The much-publicized case of religious conversion against Missionaries of Charity (MC) nuns in India’s western state of Gujarat has come a cropper with the prosecution admitting there was no serious basis to proceed against them. The prosecution gave a written undertaking to a court in Vadorara city that it would not pursue the case any further, although the first information report written by police to set the investigation in motion has yet to be quashed.
The prosecution’s undertaking meant an end to the adverse publicity and unnecessary harassment of the nuns from the Kolkata-based organization founded by Mother Teresa which ran a shelter home for the destitute in Vadodara.
In a related development, the court also dropped the hearing of an anticipatory bail application filed by two MC nuns, who did not want to be identified, ending their nearly three-month ordeal to avoid likely arrest for a crime they never committed.
“Indeed it is happy news and vindication of our stand from the very beginning,” said Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest and rights activist based in Gujarat.
He confirmed that the local court decided to drop the legal proceedings on March 3 after the government prosecutor admitted in writing that there was no serious basis to proceed against the nuns.
Mulakkal verdict signals need for structural and systemic change
The verdict acquitting Bishop Franco Mulakkal in the much-awaited case of the sexual abuse of a religious sister has been disappointing to many of us, and has made us suspicious.
“I write this for many reasons; first, because I have journeyed with this case from a distance; and because I feel the need for speaking up in defense of our sisters, and sounding a wake-up call for us as women religious.” Wrote Dorothy Fernandes
What has pained me more than anything else is that some women religious that I know have rejoiced about the verdict of acquittal of a Bishop who was accused of nothing less than rape — and worst of all, he happens to be the patron of that local congregation. We all know now that at Kottayam the Additional District and Sessions Court Judge G. Gopakumar acquitted Franco.
Some women religious raise very naive questions: Why was she silent for all these years? Why was there such a delay in reporting the crime? I am afraid those who say that lack empathy and can’t imagine the trauma she has been going through. As women religious, some think: “He is a Bishop — he obviously cannot do it!” Wait a minute, he is also a human being, a man invested in power.
For too long we women in the church have accepted dominance and hierarchy and never questioned this because of the socialization processes we have gone through. Right from our childhood and into our teens we have been taught to accept everything without questioning. Because “they” know and you don’t; this is internalized and every institution in our society has reinforced this belief.
I know that a very small number of sisters in India have moved out of institutions and are living among or working with those on the periphery. I have been living by myself for more than two decades in Patna, and many priests who know me say “not everyone can be like you.” As if finding my space was so easy! I have often been perceived as “aggressive,” and my responses are “assertive.” So – it seems our institutional church does not want assertive women.”
Catholic priest made colonel in Indian army
A Carmelite of Mary Immaculate priest was on February 26 conferred the honorary title of Colonel Commandant by the federal Ministry of Defense.
Father Abraham Mani Vettiankal, who serve as the vice chancellor of the Christ University in Bengaluru is the first Indian Catholic priest to get the honour for his outstanding contributions to the promotion of National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme in the Christ University in the past decade.
The official piping was performed by Lt General Gurbirpal Singh, the director general of NCC at a ceremony conducted at the Parachute Regiment Training Center, Bengaluru, the capital of the southern India state of Karnataka.
Awarding this honor, Singh said the recognition was conferred to Father Abraham in recognition of being the first university in the country to introduce NCC as a credit course and for promoting its students to join the Indian Defense Service.
“The Christ University has promoted NCC as a priority program resulting its members joining the armed and paramilitary forces in significant numbers as well as for providing infrastructure and facilities for NCC training at the University Campus,” said the director general.
Indian Catholic politician reviled for seeking Good Friday liquor ban
A Catholic politician’s demand that the state government in Tamil Nadu keep liquor shops closed on Good Friday has triggered a backlash on social media.
Peter Alphonse, the chairperson of Tamil Nadu Minorities Commission, wrote to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on March 3 urging him to close all government liquor shops on April 15.
He said the liquor shops should be closed as a mark of respect and solidarity with the Christian community, which commemorates on Good Friday the passion and death of Jesus Christ with fasting and abstinence.
Alphonse made the letter public on social media on March 9, triggering an immediate backlash from netizens and politicians who described it variously as “unnecessary” and a “bad idea.”
Even the supporters of Indian National Congress, the party to which Alphonse belongs, slammed the idea as “crazy.”
Social media users called his demand for keeping liquor shops closed “arbitrary” and tantamount to “imposing unnecessary restrictions” on other communities who do not adhere to his religious beliefs. However, Alphonse found support from Savukku Shankar, a prominent political critic.
Shankar, who has more than 200,000 followers on Twitter, told that “the minorities in this country are pushed to such a situation as they continue to lose faith in the state and look towards religion for safety.”
“This is a failure of the state. Unless they are reassured they will further go into a shell. I understand them, so I have no grievance against Mr. Alphonse’s letter,” he added.
Arunachal bishop appeals children to pray for Ukraine counterpart
The Catholic Bishop of India’s remotest diocese has appealed children to pray for their counterparts in war-torn Ukraine.
Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao made the appeal March 10 soon after Russian airstrikes hit a kindergarten in Dnipro city of Ukraine.
“I appeal to all our children in the diocese to pray the ‘Our Father, as many times as possible for the suffering children and families in Ukraine. Let us target 1 million. The Our Father has the greatest need of today,” the Salesian prelate said in a note addressed to all in the northeastern most corner of India.
He expressed deep sad- ness at the loss of lives of civilians, children and women amid “painful happenings in Ukraine.”
“What we are seeing and reading leaves us with a lump in our throat. Words fail us to express our pain and anguish. I suggest that we continue our prayer. “Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us as we forgive,” the prelate’s note prayed.
Missionaries of Charity elects first Indian superior general
The Missionaries of Charity congregation has elected Sister M Joseph as its new superior general. The election took place March 12 at the congregation’s Mother House in Kolkata, eastern India.
Sister Joseph replaces Sr Mary Prema (Pierick), a German who led the congregation founded by Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata, for the past 13 years.
Sister Joseph is currently the superior of the congregation’s Kerala region, according to sources in the Mother House. Further details about the new leader of the world renowned Catholic religious congregation are awaited. The elected councillors are Sr Christie (Japan) Sr Cecile (Poland), Sr Marie Juan (East India) Sr Patric (Ireland). Saint Mother Teresa’s immediate successor was Sister Nirmala Joshi of Nepalese origin, who led the congregation during 1997-2009. Sister Joshi had started the contemplative branch of the Missionaries of Charity and remained at its head until she was elected to succeed Mother Teresa as the superior general.
Indian nuns from Missionaries of Charity stay back in Ukraine
The two Missionaries of Charity (MC) nuns from India working in war-torn Ukraine have decided to stay back to serve the people amid the Russian army advancing to invade the country. Sisters Rosela Nuthangi and Ann Frida from India’s Mizoram, a Christian-dominated state in India’s northeast, have expressed their “decision to stay on in Ukraine, risking their lives to serve people fleeing the war and the injured,” said a note from regional Bishop’s council.
Yet another Indian state proposes anti-conversion law
The northern state of Haryana became the 11th Indian state to consider enacting a law against religious conversions amid protests by opposition members who called it “divisive politics.”
The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government introduced the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Bill, 2022, in the legislative assembly on March 4.
Raghuvir Singh Kadian, a legislator from the opposition Congress party, tore its copy as a mark of protest and was suspended from the assembly.
If the bill is passed by the legislature, Haryana will follow in the footsteps of the BJP-ruled Karnataka in the south in adopting what is often referred to as the “freedom of religion” statute in the country.
Nine other states — Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand — have previously enacted their own anti-conversion laws, which have been challenged in courts at many places.
Nuns help stranded foreign students in Ukraine
An Indian Catholic nun and her associates are working round-the-clock to help stranded students and others fleeing war-torn Ukraine.
“God is using me to save people from death in Ukraine,” said Sister Ligi Payyappilly, the 48-year-old superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint-Marc in Ukraine.
Payyappilly, who is Indian, and 17 sisters of her congregation are giving shelter and food to the distressed students, besides helping them cross the Ukrainian border to escape to countries including Hungary, Ro-mania and Slovakia.
“Being in Ukraine for over 20 years, I have a lot of contacts and networks that helped me carry out this mission so far,” Payyappilly told GSR by phone after midnight March 3, just before her scheduled two-hour sleep. Her convent is in Mukachevo in western Ukraine, some 480 miles southwest of the national capital of Kiev.
People helped by Payyappilly’s team profusely thanked the nuns.
“We never thought we would be alive now,” said Vignesh Suresh, a third-year student of medicine who hails Payyappilly as “God’s angel who came to help us when we were totally lost.”
Speaking to GSR en route to Bucharest by train, Suresh said he and 45 other Indian students were stranded at the Polish border for 15 hours when Sisters Payyappilly and Christina Tymurzhina, a Ukrainian, came to help them.
“The sisters took us to their convent in their vehicles, hugged each of us with their love and warmth, gave us food, a warm hall to sleep in and escorted us in the morning to cross the Romania border,” Suresh said as his friends slept on the train.
JAMSHEDPUR JESUIT PROVINVCE’S – PLATINUM JUBILEE
On Saturday, 12th March, 2022, the Jamshedpur Province JESUIT family members gathered together to thank the Almighty God for the numerous blessings received by the Province and for guiding the Province over these seventy five years- 1947 to 2022. The concelebrating of the Holy Eucharist was led by His Excellency Most Reverend Felix Toppo, S.J, Archbishop of Ranchi. Archdiocese – Jamshedpur Province’s very own Jesuit, assisted by Rt. Rev. Telesphore Bilung, SVD, Bishop of Jamshedpur, Rev. Fr. Raphael Hyde, S.J. Provincial of Calcutta Province, Rev. Fr. Ajit Kumar Xess, S.J. Provincial of Ranchi Province and Rev. Fr. Jerome Cutinha, S.J, Provincial of Jamshedpur.