Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore says the Church will continue to do its good works without fear.
“Even if a case is filed against me, accusing me of indulging in conversion, for providing education and healthcare to the Dalits and the marginalized, I would continue with those good works,” Archbishop Machado asserted.
The archbishop is the leader of the Catholic Church in the southern Indian state of Karnataka that has enacted anti-conversion law last year. He also heads the All Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights, an ecumenical body.
“No government can stop us from doing good works; no one can challenge us,” the 68-year-old prelate asserted.
He challenged the government to come out with the data on the number of children converted in Christian educational institutions.
The archbishop was speaking at a function to felicitate Baselios Marthoma Mathews III, the Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, in Bengaluru, the state capital.
With a few months left for the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the archbishop’s speech is seen as a sign of the community’s approach to the ruling party and the government’s policies against Christians.
Archbishop Machado slammed the fundamentalists for playing petty politics and spreading fake news that teaching the Bible has been made compulsory at Clarence school in Bengaluru.
Earlier, the archbishop had called the anti-conversion law “dangerous” and termed it a “sad chapter for the Christian community.”
He had also written to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealing not to promote the “undesirable and discriminatory” Bill.
According to the new law, any converted person, his parents, brother, sister, or any other person who is related to him by blood, marriage, adoption, or in any form associated, or colleague may lodge a complaint of illegal religious conversion. The offense is non-bailable.
The bill prohibits unlawful conversion of religion, providing protection to those who were forced to convert from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement, the promise of marriage, or by any fraudulent means and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Ecolink awards outstanding women
An institute that trains addiction professionals globally has honored two of its alumna who have excelled in prevention and management of substance use disorder in Africa and India.
Ecolink Training Institute, which has trained more than 300 addiction professionals from 20 countries in the past three years, awarded Odireleng Kasale, a recovery professional from Botswana, and Devika Rani, prevention expert from India’s Hyderabad, in a virtual meeting held on March 9.
Kasale, a recovering person herself who was trained in the Ecolink Institute in the Universal Treatment Curriculum on Substance Use Disorder in 2020, said she could carry out a successful recovery program in her country by networking with several young men and women who was struggling with drugs.
Also, a consultative committee member of World Health Organization and a trainer in Recovery Coaching in her country, Kasale has contributed to the policy formation and professionalizing the addiction management in her country.
Kasale and Devika were awarded with a citation and certificate, besides a one-year free package on advanced training in various curricula related to addiction management from Ecolink Institute.
Ban demanded on play “insulting” Catholic monastic life
Catholic bishops of the southern Indian state of Kerala have demanded a ban on a stage show that they say insults Ca-tholic monastic life and Chri-stianity.
“The communist organiza-tions are giving huge publicity for the drama,” says a state-ment issued by the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), referring to the Ma-layalam play, “Kakkukali” that describes the alleged trials and tribulations of a woman who becomes a nun despite her Co-mmunist father’s opposition.
However, those behind the drama term it as an expression of freedom. The drama is an adaptation of a short story written by Francis Norona. It was scripted by K B Ajayaku-mar and directed by Job Ma-dathil.
It was staged by Alappuzha-based Neythal Nataka San-gham.
KCBC president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis condemned the drama saying it was against the cultural fabric of Kerala and staging it was a blot on the culture of the state.
The statement issued by KCBC deputy secretary Jacob Palakkapilly says the play in-sults the self-respect and con-fidence of nuns, and has been included in the state govern-ment’s international drama fest.
Christians slam ban on healing prayers in northeast India
Christians in a northeast Indian state are opposing a ban on organizing and publicizing healing prayer events, saying it violates the constitutional right to practice their religion.
Authorities in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Siang district issued an order on Feb. 28 banning all kinds of “prayer healing, healing crusades, healing through the local priest, pujas [ritual worship in Hinduism], as a remedy to cure various diseases and illness.”
The order issued by a district magistrate said “such practices are misleading the innocent people from taking recourse to scientific medical treatment and cause severe health issues.”
The healing prayer programs also give rise “to social-cultural problems like conversion to other faith and thereby spread discord among people and groups,” the order said.
It further banned publicizing such events invoking the Drug and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act 1954, which prohibits the advertisement of remedies alleged to possess magic qualities.
