The Conference of Religious Women, India (CRWI), has released its strategic plan for 2024-2029 with a stress on networking and partnerships. Sister Jane Wakahiu, head of Catholic Sisters Initiative under Hilton Foundation, released the document at Bengaluru on March 19 in the presence of Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini, head of India’s more than 130,000 women and men religious. Releasing the document, Sister Wakahiu, a member of the institute of the Little Sisters of Saint Francis, Kenya, referred to it as “roadmap to Christian ministries by the women religious in India, characterized by inter congregational collaborations. “This plan is a testament to our commitment to human dignity, social justice and environmental stewardship”, said Sister Nirmalini, adding the strategic plan would harness partnerships, dialogue and innovation to manifest the goals. “Through this plan, we will leverage inter-congregational collaborations, research, and outreach to empower the marginalized, and drive systemic change,” she added.
She said the plan’s priorities include the empowerment and well-being of the Catholic nuns by setting up a grievance cell, supporting their holistic development through training and counselling, addressing current challenges like old age care, and decreasing vocations. The plan aims to unify women’s congregations across India, continue their ministries of teaching, healing and missionary journey in a collaborative spirit, and affirm women’s rightful place in the Church by promoting equality, participation and gender justice.
The plan also underlines the need to promote inter religious harmony and inter cultural collaboration, and promoting a livable ecosystem. In the next five years, CRWI will strengthen nuns’ skills, knowledge, and leadership abilities to enhance ministries, and support the health and mental well-being of religious sisters, and deepen the national network of sisters. Equipping and empowering women religious, fostering leadership through dialogue with major superiors, and implementing innovative programs for holistic development of sisters and their congregation also will be considered as top priorities in the coming five years.

A Catholic bishop has refuted a media report about indigenous Christians in his northeast Indian diocese reverting to their indigen-ous faith. “It appears to be a ploy to sensationalize religious con-version and target Christians,” said Bishop Paul Mattekatt of Diphu diocese in Assam state.
The news of about 150 men and women participating in “rituals symbolizing their reversion to Barithe Dharma, their original religious practice,” appeared in the Organizer on March 20.
The weekly mouthpiece of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent outfit of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the rituals were held on March 18 in Diphu, the headquarters of Karbi Anglong district.
The event was hailed as a “new chapter in the ongoing ghar wapsi [homecoming] movement in the state” of Assam. Ghar wapsi is the name given to a nationwide campaign run by the RSS through its affiliate organizations to convert tribal Christians to Hinduism or indigenous faith.
However, Bishop Mattekatt said he had personally verified the authenticity of the report and found no conversion or reconversion of indigenous Christians in his diocese.
“This kind of false news is to create confusion and mistrust among ordinary people who do not understand the reality of such claims,” the prelate said. He said it is wrong to presume that tribal Christians are shallow when it comes to their faith practices. “It is true our people are poor. That doesn’t mean that their faith is shallow and they easily give it up,” the prelate said.
“Until recently they made claims of reconversion of Christians to Hinduism, but now they say return to ‘ancestral roots’ when it comes to indigenous people,” he pointed out.
The RSS and its affiliate organizations claim the indigenous faith systems as part of Hinduism.
Brooks said the Hindu groups will continue to target Christians and their institutions in one way or another.
“The malicious campaigns will continue because the government in power is not taking action against the perpetrators” he added.

The cultural and literary society in Kochi, Kerala, came together on March 13 to bid farewell to Father Paul Thelakat who stepped down as the longest serving editor of the leading Catholic weekly in the southern Indian state. Father Thelakat “has achieved immortality through words, writing and philosophical thinking. He is an honest writer who contemplates life’s reality,” said M. K. Sanu, a literary figure in Kerala who has maintained long years of association with the priest, while inaugurated the meeting. The 97-year-old writer, popularly known as Sanumaster, described Father Thelakat as a humble priest who always felt disturbed while contemplating the events in society and the Church. He also said Father Thelakat has contributed immensely to the culture and literature of Kerala, besides theology during his 37 years of service as the editor of “Sathyadeepam” (Light of Truth) weekly published by the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
Sebastian Paul, a former Member of Parliament and a veteran journalist who chaired the meeting, said Father Thelakat’s absence will be felt keenly in the cultural evenings of Kochi. An autobiography of Father Thelakat titled “Kathavasesham” (The Story After) was released on the occasion. Noted poetess Vijayalakshmi released the book presenting a copy to Johny Lukose, a veteran journalist. The poet spoke with great emotion about the enlightenment she received through Father Thelakat, her spiritual guide. Lukose, who wrote the preface of the book, noted that Father Thelakat’s philosophical life created in minds the urge to seek truth and justice in a revolutionary way.

Archbishop Geevaghese Mar Ivanios, the first head of the Syro-Malankara Church, advanced on the sainthood path on March 14, 2024 when Pope Francis elevated him as a Venerable.
Archbishop Ivanios, who is known as the Newman of the East, is currently a Servant of God, the first stage in the four-phase canonization process. A statement from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints says the Pope has accepted the heroic virtues of the archbishop, who founded the Order of the Imitation of Christ, also known as Bethany Ashram, for men, and the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ, (Bethany Madhom) for women. The archbishop died July 15, 1953, aged 70, in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala. Archbishop Ivanios was declared a Servant of God in 2007.
Archbishop Ivanios led a spiritual move-ment in the Syrian Orthodox Church that was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on September 20, 1930. He is thus considered the father of the Syro-Malankara Church, one of the 23 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome.
The Malankara Church sees a parallel between the “Reunion Movement” of the 1920s and the Oxford Movement of the 1830s led by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who is now a saint. Like Cardinal Newman, Archbishop Ivanios was part of a broader grouping that sought to discover the sources of unity in their own traditions, Anglican and Orthodox. When the time came, though, it was not a corporate unity that was possible but an individual conversion.
The 1920s saw a “Reunion Movement” in the Malankara Orthodox Church, and Mar Ivanios, who took that name upon being consecrated a bishop, was appointed to lead it. The movement towards corporate unity with Rome faltered, and Mar Ivanios found himself increasingly alone. In 1930, he and four others – a bishop, a priest, a deacon and a layman – entered into full communion with Rome.