The head of the Catholic Church in India on August 23 joined the nation’s leaders to applaud the Indian Space Research Organization for the success of the country’s third lunar exploration mission.
On the same day, when Chandrayaan (moon craft)-3 successfully landed on the lunar surface, India created history as the first country to land on the moon’s South Pole.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indians and space scientists for the achievement. “India will remember this day forever,” Modi said after virtually witnessing the landing attempt from South Africa where he is attending the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Summit.
“I heartily congratulate ISRO, its scientists for this unprecedented feat. I may be in South Africa but my heart has always been with the Chandrayaan mission,” he added.
“No other country has been able to land on this side of the moon before; this will change all narratives and stories about the moon. We are witness to the new flight of new India. New history has been written,” the prime minister said.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, conveyed to the ISRO the “warmest congratulations” from the entire nation on the remarkable achievement of the successful landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the lunar surface.
Pontifical delegate apprises Pope about Ernakulam-Angamaly crises
Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil, pontifical delegate for Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, has met Pope Francis on his return to the Vatican after his 18-day stay in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
A press statement from the Media Commission of the Syro-Malabar Church says the Jesuit archbishop informed the Pope on August 23 about his visit to Kochi in Kerala and apprised him about the current situation in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
The August 24 press statement issued by commission secretary Vincentian Father Antony Vadakkekara says the delegate told the Pope that he had held discussions with the various groups in the archdiocese and provided necessary guidelines.
The Pope asked him to remain firm to implement the decisions taken by the Syro-Malabar Synod and approved by the pontiff, the statement adds.
Archbishop Vasil has also given a detailed report on the crises in the arch-diocese to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Oriental Congregation.
The delegate said that he would continue his efforts to implement in the archdiocese the synod mode of celebrating Mass where the priest faces the altar during the main part.
Archbishop Vasil came to Kochi in Kerala, the headquarters of the Syro-Mala-bar Church, on August 4 and stayed there until August 22.
On his arrival, he announced that the Pope had sent him to make sure that the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese adopt the uniform mode, decided by the Syro-Malabar Synod.
Most Catholics and priests in the archdiocese – the largest in the Oriental Catholic Rite – oppose the synod Mass and insist on celebrating Eucharist where the priest faces the congregation.
The archdiocese has celebrated Mass in this way for more than 50 years, following the teachings of the Vatican II. However, six of 328 parishes in the archdiocese defied the delegate’s order to celebrate Mass in the synod way on August 20. He had also threatened to excommunicate priests who defied the August 17 order.
Traditional Religion is ‘seed’ of Christianity
A Cameroonian priest and intellectual has published a ground-breaking book that could potentially change the way African Traditional Religion is perceived by the Catholic Church.
In Studying the Faith of Our Ancestors: A New Approach to African Traditional Religion, Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy argues that African Traditional Religion has historically been misunderstood and denigrated, due to a lack of understanding of its intrinsic value. He argues that ATR must be studied as a religion in its own right, and contends that Christianity as we know it today actually has its roots in African Traditional religion. The book argues that Africans have always been a people steeped in faith, but the colonizing influence of the west made the African peoples feel inferior and their religious practices demonized.
“There are no pagan in Africa,” Mbuy told Crux in an exclusive interview shortly after the launch of the book on August 12. “There is no African who does not believe in the Supreme.”
The narrative has always been that God was brought to Africa by western missionaries. Is this book a negation of that narrative?
“Coming to Christianity, Jesus Christ would have been born African, because the Jews were in Egypt and we drove them out, and when they went out he came back to Africa, and would have been still back in his home and we again drove them out. … There is no such thing as a “pagan” in Africa.”
Pol who’s called the Pope an ‘imbecile’ and a ‘son of a b*’ rocks Argentina
Catholics in Argentina appear both somewhat startled and also divided by the surprising recent success of a firebrand politician who’s termed the country’s most famous native son, Pope Francis, a “communist,” an “imbecile” and even a “leftist son of a b*.”
That politician, Javier Milei, was the big winner of the country’s Aug. 13 primaries, coming in first place with 30% of the vote, ahead of both the major right and left-wing coalitions, and despite lacking a strong party structure of his own.
