Indian Church refuses to endorse political party in election
Assam Christians outraged by Hindu leader’s “divisive” remarks
Moral theologians address challenges in biomedical ethics in India
Persecution of Christians has worsened around the globe, according to new study
Pope to Cardinals-elect: Keep your eyes raised, your hands joined, your feet bare
Tribal Christians avoid travel fearing attack in India’s Manipur
Pope Francis’ visit to Singapore ‘has revived the faith of our people,’ cardinal says
Cardinal Dolan: Harris received ‘bad advice’ to skip Catholic charity dinner
My vocation as a priest and studies in Rome for seven months remind me of what Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata often said, “God has not called me to be successful; He called me to be faithful.”Being faithful in my day to day life gives me more satisfaction and joy. “We are pencils in the hands of God” as Saint Mother Teresa would say and many ways, God’s plan for our lives and the lives of the people that we love and serve, will be a mystery.As Henry Ford says, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young,” therefore learning is a life-long process.I reaffirmed this fact while learning Italian with other priests coming from Asia, Africa and America.Propaganda Fide (the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) organized two and half months intensive language course in Urbino that helped me a lot. Gradually challenges and difficulties turned to be hope and joy when I could read, speak and understand Italian language and know the culture of Italy.For centuries Italy has been called the garden of Europe for its natural, historical and artistic beauties spread throughout its territory: Rome, Florence, Assisi, Venice, Siena, Pisa, and Naples which are among the best-known cities of the country’s art.To explore Italy and the history of Christianity, Propaganda Fide also organized tours to different important religious places like the city of Assisi, Loreto, Ravenna and Catacombs of
Writing in 1966 in his Theological Highlights of Vatican II, Professor Joseph Ratzinger pointed out that even in matters liturgical, Vatican II wanted greater decentralization and plurality within the Church. In 1970, the German bishops’ Conference received a proposal from some theologians, including Walter Kasper, Karl Lehmann, Joseph Ratzinger, to ordain married men of good character to the priesthood.Years later Pope Benedict XVI imposed the new English translation of the Roman Missal on all English speaking parts of the Latin Church, even though Latinists, Scripture scholars, theologians and liturgists had questioned the quality of the translations. Now the retired pope comes out with a book defending priestly celibacy.In an article on the new English translation of the Roman Missal, written in 2013, I said that Pope Benedict had forgotten what Professor Joseph Ratzinger wrote about liturgy. Now, in the context of the book on priestly celibacy, one international Catholic paper speaks of “Benedict’s estrangement from Ratzinger.” This is a very powerful indication that the institutional Church can domesticate a theologian; that organized religion can blunt the prophetical charism. May the Lord save us.Subhash Anand, Bhupalpura, Udaipur-313001
Anawkward and embarrassing development has happened in the Kerala Catholic Church when Fr Varghese Vallikkatt, the spokesperson of Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), contradicted himself and the view of the Bishops’ Council on the Citizenship Amendment Act in a span of few days. In the press release of the Bishops’ Council, issued on December 18, 2019, Fr Vallikkatt stated: “The discrimination on the basis of religion shown in the Citizenship Amendment Bill (the Bill had become a law by the time the press release was issued) in deciding the legality of migration and granting citizenship rights to the migrants is against the tenets of the Constitution and secularism.” Thus, the KCBC expressed its protest against and opposition to the CAA.But the mask seems to have dropped when Fr Vallikkatt wrote an article in Janmabhumi, a Malayalam daily with Sangh Parivar leanings, titled “Citizenship and Nationalism; some background thoughts.” Even before the ink in his press release dried up, he used the article to justify the Citizenship Amendment Act, thus contradicting the Bishops’ Council’s stand. He takes refuge in the global threat from ‘political Islam’ to buttress his point. He argues that one should not view the circumstances in which CAA was brought in only in the context of India’s internal political situations. He wants us to see the global scenario of increasing radical Islam and the forces behind it before making a judgment on CAA and its im
The nation’s slide into fear, hate and bigotry did not begin ex nihilo five years ago. It’s the climax of a hundred-year campaign against the kind and pluralistic ethos of the freedom struggleA hundred years have passed since a battle was launched for the soul of this ancient land. At stake was the country we would together build after the British left our shores.This was the time when Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to join India’s freedom struggle. In his leadership of three decades, a majority of Indians — Hindu, Muslim and of other faiths — shared his vision of a country resolutely inclusive and humane, which would welcome people of every belief and ethnicity to be equal citizens with equal rights. This ideal lay at the foundations of the constitution of the new republic, crafted in the care of Babasaheb Ambedkar.This goal was bitterly contested all these hundred years by the Hindu Mahasabha, founded around 1915, and by the RSS in 1925. Their vision for India was of a nation exclusively for India’s Hindu majority, in which Muslims and Christians would be ‘allowed’ inclusion only as second-class citizens. Though less explicitly enunciated, people of disadvantaged castes and tribal ethnicities would also be lesser citizens.The turbulent combat eventually took a toll of over a million lives, including that of Gandhiji, and caused the largest cataclysmic displacement of human populations in history.Today, we find ourselves at a de
St Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, brought Christian faith to India in 52 A.D. Despite the ‘conversions’ since then, the Christian population is not even 3% in India! The reason is not far to seek. First and foremost, unlike the peoples of many nations where the other disciples went, people of India had a strong religion then. More than a religion, Hinduism is a way of life. It is so broad-based that TRUE HINDUISM can accept Jesus as an avatar. In fact, millions of Hindus in our country pray to Jesus and Mother Mary. They cannot be called Christians as they are not baptized.Secondly, many Hindus prefer to be in their own religion and have no compunction in placing their trust in Mary and her Son. Hinduism is polytheistic, unlike monotheistic religions like Christianity and Islam. No wonder the Christian population is just above 2% even after two millennia! The Father of the Nation was a staunch Hindu and breathed his last with ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips. But Gandhiji proclaimed that he was ‘a true Hindu, true Christian, true Muslim’. If we follow this attitude of Gandhiji’s, India would become heaven on earth. According to the Mahatma, ‘Truth is God’ and TRUTH is not the monopoly of one religion.Another mistaken notion of many is that Christianity is a western religion. They forget that Jesus was from the Orient. For that matter, all religions have risen from the East; whereas almost all technological developments have been from the
