An archbishop in southern India has sought financial support from his people after the government canceled its license to receive foreign funds following Catholic fishermen’s protest against a seaport that threatened their livelihood. Archbishop Thomas J Netto of Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram), based in the capital of southern Kerala, sought his lay Catholics’ contribution in a pastoral letter on April 21.
“The archdiocese fell into ‘serious financial crisis’” after the pro-Hindu federal government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “canceled its permit to accept foreign donations,” Netto said. The archdiocese’s license was canceled in February 2023 after Netto and senior priests joined a 140-day protest by the local people, most of them Catholics, who opposed the project, saying it would cause large-scale coastal erosion and threaten their shelters and livelihoods. The protest was called off on Dec. 6, 2022, after the government promised compensation. The multi-million dollar project, constructed under the public-private partnership model, was scheduled to be commissioned in 2019 but was delayed due to issues related to land acquisition. The government “froze our bank accounts last year after the agitation in Vizhinjam. The situation continues even now,” the archbishop said. Netto said in the pastoral letter that the archdiocese needs around 20 million rupees (some US$240,000) each year to train priests and care for retired clergy. However, the archdiocese’s coffers are empty.
“We are unable to manage the daily expenses. Therefore, the archbishop sought help,” said vicar-general Father Eugine H Pereira. Pereira told on April 23 that the Church’s outreach programs for economically weak families have suffered greatly.
The archdiocese had two license numbers to receive foreign funds — one for the archdiocese and one for its social service wing — and they were active until March 2022. In February 2023, the licenses were revoked, citing diocesan officials’ involvement in the protest. The port, called “India’s gateway to international transshipment” due to its proximity to international shipping routes, became partially operational in October 2023 with the arrival of a Chinese ship carrying massive cranes. The government promised to meet most of the protesters’ demands. It agreed to pay a monthly rent of 5,500 Indian rupees to families of fishermen who had lost their homes due to the port construction and expedite the ongoing rehabilitation work. “The government is yet to fulfill the promises,” noted Father Pereira.

Members of six women congregations have come together to empower “youth at risk” in Bengaluru, a southern Indian city with more than 3 million youth. “This is the perfect example of synodality in action as envisaged by Pope Francis,” said Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini, leader of the Conference of Religious India, representing the country’s more than 130,000 Catholic women and men. The “Sisters Led Youth Initiatives” project is jointly implemented by the members of the Apostolic Carmel, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, and the Sisters of St Joseph of Tarbes. “Our aim is to make youth dream high, think better and act great,” said Sister Jane Wakahiu, head of the Catholic Sisters Initiative, which supports nearly 1,200 young people under the program. The Kenyan nun was speaking at the March 19 graduation ceremony for the first batch, mostly women who were trained in vocational skills by the six congregations. “Women religious in India have played significant roles in empowering youth at risk, especially the vulnerable women in society,” observed Wakahiu, a member of the institute of the Little Sisters of St. Francis. Sabrina Wong, a project officer who oversees the project in India, finds the program’s uniqueness in the “beauty of various religious congregations working together to empower the youth.” Nirmalini, who is also the superior general of her congregation, told GSR that the women congregations in India will experiment more with such collaborative projects as part of its strategic plan. On the occasion, the Conference of Religious Women India released its strategic plans for the next five years.
The 2024-29 plan stresses projects and programs to empower youth, women and underprivileged populations in India, to be implemented as a partnership project of nuns from different congregations. Nirmalini, who chaired the graduation ceremony, said the program reinforces the feeling that “we are not alone” and “we are for everyone.” She applauded the congregations for coming forward to empower the weaker sections.

