Asian

Chinese govt tightens control over religious activities

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Officials in Hebei province in northern China have sent religious organizations a notice that from now on they will have to comply with new stricter regulations. The chairman of one Catholic parish council told ucanews.com he considered the demand a serious violation of people’s rights.

The “Template for a Charter on Legal People in Religious Activity Venues” was released only recently.

The document says it intends to hold venues staging religious activities to the highest standards in accordance with the “General Provisions of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China”, the “Regulations of Religious Affairs” and the “Notice of State Administration of Religious Affairs and Ministry of Civil Affairs on the Issue of Applying for Legal Personnel at Religious Activity Venues.”

It requires all venues to formulate charters detailing their activities and include an extra section giving examples of actual situations.
The template sent to religious groups is highly detailed in its demands.

Asian

Missionaries spread the faith in Bangladesh

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Catholics across Bangladesh are engaging in month-long activities undertaken by the local Church to observe and celebrate Extraordinary Missionary Month.

While observing World Mission Sunday in 2017, Pope Francis set October 2019 as the month to mark the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s apostolic letter Maximum Illud in 1919, a document on the Church’s mission to bring to the world the salvation of Jesus Christ.

The theme for this special month is “Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World.”

The Bangladeshi Church, consisting of two archdioceses and six dioceses with about 350,000 Bengali and ethnic indigenous Catholics, has outlined a series of programs to observe the “missionary nature” of the Church targeting faithful of all ages — children, young, adults and elderly.

The missionary month holds special significance for Bangladesh, where the Church’s advent and growth are credited to the extraordinary contributions of missionaries and martyrs, said Bishop Shorot F. Gomes, auxiliary bishop of Dhaka.

International

Catholics need to recognize ‘ecological sins,’ synod members say

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Synod members called for the Catholic Church to deepen its theology in a way that would help people recognize “ecological sins.” According to a Vatican News summary, an “ecological conversion” was necessary to ensure that Christians understand the “gravity of sin against the environment as a sin against God, against one’s neighbour and against future generations.”

“No to individualism or indifference that makes us look at reality like a spectator, like looking at a screen,” the summary said. “Yes to an ecological conversion centered on responsibility and an integral ecology that places at its center human dignity, which is too often trampled.”

At a Vatican press briefing Oct. 9, Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, said that a number of interventions given by bishops, observers and delegates from other Christian churches dealt with the issue of ecology and the need for a “profound ecological conversion that passes from a technocratic paradigm to a caring paradigm.”

Ruffini reported one member saying that Christianity is “a call to an ecological morality in the knowledge that ecological sins exist, which also can be described as ‘ecocide.’” Through catechesis and particularly in the sacrament of penance, the reality and impact of ecological sins can be explained.

National

Church body condemns Bhagwat’s Bible reference to mob lynching

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The National Council of Churches in India has issued a statement condemning the reference to the Bible by Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, in order to justify the term “mob lynching.” In a statement on October 10, 2019, the NCCI said Bhagwat had misquoted the Bible. The NCCI stated: “We are shocked that such statements which have the potential to divide communities on religious lines are made in public fora.” The NCCI statement said this misrepresentation had “created suspicion among the people” and “humiliated the Christian minority”. It added, “We appeal all people not to be carried away by such misrepresentation or misinterpretation which are often done with political intentions.” At the annual Dussehra celebration at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, Bhagwat had said that the concept of lynching was “alien to Bharat” and was being used to defame the “country and the entire Hindu society.”

Asian

Myanmar prelate decries religious leaders’ silence over killings

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Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon says he is dismayed over the silence of religious leaders as civilians were killed and displaced as a result of ongoing fighting in conflicttorn Myanmar.

He said Oct. 1 that there were 500,000 Buddhist monks, 70,000 nuns, nearly 1,200 Christian pastors, more than 2,000 Catholic nuns and countless other religious leaders in the country.

“Some silence can be criminal. The war pursued is unjust and unholy,” Cardinal Bo said, adding that people’s prayers and rituals were being nullified by the blood and tears of innocent people. “Myanmar people are peace-loving and follow the guidelines of their religious leaders,” he said. “There is a huge potential for peace through religious leaders. Kindly raise your voice and speak out against this mutilating war. Innocent suffering will never go away. Their blood and tears will cry out from the grave.”

International

Nigerian Bishops decry attacks on Pope Francis

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At the end of their recent meeting, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria have said that attacks aimed at Pope Francis are ill-advised and describe them as “the proverbial ill wind that blows no one any good, bearing in mind that there are other more legitimate avenues of expressing opinions to the Holy Father.

The Second Plenary Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) was held at the Divine Mercy Pastoral Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State from 11 September to 20 September 2019.

In their Communique issued at the end of the plenary, the Bishops particularly criticise those within the Church who are attacking Pope Francis.

“The Holy Father Pope Francis has come under attacks in recent times. Of more serious concern are the attacks coming from some higher levels of the church in some parts of the world. As members of the Episcopal College, of which the Holy Father is the Head, we regard these attacks as the proverbial ill wind that blows no one any good, bearing in mind that there are other more legitimate and traditionally tested avenues of expressing our opinions to the Holy Father,” the Bishops said.

Asian

Nepal pastor goes hiding amid social media backlash

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Hindu extremist threats have driven a pastor in Nepal into hiding following a leak onto social media of a restricted audience-interview he gave on his journey to Christ, sources said.

Pastor Sukdev Giri of Trinity Fellowship Church in Chitwan District has received death threats, he said. He has changed his phone number, but his family and friends are also receiving threatening calls, he told Morning Star News.

