A Christian group in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has sought police protection for the minority community during the Christmas season.
The Akhila Bharatha Christha Mahasabha (All India Christian Forum), a Protestant body, in a written communication to the Director General and Inspector General of Police requested to ensure a peaceful Christmas as Christians are reeling under attacks “since the enactment of the anti-conversion law.”
Prajwal Swamy S, founder member of the organization, said they wanted the police to provide security cover to churches across the southern state during the festive season.
“Christians are apprehensive of participating in carol singing and visiting the houses of church members during the night for good wishes as they may face attacks,” Swamy told The Hindu newspaper.
“Christians in Karnataka are fearful about being target-ed.”
He cited two recent incidents of Hindu nationalists disrupting Christian prayer meetings in Channapatna and Maddur, both located around 60 kilometers from the state capital Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), by alleging religious conversion activities.
Odisha chief minister inaugurates renovated pro-cathedral in Bhubaneswar
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated renovated and extended building of St. Vincent’s Pro-Cathedral Church in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Odisha. “I am delighted to be here for the completion of the renovation of the church. Thank you very much,” said the chief minister in his inaugural address to the gathering on December 9, at the pro-cathedral. Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in his welcoming speech said Christians in the state have experienced the chief minister’s care and attention. “We thank you sir wholeheartedly for your coming over here this evening to grace the occasion,” said the Divine Word prelate.
Dilip Tirkey, president of the Hockey Federation India and a native of Odisha present for the inauguration, too expressed the gratitude of Christians of the state to the chief minister.
Fisherpeople’s protest in Kerala called off
Fisherfolk’s protest against an under construction international seaport in Kerala has been called off after nearly five months, paving the way for re-starting the stalled construction work.
Announcing the end of the stir on December 6, Father Eu-gene Pereira, the convener of the protest, said they decided to end agitation not because they were satisfied with the steps taken by the government but because it had reached a certain poin.
The priest of the Trivandrum Latin archdiocese also maintained that it was a temporary truce indicating that if the government failed to fulfil the promises they might consider restarting the protest.
The construction work of the 75 billion rupee Adani Vizhinjam International Seaport came to a halt after the fisherpeople, mostly Catholics, launched an indefinite protest on July 20 under the leadership of bishops and priests of archdiocese with a seven point charter of demands. The protesters said after the port construction started in 2015 close to 500 fishermen lost they houses to seawater and we-re forced to live in unhygienic warehouses and other places.
Indigenous people feel abandoned by Philippine Church
A group of some ten women stood away from everyone else in a corner of the church as Sunday Mass progressed in San Lorenzo parish, in the hilly tourist district of Loakan in the Philippines.
The women belonged to the Igorot tribe in Mountain Province, a landlocked province in the Cordillera Administrative Region. They looked reluctant to speak with other members of the congregation even after the Mass was over as they were not comfortable conversing in English or in the popular Tagalog language.
They said they would live to participate in things a bit more but have been left with the sense that they do not really fit in.
“We tried to join several parish activities before but we were never voted or even nominated as members of the parish pastoral council. I think those seats were reserved for those who are rich and be of more use to the church in a material sense,” said Manang Trining, who spoke for the group.
The isolation that the Inibaloy people feel in parishes is reflective of their social exclusion within the Church itself and wider society, their leaders say.
Be prophetic communicators, Catholic journalists told
The bounden duty of the media to become prophetic communicators was stressed at a national convention of journalists in Chennai, southern India.
“As the members of the Fourth Estate and proud citizens of India, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the unsavoury developments in the social, economic, political, technological and religious spheres,” asserted the 27th convention of Christian Journalists, hosted by the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA).
The convention was held during the association’s December 8-11 annual general body meeting.
Salesian Sisters dedicate shrine to mark centenary
The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco of Guwahati province has launched the centenary celebration of their arrival in northeastern India with a shrine dedicated to St. Mary Domnica Mazzarello, their co-founder at St. Mary’s Convent in Guwahati, Assam.
Leading the December 8 function, Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati said, “I join with you to thank God for his blessings upon you and I congratulate you for your presence and for the 100 years of selfless service to North East India in so many ways.”
Six pioneers from Italy led by Sister Innocenza Vallino, arrived in Guwahati on December 8, 1923, and began their educational mission in a dilapidated cottage in the premises of Don Bosco, Pan Bazar, Guwahati.
Indian bishop wins reprieve from likely arrest
An Indian court has granted anticipatory bail to Bishop Thomas Dabre of Pune, averting his likely arrest as a co-accused in a case of alleged clergy sexual abuse.
Bishop Dabre was named by Pune city police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in a case under pro-visions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The case involves Father Vincent Pereira of Pune diocese, who was accused of abusing a 15-year-old schoolboy.
Pope makes Vatican foundations subject to control of Curia’s economic bodies
“The person who is trust-worthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones.”
Pope Francis quotes Lk 16:10 at the start of the Motu Proprio released on Tuesday concerning instrumental juridical persons, including funds, foundations and entities that refer to the Holy See, and are registered in the list referred to in Article 1 § 1 of the Statute of the Council for the Economy, and having their headquarters in Vatican City State.
“Although these entities have a formally separate juridical personality and a certain administrative autonomy, it must be recognized,” the Pope says, “that they are instrumental in the realization of the ends proper to the curial institutions at the service of the ministry of the Successor of Peter.”
‘Synodal way’ architect says political tactics built pressure for change
An architect of Germany’s “synodal way” has explained how organizers used tactics employed successfully in politics to build pressure for change in the Catholic Church.
Thomas Sternberg said in a Dec. 2 interview that issues such as married clergy, women priests, and homosexuality were “opened up” by the initiative and were now being “discussed internationally, not only in Germany.”
Sternberg was co-president of the synodal way when it was officially launched on Dec. 1, 2019, until he stood down as president of the influential Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in 2021.
He told the Cologne-based Catholic news website Domradio.de that the multi-year process — which brings together Germany’s bishops and select lay people to discuss power, the priesthood, women in the Church, and sexuality — was “running much more successfully” than he had first imagined.
He noted that Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, had “want-ed to stop the whole thing” three years ago.
“What is now happening here in Germany is a non-binding discussion process from the per-spective of canon law.”
U.S. Catholic population shows growth, trends southward
The Catholic population in the United States has grown by about 2 million people in 10 years. With nearly 62 million people, it continues to constitute the largest religious body in 36 U.S. states, according to the latest religion-focused survey of America’s religious congregations.
Over the last decade, many Catholics, the survey found, have moved to the South.
“Perhaps the most notable changes were by region,” Clifford Grammich, a political scientist involved in the U.S. Religion Census, told CNA Dec. 5. “Fifty years ago, 71% of U.S. Catholics were in the Northeast and Midwest; in 2020, 45% were. And the South now has more Catholics than any other region. I was surprised to see there are now more Catholics than Southern Baptists in Missouri and Virginia.”
The U.S. Religion Census is conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies every 10 years. Its latest report was released last month.
Its 2020 survey reported that there were 61.9 million Catholics in the U.S., about 18.7% of the population. The survey identified 372 religious bodies with more than 356,000 congregations and 161.4 million adherents in the United States.