Paramilitary personnel have been deployed at a Catholic school in the southern Indian state of Telangana after right wing Hindu activists vandalized it and assaulted a priest. The attackers on April 16 accused the school management of hurting religious sentiments by questioning a few students who had attended class with religious dress instead of the uniform. A mob wearing saffron colored shirts and shawls entered the premises of the St. Mother Teresa English Medium School in Kannepally, a village in Mancherial district, some 275 km northeast of Hyderabad, the state capital. The mob shouting “Jai Shree Ram” threw stones at the statue of St Mother Teresa installed at the school’s main gate and destroyed the security office. They then marched inside the school campus, destroying the gate and entered the school’s first and second floors and broke window glasses, flower pots and the office room. They assaulted Father Jaimon Joseph, the school manager who, however, was saved by other school officials.”They slapped my face and punched my stomach. Someone even hit me from behind,” Father Joseph, a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, told on April 17.
The priest denied “as totally baseless” the allegation that the school had not allowed students to wear their religious dress. The school is managed by the congregation’s Zion province, based at Kozhikode, Kerala, another southern Indian state. It comes under the Adilabad Syro-Malabar diocese and the bishop’s residence is around 160 km northwest of the school. Father Joseph narrated. Meanwhile, the state district administration has beefed up security around the schools deploying 18 Central Reserve Police Force personnel. The priests also lodged a complaint with the police. Father Joseph said they have learned that the police have registered a case against the principal and others for allegedly hurting religious sentiments among other charges. “But we are not officially informed of it,” he added. Christians make up close to 2 percent of Telangana’s 35 million population.

Card. Filipe Neri Ferrão, archbishop of Goa-Dama, has urged his people to refrain from undertaking a pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Velankanni in Tamil Nadu a day before the general elections in Goa. “It is universally recognized, espe-cially in a democracy, that the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual, guided by a properly formed conscience,” the cardi-nal said in the circular addressed to the clergy, religious and faithful in Goa. The cardinal’s April 15 message comes against the backdrop of several people expressing concern on social media that many Catholics may end up missing out on the opportunity to vote due to the election schedule. Goa, which elects two Lok Sabha members, is scheduled to vote on May 7. In his circular, the prelate reminds Catholics and “people of good will” to fulfill their ci-vic responsibility by exercising their vote.” In this connection, I see it as my bounden duty, as the head of the Church in Goa, to call the attention of our Church members to the fact that, in the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in poli-tical life is a moral obligation’,” he said quoting “The Joy of the Gospel”, apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis in November 2023.
This obligation, the cardinal said, is rooted in “our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do.” “In this context, I appeal to every eligible voter to participate in the democratic process by casting the vote, not only as a right, but chiefly as a duty towards the nation. He also reminded the faithful “about their duty to pray for our country which we do on every Sunday at Mass.” He has requested parish priests, chaplains and superiors of religious houses in Goa to organize special prayer services on May 3, the first Friday of the month, or on May 5, for the success of the elections.

The Catholics of Warangal diocese, in the southern state of Telangana, on April 21 received a pastoral letter from Bishop Bala Udumala during the Sunday liturgy. The bishop, who is also the chairman of the Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council’s Commission on Theology and Doctrine, called for an urgent conversation among the laity, religious and clergy across the Telugu states on the need to involve themselves in participatory processes to strengthen democracy and on the need to vote in the elections. Telangana goes to polls on May 13.
The four-page pastoral letter discusses various challenges facing the nation. The letter also urges the Church’s associates and friends and well-wishers, be they teachers in our institutions or the parents of the students or the others, to become responsible citizens. A trained moral theologian, Bishop Udumala infuses ethical principles such as dignity and rights, justice and solidarity into the pastoral. He reminds how millions across the country are left behind and how they continue to be exploited and discriminated against in one way or the other.
He exhorts fellow Christians to enter into civic space, as executives and legislators, as judges and public servants, and shape it for the better. On the general elections now underway in the country, Bishop Udumala states that each person is indispensable and each vote counts. Will the person standing for the elections uphold the Constitution of India and abide by the values enshrined in the Preamble. “We need to ask ourselves as we choose whom to vote,” he alerts. Referring to the Chri-stians in Manipur, the bishop states that being in solidarity with their suffering and seeking justice for them is fundamental to Christian vocation.
The Church endorses and accompanies Dalits and Adivasis and others who relentlessly seek justice, making the cause its own, the letter says.