As Pope Francis’s ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality wraps up its second phase and prepares for the first of two large Rome-based gatherings, organizers have said a prominent theme in the process has been embracing the church’s diversity.
Speaking to members of the press on April 21, Archbishop Timothy John Costelloe of Perth, president of the Australian bishops’ conference, said, “One of the most important things that we are experiencing on the journey, and that we experienced very powerfully during these continental assemblies, is that there is in fact more than one way of being the Church.”
“I think that’s a very important thing and something that’s emerging as a significant feature of this synodal journey,” he said.
As the synod process goes on, “we’re going into a deeper experience of synodality and in doing that, we’re recognizing and celebrating this reality of great diversity,” he said.
Diversity has always been a part of the Church, but Costelloe voiced his conviction that it is something “we need to acknowledge and more and more to celebrate and to be grateful to God for.”
“I would say that what is happening, both in the ideal world, but also in reality, is that we’re beginning to experience a profound unity, which is not only not grounded in uniformity,” he said, saying, “we all know, unity and uniformity are not the same thing.”
Conservative Anglicans split with Church of England over same-sex marriages
Global conservative Anglican leaders withdrew their recognition on April 22 of the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as its leader, amid disagreements about blessing same-sex couples.
The primates announced the move at the fourth Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which ended this weekend in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali.
The Kigali commitment issued at the end of the weeklong conference reflected a consensus among Anglican conservatives, with a majority from Africa and the Global South.
“We have no confidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the other instruments of communion led by him are able to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of scripture,” the primates said in a statement.
The primates accused successive archbishops of Canterbury of failing to guard the faith by “inviting bishops to Lambeth (official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury), who have embraced or promoted practices contrary to scripture.”
This failure of church discipline, the primates said, has been compounded by the current Archbishop of Canterbury who has welcomed the provision of liturgical resources to bless practices contrary to scripture.
“This renders his leadership role in the Anglican Communion entirely indefensible,” it said.
The clerics expressed their hard stance during the conference.
Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Nigeria, described as “troubling for many Anglicans” the Church of England’s new move on civil marriages, while Archbishop Laurent Mbanda from Rwanda and newly-elected chairman of GAFCON, told Anadolu the Bible should remain the center of reference.
Ousted Protestant bishop remanded for seven days
A special court in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has remanded ousted Protestant Bishop P C Singh in seven days custody of Directorate of Enforcement (ED) for interroga-tion. Bishop Singh came to the ED radar following the September 2022 raid of his office and residence by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW), a provincial probe agency dealing with economic offences in Madhya Pra-desh. The ED is the economic inte-lligence agency responsible for enfor-cing economic laws and fighting eco-nomic crime in India.
Ajmer priest appointed Jaipur bishop
Pope Francis on April 22 appointed Father Joseph Kallarackal, a priest of Ajmer diocese, as the new bishop of Jaipur in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Bishop Lewis said the bishop-elect has chosen as his motto to do everything for the glory of God and being grateful to God.
Bishop-elect Kallarackal hails from Anavilasam, a village in the Devikulam tehsil of Idukki district in Kerala. After schooling in Kerala, he joined the St. Theresa’s Minor Seminary in Ajmer.
Hindu-convert-turned retreat preacher dies
Aravindaksha Menon, an upper caste Hindu who discovered Christ through the reading of the Vedas, died of heart attack in Kerala.
The death occurred on April 19 as he was being taken to a hospital in Kottayam with complaints of chest pain. He was 75.
“This is the death of a saint,” says Father George Panackal, director of the Divine Retreat Centre in Kerala’s Muringoor, mourning the passing away of Menon.
Indian bishop, who was forced to resign by Vatican, dies
Bishop Isidore Fernandes, who was sacked by the Vatican ten years before his term could end, died April 26 in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He was 76.
Bishop Fernandes was forced to resign by the Vatican for ordaining the first bishop of a homegrown charismatic community that is independent of any church.
On November 4, 2012, he consecrated R B Lal as a bishop of an independent church, known as “Yesu Darbar” (The Court of Jesus).
Farming nuns promote eco-centric spirituality, organic farming
Valerie Gastager, a Ger-man student, was excited to eat what she grew at the farm of a Catholic convent in southern India.