The government order stated that the ban is applicable to “all individuals, groups, faiths, and religions.”
“This order is against our fundamental right to practice our religion,” said Tarh Miri Stephen, president of the Arunachal Christian Forum.
Stephan told UCA News on March 7 that his organization will call on the district magistrate who issued the order to know the reasons and appeal to him to withdraw it.
“In case the district magistrate does not comply, we will apprise top officials in the government including the state’s chief minister,” he said.
Stephan did not rule out approaching the courts if the political leadership failed to protect their constitutional right to religious worship.
6.50,000 attend Marian feast in Odisha
More than 50,000 people on March 5 gathered at a Marian pilgrimage center in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, when it celebrated its feast two years after a gap of two years.
“We are here after the Covid pandemic to thank God who loves unconditionally and who is always willing to grant Mother Mary’s intercession for all of us,” said Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, the main celebrant of the feast day Mass at the Marian shrine in Partamaha, a small village in Odisha’s Kandhamal district.
The Divine Word prelate remembered Komoladevi, a local Hindu widow whose vision of the Blessed Virgin led to the setting up of the pilgrimage center in 1994 in the village, some 250 km southwest of Bhubaneswar, the state capital. She died of Covid-19 in 2020.
Father Mukund Dev, the parish of Our Lady of Holy Rosary Daringbadi and a member of managing committee of the shrine, said more than 50,000 people attended this year’s feast. The gathering included 55 priests and 25 nuns.
People gathering in such huge number is the sign of growing faith in God and accepting Mother Mary, the priest told Matters India.
Saraj Nayak, the secretary of development committee of the shrine, the people prayed for Mother Mary’s intervention to bring peace and harmony between warring Russia and Ukraine. “We also pray that the Vatican declare 36 Catholic victims of anti-Christian violence 2008 as martyrs of the Church,” he added.
The Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar comprises of nine civil districts of Boudh, Cuttack, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Nayagarh and Puri. It has 39 parishes serving around 70,000 Catholics. Kandhamal district alone has about 50,000 Catholics in 26 parishes including recently erected Sonpur and Barokhoma entrusted to the Capuchin priests.
The shrine was built after Komoladevi went to Partamaha Mountain to collect fire wood on March 5, 1994. She saw a bearded man in white dress and long hair coming closer to her. He disappeared after sometimes.
A beautiful woman from a distance called her and told her to request the local priest to build a church where people could pray the Rosary for the sinners to repent. The neighbors laughed at her when she first shared the experience .
Catholic hermit nun dies
Sister Prasanna Devi, a Catholic hermit nun who was an inspiration for many, especially Hindus, died February 27 in the western Indian state of Gujarat. She would have turned 89 on March 13.
Sister Devi was suffering from age-related illnesses for the past few years.
The death occurred at 2:33 pm at the parish presbytery of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Junagadh, a town in Gujarat where she had been staying for nearly a decade.
Carmelite Father Vinod Kanatt, the parish priest who looked after the nun, told Matters India that she was discharged from Christ hospital Rajkot two days ago. She was taken to the hospital on February 3 after her health deteriorated.
The funeral is scheduled at 10 am on March 1 in Junagadh.
Sister Devi had lived four decades among lions, panthers and other wild animals deep inside Girnar mountain range, the only home for Asiatic lions in India.
Devi does not belong to a particular religious order. She had chosen the contemplative life of an ascetic, devoting her life to God and sharing Christian blessings with thousands. She was the only female member of the Syro-Malabar Church to choose such a life.
114-year-old Christian hospital in Uttar Pradesh faces harassment
A Christian hospital that has served a northern Indian city for more than a century faces closure after it became a victim of religious bigotry since one year.
The Broadwell Christian Hospital managed by the Evangelical Church of India (ECI) in Fatehpur has faced “physical, mental, and emotional abuse due to the false allegations of forceful religious conversions,” bemoans Sujith Varghese Thomas, the institutions senior administrative officer.
Fatehpur, a city situated between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in Uttar Pradesh state, is some 550 km southeast of New Delhi.
Some Hindu nationalist groups have accused the hospital of indulging in forcible religious conversions, which the hospital authorities say are false allegations.
