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
As India is witnessing an upsurge of sexual abuses, we tend to think that we need to protect girls. Continuous advice is given to parents: “Protect your daughters.” In fact, this advice is not debated. But a spontaneous question arises: “Is it enough to protect our daughters?” At this introspective stage, I received a thought-provoking WhatsApp picture with a caption: “Educate your sons.”It is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that empowers them to realize their health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.CSE presents sexuality with a positive approach, emphasizing values such as respect, inclusion, non-discrimination, equality, empathy, responsibility and reciprocity. It reinforces healthy and positive values about bodies, puberty, relationships, sex and family life.UNESCO believes that with CSE, young people learn to treat each other with respect and dignity from an early age and gain skills for better decision making, communications, and critical analysis. They learn they can talk to an adult they trust when they are confused about their bodies, relationships and values.They le
I appreciate Sr. Dr. Soja Maria’s article titled Synodality: An Analytical Exploration for a Religious Perspective. The Church is inherently synodal in nature and thus synodality has to be embraced in all its facets beginning from its very primary structures. The religious life forms an essential part of the structural organization of the Church. Religious men and women are major component of the Church’s hierarchy. This ‘analytical exploration’ serves well to indicate to the religious men and women in the contemporary Church to practically apply the tenets of synodality to their every day life. It is high time that the religious houses and formation houses consider communion, participation, and mission as elements to be inculcated in the lifestyle of all members. Religious communities primarily need to overcome structural autocracy, individualism, insensitivity and compartmentalization. These elements are a threat to the evangelical counsels as such. They betray the very essence of community life.There is a dire need to deepen the Church’s reliance on the gospel-based values with a sense of trust in God. This fact need to be implemented by all organs of the Church regardless of the circumstantial differences. This discussion on the analytical exploration needs to propose practical modalities for the implementation of the principles of synodality in religious houses and in the formation programs of the religious men and women. A think-tank on how to build commun
On 1 July 2024, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal of the Allahabad High Court in a bizarre comment said, “if this process (religious conversion) is allowed to be carried out, the majority population of this country would be in minority one day, and such religious congregation should be immediately stopped where the conversion is taking place and changing religion of citizen of India.” The single- bench judge was hearing the bail plea of one Kailash booked under Section 3/5(1) of the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, said that Article 25 of the Constitution of India does not provide for religious conversion but only provides freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion. The Court also noted that in several cases unlawful activity of conversion of people of SC/ST castes and other castes including economically poor persons into Christianity is being done at rampant pace throughout the State of Uttar Pradesh. The Court on expected lines, denied bail to the accused.Exactly a week later, on 9 July, the same judge Agarwal sang the exact same tune, denying bail to yet another accused in a case of alleged ‘illegal conversion’. He observed that the right to freedom of conscience and religion cannot be constituted as the right to convert others! He once again categorically stated that, “The Constitution confers on each individual the fundamental right to profess, practice and propagate his religion. However, the i
In the run-up to the 2019 general elections, Union Home Minister and BJP’s top leader Amit Shah had made an outrageous comment: The BJP will rule the country for the next 50 years. No leader who believes in democracy and people’s power to elect or reject a party or candidate could have made such a remark. It betrayed dynastic and fascist traits and tendencies embedded in one’s thought process. Not even the tallest leaders of independent India have ever made such an undemocratic remark. It is an affront to the people, the electorate, who are at the centre and core of democracy. The results of the just-concluded general elections have given an unequivocal answer to Amit Shah as the BJP on its own could not muster enough seats to form the government.The results have come as a slap on the face of the BJP and its top leaders for taking the electorate for granted. It substantiates the old cliché “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The arrogance of its top leaders has made them fall into a pit that they were trying to dig for others by hate-speeches and outright lies. The BJP which came out with slogans like ‘crossing 370-mark for the party and 400-mark for the NDA’ has fallen terribly short of even winning a simple majority for itself in Lok Sabha. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the party to defeat, unlike the previous two occasions, winning only 240 seats, failing to cross the 272-mark. Now it will have to run the governme
Animals live at the sense level. Satisfaction of the senses is their goal. They are led by instincts and impulses. Humans have, besides all the senses, intelligence and freedom. They should respond to the senses but must not be led by them. Rather, they should think and find out what is the best and choose that. That is why man is defined as a rational animal. In man there is something finer than the senses and reason. We call it the spiritual. Teilhard de Chardin, scientist and mystic, very perceptively said ‘man is a spirit living in a body’. The spiritual is an openness to the beyond, the supernatural, like, God, human soul, life after death. It is the realm of faith.In life man has to take decisions. Decisions should be based on good reason and faith. The faith of the Jews is expressed in the Old Testament. Being a Jew, Jesus knew the faith, the spiritual and religious convictions and practices of the Jews. But, being a discerning Jew, Jesus did not accept much of the Jewish religion. Like the Jews, Jesus believed that there is only one God who is the creator and law giver. For the Jews, God was mainly a warrior God, ‘Lord of hosts’ or ‘Yahweh’, a mystery. But for Jesus, God is Abba, his (and everybody’s) most loving father. Everyone is God’s beloved son or daughter, that is, all are brothers and sisters. Jesus summarized the hundreds of commandments of the Jews into one, that is, unconditional and total love for the other.Christians are those who