Milei ended up ahead of Patricia Bullrich, whose right-wing coalition obtained 28% of the ballots, and of Sergio Massa, the current Economy Minister in Argentina’s center-left Peronist coalition, who got 27%of support.
In another tweet last year, Milei criticized Francis after the pontiff said citizens should pay taxes to protect the poor’s dignity. Milei asserted that the pontiff was “always standing on the evil’s side” and told him: “Your model is poverty.”
Once during a TV show, Milei was criticizing the concept of social justice and attacked Pope Francis for his defense of it, calling him “the imbecile who is in Rome.”
During an interview earlier this year to a progressive Argentinian journalist, Francis appeared indirectly to compare Milei to Adolf Hitler, saying that the Austrian-born dictator was initially presented as “a new politician, who spoke beautifully, who seduced the people.”
“Everybody voted for little Adolfo, and that is how we ended, right?” the pope said, adding that he fears “saviours without history.” He also declared that he was worried about the progress of the far-right around the world.
In general, observers in Argentina say that Catholic reaction to Milei’s verbal assaults on the pope break largely along political lines, with progressives expressing outrage but conservatives largely silent.
“Many [Argentine Catholics] were happy about [Francis’s] election as the pope in 2013, but disliked his ideas and the documents he released and ceased to approve of him,” said Father Lorenzo De Vedia, known as “Padre Toto,” a priest who works at a slum in Buenos Aires.
Pope Francis writing a second part of Laudato si’
The Director of the Holy See Press Office says the second part of the Laudato si’ encyclical letter which Pope Francis mentioned on August 21 will focus on the recent climate crises.
Speaking off-the-cuff to a delegation of lawyers from member countries of the Council of Europe on August 21, Pope Francis said he was writing a second part of his Laudato si’ encyclical to update it to “current issues”.
The Pope was expressing his appreciation for the attorneys’ commitment to developing a legal framework aimed at protecting the environment.
“We must never forget that the younger generations have the right to receive a beautiful and livable world from us, and that this implies that we have a grave responsibility towards creation which we have received from the generous hands of God,” said the Pope. “Thank you for your contribution.”
In a statement later, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, explained that the new updated version of Laudato si’ will focus in particular on the most recent extreme weather events and catastrophes affecting people across five continents.
Lawmaker warns of Chinese communists changing the Bible
The chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned on August 17 of efforts from the Chinese government to subvert Christianity by changing parts of the Bible.
“The Chinese Communist Party is rewriting the Bible,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wiscon-sin, said in a pre-recorded message to the biannual gathering of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago held Aug. 14 through Aug. 18.
Gallagher discussed two examples in which the Chinese government has rewritten parts of the Bible and taught it as fact. In one example, he noted a mis-representation of the account in the Gospel of John in which Christ says, “Let he among you with-out sin cast the first stone” when a woman is accused of adultery.
“It’s a beautiful story of forgiveness and mercy – unless, of course, you’re a CCP official,” Gallagher said. “Then it’s a story of a dissident challenging the authority of the state. A possible sneak preview of what a Bible with socialist characteristics might look like appeared in a Chinese university textbook in 2020. The rewritten Gospel of John excerpt ends not with mercy but with Jesus himself stoning the adulterous woman to death.”
Pakistan pays Christians who lost homes to
Pakistani authorities on August 21 handed out thousands of dollars to nearly 100 Christian families whose homes were destroyed or damaged by a Muslim mob angered over an alleged desecration of the Quran last week.
The government of caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said each household was getting 2 million rupees ($6,800) in compensation on Monday. Police said they have arrested dozens more rioters in ongoing raids, bringing the total number of those detained over the attacks in the city of Jaranwala to 160.
On August 16, hundreds of Muslims went on a rampage over allegations that a Christian man and his friend had desecrated Islam’s holy book. Christians who fled their homes to escape the attackers later returned to a scene of destruction. Many have been living outside since, fearing the burned structures may collapse.
The rampage, one of the most destructive in the country’s history, drew nationwide condemnation. Kakar on Monday traveled to the area to meet with some of the victims of the attacks and hand out the compensation. He promised in a televised speech that the state will ensure the protection of minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Ahmadis.
Kakar said none of the rioters will go unpunished, describing those behind the attacks as “enemies of humanity.”