“We harvested and ate the vegetables we grew,” Gastager said February 28 as she showed Global Sisters Report the kit-chen garden in the courtyard of the Helpers of Mount Rosary congregation at Alangar near Moodabidri, a town in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka.
Valerie is among two male and two female students from German uni-versities who have come to study tropical agriculture on an exchange program to learn under the Helpers of Mount Rosary, a diocesan congregation in the Manga-lore Diocese.
As part of their nine-month training, which started in November, the Germans learn from the nuns how to cultivate grow vegetables and cash crops. Sister Theresia Mukkuzhy says teaching international students is the latest addition to the congregation’s mission.
Missionaries’ passion and commitment help Church survive crises
Apostolic Carmel Sister Maria Nirmalini was elected the president of the Conference of Religious India, the national body of major superiors of India’s Catholic religious, in November 2021 and assumed office in January 2022. The 58-year-old educator also heads the women section of the conference as well as the Apostolic Carmel congregation.
Nirmalini advocates empowerment of women religious, mutual sharing, and leadership to tackle the oppressive patriarchal system and gender inequality within the Indian church. She is starting “grievance cells” for religious sisters.
“Yes, my first step was to set up this cell, which is operational now. The last meeting of our executive body [in early March in New Delhi] approved the cell’s rules, regulations and the operation mechanism.
The cell is headed by experts from men and women religious as well as laypeople. None of them is from the conference’s executive body so that it can function as an independent body. It will then report to the conference’s executive body for a final settlement.This cell will deal with any grievance, not just sexual harassment, from both the women and men religious. They can call the cell or message it. We are now trying to get this message to the grassroots by organizing awareness sessions at regional and local levels.”
“I think we need to look at our formation system to help our sisters grow up with independent thinking, dignity and leadership instead of forming them to be obedient sheep. Perhaps the lack of individual growth and freedom dissuades people from joining convents.
We now train sisters with professional skills to suit every area of life and service along with their spiritual and theology formation. We are grateful to the Hilton Foundation for its great support to form our sisters as agents of social change”.
2 Indian pastors held for desecrating Sikh holy book
Police in a northern Indian state have arrested two pastors for allegedly desecrating the Sikh holy book.Pastors Vicky Masih and Roop Lal of the Believers Church in Golewala village in Faridkot district in Sikh-majority Punjab state were arrested on April 24 for allegedly tearing out pages from the Sri Gutka Sahib, a pocket-sized book containing hymns from Sikh scriptures, and throwing them into the street. The police swung into action after villagers filed a complaint. Harjeet Singh, superintendent of police in Faridkot, told reporters that the accused were traced using CCTV cameras in the area.They were in a car and tore pages from the Sri Gutka Sahib and threw them into the street before fleeing, Singh added.They are charged with Section 295A (the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings of any class) of the Indian Penal Code.”I am sure this is a trap”.The district court remanded them in police custody for four days. “We will be questioning the accused to ascertain the motive,” the superintendent said.
Indian archdiocese makes marriage concession amid court battle
A parish in an Indian arch-diocese established to serve a strictly endogamous communi-ty has taken the unprecedented step of permitting a member to marry a Catholic from another diocese. Sacred Heart Knanaya Catholic Church, Monippally, in the Archeparchy of Kotta-yam. Shijan Kaakkara via Wi-kimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).
The pastor of St. Anne’s Knanaya Catholic Church in Kottody, Kerala State, report-edly issued a letter of permi-ssion April 15 to 31-year-old Justin John, who was engaged two days later to Vijimol Shaji, a member of the Archdiocese of Tellicherry.
John, who plans to marry in mid-May, is a member of the Archeparchy of Kottayam, a unique ecclesiastical circum-scription in southern India for members of the Knanaya ethnic group, who for almost 1,700 years have married exclusively within their community.
Knanaya men who marry Catholics outside the archepa-rchy are usually no longer regarded as members of the archeparchy and are expected to join a non-Knanaya parish.
Indian media described the granting of permission to John as a historic step that could signal the death knell for the archeparchy’s marriage rules.