In “an open letter” to the media, Thomas claims the hospital that provides dedicated service in social development and healthcare has remained a “vital resource” for the local community for the past 114 years.
“For over a century, the hospital, its staff and its management have shared a fraternal bond with the community – something that goes beyond mere doctor and patient association. This bond is a deep two-way relationship of care, of trust, of service and of dignity – the metaphorical blood flow that has kept us connected, healthy, motivated and in service through the years,” adds the February 23 letter.
Indian pastor, wife held for alleged religious conversion
Indian police have arrested a Protestant pastor and his wife for allegedly indulging in religious conversions, say Christian leaders.
Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where a sweeping anti-conversion law is in force, arrested Pastor Santosh John and his wife, Jiji John, on Feb. 26 based on a complaint by Bajrang Dal, an ultra-Hindu outfit.
“Pastor John and his wife were summoned in the morning for questioning and were freed later in the evening. But they were arrested after a mob protested in front of the police station,” Minakshi Singh, a Christian activist, told UCA News on Feb. 28.
John and his wife were holding a prayer service in a rented basement in Indrapuram in Uttar Pradesh near India’s capital New Delhi when the mob created a ruckus and accused them of religious conversion.
The couple appeared before a magistrate on Feb. 28 and were denied bail.
Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, a charity based in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, said, “Pastor John and his wife are lodged in the Dasana jail in Uttar Pradesh.”
Police came under pressure from the administration, headed by Yogi Adityanath of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Bajrang Dal, which is affiliated to the parent organization of the BJP, said Singh, who was seeking legal aid for the couple.
“Why should they arrest the pastor and his wife without any evidence?”
Former bureaucrats urge Modi to denounce attacks on Christians
As many as 93 former civil servants have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about what they assay are recent increase in attacks on Christians in India.
Banded under the Constitutional Conduct Group, the retired bureaucrats, urged Modi in their March 4 open letter to reassure Chri-stians in the country that it will get equal and unbiased treatment from administration and the law.
“We are a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services who have worked in the Central and State Govern-ments during our careers. As a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in impartiality, neutrality and share a commitment to the Constitution of India,” says the opening of the letter.
The bureaucrats say they write to the prime minister because they are “deeply perturbed” by the continued harassment, through speech and criminal action, of minority groups in the country by persons associated with your government, your party, organizations connected to it, and by mischief makers from amongst the public.
“While we are concerned about the hate crimes and speeches against all minorities, we write to you today about the steadily in-creasing ugly words and actions against a small religious minority, the Christians. Our Constitution clearly spells out that all citizens, irrespective of religion, are equal and have equal rights, but we are compelled to protest to you against the increasing incidents of outright discrimination against Christians occurring in recent times,” the letter adds.
The letter points out that although some groups accuse Christians of indulging forcible religious conversion, the community share in the Indian popular has remained around 2.3 percent since 1951.
“Yet, in the minds of some, this minuscule number poses a threat to the 80 percent of the population that is Hindu,” says the letter.
The accusation has made Christians and their institutions victims of verbal, physical and psychological attacks in various parts of the country. “It is an unfortunate but inesca-pable fact that there are elements amongst us who may feel that the denigration of others enhances themselves,” the letter bemoans.
Noting the contributions of Christians to the education and health sectors and social reform, the former civil servants said that India has been home to “Christianity since the first century CE, long before its intro-duction in many countries that are today predominantly Christian.”
Myanmar Church speaks out against rare earth mining
Church leaders in Myanmar are up in arms against unregulated mining for rare earth elements — widely used in the production of high-tech devices like smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and solar cells — in the conflict-torn Southeast Asian nation’s Kachin state.
Mining for rare earth has increased sharply in northern mineral-rich Kachin state, bordering China’s Yunnan province, following the toppling of Myanmar’s civilian government by the military on Feb.1, 2021. “We are concerned about the effects of environmental degradation, the livelihoods of local communities and the wellbeing of animals due to the extraction of rare earth,” said Church leaders from Banmaw diocese in Kachin state, where unregulated rare earth mining is in full swing by Chinese firms and others. In a letter, signed by Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam and four other diocesan leaders, including the vicar general and the chancellor, on March 4, they said rare earth minerals are a gift from God so “we have the responsibility to protect them.”