Christmas Celebratory Again In Holy Land Amid Ongoing War; Patriarch Urges Pilgrims To Return
Vatican: Former Choir Director, Manager Convicted Of Embezzlement, Abuse Of Office
Christians in Aleppo feel an uneasy calm amid rebel takeover of Syrian city
Kathmandu synodality forum: Indigenous people, ‘not the periphery but at the heart of the Church’
Indian Cardinal opposes anti-conversion law in poll-bound state
12,000 gather as Goa starts exposition of St. Francis Xavier relics
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples” – Mother Teresa. The starfish story is an endearing account of a child, walking along an empty, desolate beach with his parents, the day after a terrible storm and the beach was littered with thousands of washed up starfish. When the child picked up a stranded and dying starfish and threw it back into the ocean, the father admonished his son saying that there were thousands of similarly stranded starfish on the beach after the previous day’s storm and he couldn’t possibly make any difference to their plight by picking up just a few and returning them back to their natural milieu of the life enriching ocean. The child then picked up the next starfish and throwing it back into the ocean replied: “I made a difference to that one”. This little story comes from the treatise, “The Star Thrower” which is from a 16-page essay by Loren Eiseley, published in 1969 and has been adapted and retold a million times by thousands of motivational speakers and grandmas and grandpas telling bedtime stories to grandchildren over the years without any attribution to Loren Eiseley. Just because an act is small and seemingly insignificant, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worthwhile or has any value in its own right. The problems that the world faces currently may be huge and insurmountable, but if individuals concentrate on realistic outcomes, small acts of kindness and singula
It would be good for the Church as a whole to have a Dalit cardinal. It is a community of people who are perhaps one of the most oppressed and marginalized in the world. They number over 250 million — half of the whole of the European Union — and form the majority of Christians in India. Solidarity of the Church with the excluded, which Pope Francis makes us realize by his words or gestures, will find its crown if he elevates one among the poorest of the poor groups to the dignity of the cardinalate. It will be a great witness to the Gospel and a clear sign that the Church translates into action what it preaches in words about the poor and the suffering. Moreover, the image of the Church as universal, inclusive and compassionate to the last and the least will come out most clearly and distinctly. The elevation of a Dalit to the rank of cardinal will be a positive recognition and affirmation of this community who form the majority of Christians in India. We all witnessed what the elevation of Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo of Ranchi from among the tribal people meant for them, and the sterling leadership he has given not only to the tribal people but to the whole country as president of the national bishops’ conference. Given the opportunity, a leader of that rank from the Dalits will bring in the renewal of the Church in India and open up new paths to the Gospel. At a time when Christian Dalits are fighting against
Fascists use manipulative strategies aimed at whipping up sympathy and support from the majority community, to which they normally ‘belong.’ They do so in a variety of insidious and subtle ways. In the past few months, they have gone overboard in their efforts to denigrate and demonize minorities in India — particularly Muslims and Christians…. The latest conflict to hog national headlines is that of the Gyanvapi mosque-Kashi Vishwanath in the temple city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state. It is a long-drawn dispute and goes as far back as 1991. According to reports, a Shivling (representative image of Hindu god Shiva) was discovered within the disputed Gyanvapi premise’s Wuzukhana — the place where ablutions are performed. Reports claim that the Shivling was discovered after water inside a pond, which is used as a Wuzukhana by Muslims, was pumped out of it. After the Shivling was unearthed during the survey on May 16, a district court ordered the sealing of the disputed structure. In its order, the court stated that the Shivling discovery is substantial evidence and asked the security forces to secure the premises and prevent Muslims from entering. Already, in the past couple of years, Hindutva elements have been disrupting the communal harmony in and around a four-century-old Catholic Church in Goa However, on May 17, India’s Supreme Court issued notice on pleas challenging the district court order. It also issued an interim order that while the area wher
Russian President, Vladimir Putin may have proved himself to be irrational and unreliable with a penchant for autocratic rule while suppressing dissent from within his own country to his policies. Is that much different from other rulers in power around the world in so called democratic nations who manipulate the principles of democracy to bend to their will? The alliance of western countries in their very forceful support for Ukraine, they are dumping deadly arms and armaments in Ukraine without any clear idea of where all these weaponry is going to end up. If the west is gambling that Putin is susceptible to deterrence and that he may not react to them recklessly increasing their belligerence in opposing Russia, this is an inelegant form of diplomacy that compromises peace. The elected western leaders like Biden and Johnson are playing war games on Russia’s doorstep, to excite their electorates, while fighting their own internal leadership battles within their own countries. It is difficult to think of a more dangerous time to do this, when maximum restraint and cool headed deliberations are called for creating the conditions for peace. While there can be no conceivable excuse for what Russia is doing to its neighbour, and the war is at the brink of spilling beyond its borders into Europe and beyond, the burning issue is not finding any which way to damage Russia, but to exercise thought on how to end this damaging war in which there can be no winners. After all the se
The book ‘If Not Now, When? Disquieting Feminist Questions clearly belongs to the last category. Edited by Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, Kochurani Abraham and Prashant Olalekar SJ the anthology raises serious questions, it discomforts, it makes demands. The title says it all: disquieting feminist questions! If taken seriously, it challenges the reader to get out of one’s complacency, comfort zone! It is a must-read and a ‘must-act-upon-now’ book! The book is divided into three sections, all inter-related :1. Voices from the Margins 2. The Personal is Political and 3. Patriarchy, Power and the Catholic Church. Twenty-five essays, interviews and insightful articles fill the almost three-hundred pages tome. The contributors belong to the entire spectrum of society: different voices but one in heart, soul and mind! In fact, all the articles merit independent reviews. The style throughout is racy, without being superficial, raising pertinent questions and simultaneously providing possible answers, the contents are provocative yet dynamically positive. For a discerning reader, it does not make for comfortable reading – it is not meant to do so- it is meant to ‘disquiet’ and it does so with brutal questions enveloped in sensitivity and finesse! Given the way clericalism and patriarchy are steeped in church and country, there will certainly some (or many?) who will not take kindly to the book. This is perhaps on expected lines! It will only go to prove the points made by the a