Earlier in the day, Mohsin Naqvi, the top official in Punjab province, where Jaranwala is located, announced the compensations on X, previously known as Twitter. Naqvi visited the city on Sunday and held a meeting of local officials at a burned church.
“They are worried for their safety, they are worried for their children, who witnessed the tragedy and are traumatized,” priest Khalid Mukhtar said of the local Christians. All 26 churches in Jaranwala were attacked, burned or damaged, he said.
Don’t weaponize Eucharist, Catholics urge papal delegate
Catholics in India are urging the papal delegate to not weaponize Eucharist to enforce obedience among the dissident priests of the Ernakulam-Angamaly arch-diocese in Kerala.
As Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil’s threat of excommunication looms large on those dissident priests, Catholics in other parts of the country want the delegate to practice synodality promoted by Pope Francis to resolve the dispute over the mode of offering Mass.
The delegate, who landed in the southern Indian state of Kerala on August 4 to help resolve the decades-old dispute, ordered the dissenting clergy to offer Mass approved by the Syro-Malabar Synod in all parishes of the archdiocese or face excommunication. The deadline to implement the order is on Sunday, August 20.
Archbishop Vasil “seems to weaponize the Eucharist with his latest warning on the Syro-Malabar liturgy under the guise of obedience,” laments Father George Pattery, former president of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia.
Father Pattery, who is currently in Kolkata, urges the papal delegate to employ Jesuit expertise on discernment to help the Syro-Malabar Church discover true synodality and, if needed, revise its earlier decisions on liturgy, as “purity and pollution theories are questioned in the New Testament.”
“For Jesus, the eucharist should lead to washing one another’s feet, and not in ritual purity/pollution theories – something that Jesus strongly interrogated,” said the Jesuit, a native of Kerala.
HC Orders ‘Organiser’ to Take Down Article Accusing Christian Principal of Exploiting Nuns, Students
The Delhi high court has ordered Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) weekly Organiser to take down an article alleging that the principal of a Delhi-based Christian minority school was exploiting nuns and Hindu wo-men and was involved in sexual activities with students, staff members and chefs, Bar and Bench reported.
The article titled ‘Indian Catholic Church Sex Scandal: Priest exploiting nuns and Hindu wo-men exposed’ was published in Organiser and another news plat-form, The Commune, in June.
Justice Jyoti Singh directed both publications to remove the defamatory article from their platforms.
It takes years to build a reputation, and therefore, the right to reputation has been recognised as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the bench observed, per the news report.
“No doubt, Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution provides the right of freedom of speech and expression to all persons, how-ever, it cannot be overlooked that the same is subject to restrictions under Article 19(2) which includes defamation.
The right to freedom of speech and expression cannot be taken as an unfettered right so as to defame and tarnish the reputation of another person. It has been repeatedly held by Courts that fundamental right to freedom of speech has to be counterbalanced with the right of reputation of an individual.”
The high court said that prima facie, Organiser and The Commune published the articles “in a reckless manner without any factual verification”, the report said. Additionally, the court said that the news coverage was harm-ing the reputation of the school principal. The principal is a well-regarded individual within the country and has affiliations with multiple educational establish-ments, it added. It noted that the school principal has presented a strong case in his favour. The principal said that as long as these articles remain in the public domain, there is a high likelihood that they will keep causing harm to his reputation.
On Indian Independence Day, bishops reiterate Christians’ patriotism
As India celebrated its 77th Independence Day marking freedom from colonial British rule on Aug. 15, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) asserted the patriotism of Christians and called for “resolving internal challenges with empathy, understanding, and unity.” “India’s journey to freedom was not solely forged on the battlefield but also through unwavering determination, sacrifices, and visionary leadership from those of diverse backgrounds, including the Christian community,” the CBCI said in a press release. Though British imperialism spread in India when the East India Company began trading there in the 17th century, the British Parliament took total control over the Indian subcontinent in 1858.
Following the massive freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi – the prophet of nonviolence – the British ended their rule over the Indian subcontinent in August 1947, dividing it into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Hindu nationalist outlets, under the influence of the ruling BJP (the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress), have called into question the patriotism of India’s 34 million Christians.