiders buying traditional tribal land.

Most of the state’s 1.5 million Christians are tribal people and many Christian institutions and parish churches stand on land said to have been donated by them.

If an investigation showed that some church-occupied lands were actually sold by tribal people to non-tribal missionaries, the state could initiate legally proceeding, church sources said.

Father Anand David Xalxo, spokesman for the archdiocese covering state capital Ranchi, said the Church had not received any official communications from the government about the investigation. “We have been hearing about such a probe from media,” the priest said.

If and when there is an official notification of the government’s intentions, church officials would respond, he added.

Christian leaders see the threat as part of what they regard as a vendetta.

Indian Catholic priest  Fr Dominic Valanmanal, who preached that an increased incidence of autism and hyperactivity in children is due to their parents’ lifestyle has apologised for his remarks.

“I have a deep affection towards autistic children. I tell their parents that I am part of their family. I am deeply saddened to hear that my words have hurt them. They are the children of  the good God and I continue to pray for them,” Fr Valanmanal says in the video.

In a previous video the priest had stirred controversy by saying that autistic children behave like animals. He also said that young men and  women who are addicted to alcohol, cigarette, beedi, narcotics, paan, adultery, masturbation, homosexuality and porn  are likely to bear these type of children when they get married  because the anointing (sanctity) is lost.

Following this Ireland and Canada cancelled their invite for Fr Valanmanal to conduct retreats in their dioceses. They stated that the priest’s statements did not reflect the pastoral care and concern that the Church has towards children and adults living with autism and their families.

Indian Christians are among the last in terms of human develo-pment in Indian society. The rate of unemployment among Christian men in rural as well as urban areas is higher than those from other religions across the country, Fides News Agency reported July 2, 2019.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi presented the data in the Lok Sabha in reply to a question posed by Trinamool Congress member Prasun Banerjee. Banerjee asked the government whether it has any updated data on the unemployment rate prevailing minority communities.

Naqvi cited the data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18. The PLFS was launched by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in 2017 as a nationwide Labour Force Survey. According to the report, the unemployment rate among Christian men is at 6.9% in rural areas and 8.8% in urban areas, higher than men of other religious communities. Among women, Sikh females accounted for the highest number of unemployed in urban areas and Muslim women in rural areas. The minister said that in rural areas the rate of unemployment among Hindu men was 5.7%, among Muslim men 6.7% and among Sikh men, it was 6.4%. On the other hand, in urban areas, 6.9% of Hindu men remained unemployed, 7.5% was the rate among Muslim men and 7.2% among Sikh men.

A group of more than 50 people from all walks of life from the Greater Boston area assembled in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, to protest against the unabated pace of mob lynching and the growing threat to human rights of citizens in India, especially those of Muslims, Dalits, and other minorities.

The protestors demanded justice for the victims and their families, as well as urged for immediate public action to bring an end to hate crimes against minorities. The attendees of the event included individuals of Indian, South Asian, and American origin as well as representatives from various organizations.

Concerned citizens also protested in Chicago to demand immediate action against the perpetrators of lynchings as well as the politicians encouraging them. They said, “We, the concerned citizens of India and of Indian Origin living in US condemn such lackadaisical attitude of the government towards mobocracy and therefore, encouraging Law of Jungle and demand that the country be saved from falling into a dark era where mobocracy takes over.”

People of all ages and faith held posters and banners that expressed, outrage, grief and a demand for justice. One poster read “Punish criminal political patronage to lynching,” while other one had a the names – “Akhlaq, Pehulu, Afrazul, Junaid… Tabrez. Stop before it is you.”

“It is a matter of grave concern for all people to raise their voices against this attack on Right To Be of a section of people and individuals. It is an attack on all people and is a form of state terrorism carried out by the ruling elite to attack, divert and divide people, who are struggling hard to find solutions to basic problems such as food, water, shelter, safety and security which are caused by the rule and plunder of a handful few. We must not let this pass” said Jaspal Singh who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Expressing concern over religious discrimination, Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen on July 5 said one cannot negate the political link behind it.

“As per the position of the people of various religions in the Indian Constitution, there should not be any discrimination,” Sen said during an educational event here. The octogenarian felt that the current perception is highly driven by caste discrimination and differentiation on religious grounds.

According to him, if the society reaches a position where a person is being forced to utter something and being beaten up for not abiding, everyone needs to think over the urgent needs of the hour and change the perceptions accordingly.