In a sign of how the Himalayan country has become increasingly radicalized, Pastor Giri, 59, has been unable to return home from ministry travels since a video of his comments hit YouTube in mid-August.

“It is the first time a Christian [in Nepal] has been targeted for sharing [on social and other media] about his past religion and introduction into Christianity,” legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom’s allied attorney in Nepal, Ganesh Sreshta, told Morning Star News. “It is turning out to be a high-profile issue, with Hindu fundamentalist groups linked to prominent political leaders taking interest in this video.”

The video shot in March at the International Christian Media Workers Summit in Kathmandu, where Pastor Giri was one of the speakers on a panel, was available only to Christian audiences until a Nepalese Christian woman abroad posted it on YouTube.

During the panel presentation on advice for Christian media workers, Nepalese radio journalist Sunil Raj Lama asked Pastor Giri to talk more about belief systems in Nepal.

“It is not something I would discuss with anybody just anywhere, but his question was very genuine,” Pastor Giri told Morning Star News. “Although I had cautioned Lama to edit the video and not to circulate it outside the Christian circle, the [Christian] persons who were the first to watch it on a private channel insisted that, ‘It is a hard truth – people need to hear it.”’

The unidentified Nepalese woman abroad who had access to the private channel posted the video on YouTube on Aug. 11, and the flood of hostile comments began.

International

Being elected pope doesn’t wash away one’s sins, pope says

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While his responsibilities are greater and his prayer list longer, Pope Francis said he’s basically the same person he was before and he was elected in 2013, so he still goes to confession every two weeks. “The mere fact that I now dress all in white has not made me any less sinful or holier than before,” he told Jesuits in Mozambique on September 5th, according to a transcript of the meeting published on September 26th by La Civilta Cattolica.

Often on trips abroad, Pope Francis spends time with local Jesuit communities and holds a question-and-answer session with them. Weeks later, a transcript of the exchange is published by La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit journal in Rome.

In Mozambique, a Jesuit had asked the Pope how his experience of God has changed since he was elected Pope.

“I guess my experience of God hasn’t fundamentally changed,” he responded. “I speak to the Lord as before. I feel God gives me the grace I need for the present time. But the Lord gave it to me before. And I commit the same sins as before.”

“I am and I remain a sinner,” he told his fellow Jesuits. “That’s why I confess every two weeks.”

National

Justice mission claimed 56 Jesuits in 50 years

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As many as 56 Jesuits have lost their lives since their congregation made a commitment to promote a “faith that does justice” and foster reconciliation in society 50 years ago, says an official of the Society of Jesus.

“If we want to stand for justice, we have to pay the price. We have sacrificed many Jesuits and their collaborators as our forefathers worked hard to bring justice and reconciliation in the world,” said Father Xavier Jeyaraj, director of Jesuits’ Rome-based Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat.

Father Jeyaraj, a member of the Calcutta Jesuit province, was addressing around 220 conferrers and their associates in South Asia who have gathered in Delhi to celebrate the golden jubilee of their congregation’s commitment to justice.

“If we want to commit for future, be ready to pay the price,” he told the opening session of the September 26-27 program at Navjeevan Renewal Centre in Old Delhi.

Father Jeyaraj, who went to Rome in 2017 after four years of service as the secretary of Jesuits in Social Action in South Asia, said similar celebrations have taken place in various continents and all of them were occasions to review their ways, re-strengthen themselves to recommit to justice.

The bald and mustachioed diminutive Jesuit, who took up social justice seriously after a shock experience of witnessing the demolition of shanties in Mumbai in 1985, pointed out that the golden jubilee celebration takes place at a time when several crises that grip the world hinder the mission of justice and reconciliation.

“There is a crisis of democracy and leadership, a crisis rising from the growth of religious fundamentalism that destroys unity and harmony and a crisis of environment,” he explained.

He said many people in India cutting across religious and ideologies have paid the price for standing for truth and justice.

From The States

Belagavi: Church-cum-mutt a rare example of religious harmony

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On Sunday mornings, when they are not working in the fields that surround Deshnur, around 200 of the village’s 12,000 people go to Snanika Arulappanavara Virakta Mutt, a shrine where they attend mass that a Catholic priest holds in Kannada.

Yet, not a single inhabitant of the village is Christian. Within the imposing building of large stone blocks, also known as the Church of St John the Baptist, is a tabernacle in the form of a Shiva linga – a reminder that it once was a Lingayat mutt.

The Jesuit priest who conducts mass and runs the church, Menino Gonsalves, introduces himself as Sri Menino Swamy. He wears saffron robes and a rudraksha mala as his congregation worships Jesus and Mary in Lingayat style, burning camphor and agarbatties and with vibhuti smeared on their foreheads.

Since its establishment as a church in 1947, five Christian priests have served in the shrine, said Sri Menino. “We all adopted Hindu names,” he said. “Our founding father, Armado Alvares, called him-self Sri Animananda Swamy. Father Sebastien became Swami Arulananda.”

All the Jesuit priests who have served at the church became vegetarians and wore rudrakshamalas, he said. Sri Menino sees no incongruity in the mingling of Hindu and Christian elements in the mutt. It is an experiment in social integration, Sri Menino said. Prelates of the Catholic Church described the shrine as an example of assimilation of local culture.

Sri Menino, who has been in charge of the church for 11 years, dismissed as an “unnecessary controversy” the uproar on social media about alleged conversions at the shrine, triggered by photographs of Belgaum Bishop Derek Fernandes wearing saffron robes and with a tilak on his forehead during a recent visit to the village.

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