“We cannot say that these incidents are not politically motivated,” Sen said.

Last month a man in West Bengal’s Coochbehar district was beaten up for not uttering ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ The incident of Tufanganj surfaced after a video clip was circulated on social media.

In the video, a man was being made to do sit-ups holding his ears and forced to say ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ The man followed help-lessly.

Also, several cases of scuffle between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party workers over chanting of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ have been reported in the state.

Sen said the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan has no historic connect with the Bengali culture, unlike ‘Ma Durga’ who has a big presence in Bengali psyche.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on June 26 pitched for the “defence of religious freedom for all,” days after a report published by his ministry made critical remarks over the status of minorities in India.

At the same time, he hailed the rule of law prevailing in India, like in the US, and said both the countries believe in it.

“India is the birth place of four major religions of the world. Let us stand up together for defence of religious freedom for all. Let’s speak out strongly together in favour of those rights, for whenever we do compromise those rights, the world is worse off,” he said while delivering a speech here.

A few days back, the US State Department, in its annual 2018 ‘International Religious Freedom Report,’ said: “Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef.” India rejected the observations, saying the “foreign entity/government” had “no locus standi to pronounce on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.”

In his speech, Pompeo said both India and the US “protect inalienable rights” of their people. Also referring to the Lok Sabha elections, he hailed the democratic exercise, saying “imagine if every country had the voice which Indian people recently expressed.”

He said India and the US “should see the world as it is and see each other what we are — great democracies, global powers and good friends.”

Cardinal Oswald Gracias and two auxiliary bishops of Bombay archdiocese are facing charges of inaction over a child abuse case complaint against a priest. The cardinal and Bishops Dominic Savio Fernandes and John Rodrigues recently app-roached the Bombay High Court to get the case withdrawn.

The bench of justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre, who heard the plea on June 17, has posted the matter for hearing at a later date. According to the police, a minor boy was sodomized on November 27, 2015, by Father Lawrence Johnson, who was then his parish priest. Three days later, the boy’s parents filed a complaint at Shivaji Nagar police station that the priest had abused their child.

Cardinal Gracias told the high court that he did not inform the police about the alleged abuse because the boy’s parents had already informed them, who then registered a complaint.

The mob lynching of a Muslim man in India’s Jharkhand State shows religious hate is spreading to the peace-loving people in the tribal heartland, church leaders and tribal activists say. The death of 24-year-old Tabrej Ansari was the third incident in the state in two years and the latest in a series of such incidents at the hands of Hindu groups who want to make India a Hindu-only nation.

Ansari was tied to a tree and beaten by a mob on June 18 after being accused of attempting to steal a motorbike. He was handed over to police but fell sick and died in hospital on June 22, police told media.

However, rights activist Afzal Anis, coordinator of Aman Biradri, which works for communal harmony, claimed that Ansari died of his injuries in police custody. “It is very unfortunate that for the past one or two years we have been hearing of mob lynching in our state where for centuries people have been living with harmony and brotherhood,” said Father Anand David Xalxo, based in State capital Ranchi.

Father Xalxo, public relations officer of Ranchi Archdiocese, said the state has been witnessing such incidents “for some time now as religion-based hate spreads” and “predators have no respect for the law.”

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Catholic Church in India, was the chief guest of the Eid Milap Function organized by Jamiat-ul-Ulema in New Delhi Eid Milan.

The religious festival after Ramadan was celebrated at the National Level on June 10. It was organized by Jamat Ulamai Hind, one of the biggest Muslim congregations in India.

Given below is the text of Cardinal Gracias’ address at the event:

At this moment, as we celebrate Eid Milan, we feel a strong bond of affection and unity among us all. God has brought us all together this evening, to celebrate this function. You have just completed your month of fasting Ramadan, this fasting has helped you to spend time, re-connecting with God in prayer, strengthening your feelings of love for the needy with the practice of Zakaat, also bonded every family together.

Ramzan the month of fasting, has not been a month of pain, but a period of joy because you experience the Peace of God in your homes and in your persons. Your Ramadan fast, reminds me of our own Christian fast at the time of LENT. Lent is similar in many ways to Ramazan, Lent is a time, to set aside Time for God, to re-connect and bond with the sufferings of Jesus Christ who was crucified on the CROSS, to make reparation for our sins.