Tribal people including Christians will undertake a grueling 200-kilometre march against the creation of an army firing range at Netarhat in eastern India’s Jharkhand state.
The march will begin at Tattapani in Latehar district on April 21 and reach the state capital of Ranchi on April 24.
“We will meet Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais on April 25 to press our demand for cancellation of a notification on the firing range,” Ratan Tirkey, one of the organizers of the march, told.
The struggle against the firing range goes back to the early nineties when the state government issued a notification ear-marking 1,471 square kilometers in the Netarhat Hills in Gumla and Latehar districts for field firing practice by the Indian army.
The project could have dis-placed over 200,000 tribal people in about 250 villages but for the strong resistance from the tribal communities that forced the government to defer the action.
The area was notified for periodical field firing and artillery practice in 1992 and again in 2002. As the deadline for renewal of the notification nears in 2022, the tribal communities are revamping their struggle.
But tribal communities in areas surrounding the firing range complained that the government ignored their rights and grievances for 27 years
Tirkey, a member of the Kendriya Jan Sangharsh Samiti (forum for people’s struggle) that led the struggle, said: “We are not sure what is in the mind of the current government but the previous Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party regimes repeatedly betrayed the tribal people.”
Jerald Jerome Kujur, secretary of Kendriya Jan Sangharsh Samiti, said tribal communities are afraid that the state government led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Jharkhand Liberation Front) may extend the notification.
Hindus enact Passion of Christ
A group of 40 Hindu men and women on April 15, Good Friday enacted the Passion of Christ in the northern Indian city of Varanasi, the heartland of Hinduism. “Varanasi presented a soothing picture of religious harmony, peace and love amid a gloomy scenario of communal polarization,” says Father Anand Mathew, the brain behind the program who directs Vishwa Jyoti Communications in Varanasi.
An estimated 12,000 people watched the play staged at Matri Dham Ashram, the renowned spirituality center where thousands of people from various faith communities gather in large number.
“The most unique aspect of this passion play was that it was performed as part of the Good Friday liturgy, substituting the traditional passion reading,” Father Mathew, a member of the Indian Missionary Society, told on April 16.
All in the family: Philippine dynasties tighten grip on power
If the son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos wins the May 9 presidential election, he will not be the only Marcos currently in power — and will almost certainly not be the last.
Elite families have long ruled the poverty-ravaged nation, holding on to positions of power for generations by dishing out favours, buying votes or resorting to violence.
Analysts say the system has become more pervasive in the decades since a popular uprising deposed Marcos and forced the family into exile. New dynasties have entrenched themselves in politics, smothering electoral competition, stunting economic development and worsening inequality.
“Power begets power — the more they stay in power, the more they accumulate power, the more powerful they get,” said Julio Teehankee, a professor at De La Salle University in Manila.
The archipelago has produced about 319 dynastic families, dating back to when the country was a US colony in the first half of the 20th century, Teehankee said.
“This is all dynastic. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I weren’t a Marcos”
Dozens have withered, but in 2019 members of at least 234 such families won positions in mid-term elections, he said.
They have flourished in a feudal and corrupt democracy where parties are weak, fragmented along clan lines and plagued by defections. Power, however, is not static. Families can win and lose it — and make a comeback. After the fallen dictator died in 1989, the Marcoses returned to their traditional stronghold of Ilocos Norte and began tapping local loyalties to get elected to a succession of higher positions.
Political families held 67% of seats in the House of Representatives, compared with 48 percent in 2004, and 53% of mayoral posts, up from 40%. Among the leading candidates for the 12 Senate seats being contested, at least three already have a relative in the chamber.
Asian Church pins hopes on papal visit to Kazakhstan
Pope Francis is set to visit Kazakhstan, a Central Asian state close to the epicentre of ethno-religious conflicts where bloody anti-government unrest early this year claimed 240 lives.
According to the office of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan is set to host the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in September with Pope Francis as a star guest.
Bishops’ Conference of Kazakhstan president Bishop Jose Luis Mumbiela said the Church was “grateful” to the president of Kazakhstan for inviting Pope Francis 20 years after the visit of Pope St. John Paul II.
The papal visit will be a “breath of hope and strength,” said Father Guido Trezzani, director of Caritas Kazakhstan in the predominantly Muslim nation of 15 million.
While Muslims constitute 70 percent of the population, Christians, mostly Orthodox, number about 30%. However, Catholics are a tiny minority of hardly 2% of the population.
The papal visit to the country of some 300,000 Catholics is considered a major boost for the Kazakhstan Church. The country has a huge landmass of some 3 million square kilometers, making it the ninth-largest nation in the world.
Pope Francis makes Easter plea for peace in Myanmar
Pope Francis has again plead-ed for peace and reconciliation in conflict-torn Myanmar where millions of people including Christians have been oppressed by the brutal military junta.
During his Easter plea for peace around the world, he cited the Southeast Asian nation where violence has persisted for more than a year after the military ousted the civilian government.
“I pray that God grants re-conciliation for Myanmar, where a dramatic scenario of hatred and violence persists,” he said. “We need the crucified and risen Lord so that we can believe in the victory of love, and hope for reconciliation.”
His attention to the people of Myanmar comes as the world is focused on the war in Ukraine.
Pope Francis has spoken several times about the crisis in Myanmar, which he regards with much affection after visiting the country in November 2017.
He has repeatedly called for military leaders to stop the violence, release all detained people and pursue dialogue to seek peace and reconciliation.
“Let our families be healed, let our nation be healed, let our world be healed. We greet the families that are coming out of many challenges”
The curse of cult following in Pakistan
Ever since losing a vote of confidence moved by a united opposition this month, Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has divided the nation with his aggressive campaign — on the ground and online.
You either agree with him or risk being called a traitor to the country, a thief or lifafa (a journalist accepting bribes). The space keeps shrinking for free thinkers. However, nothing compares to the controversial content posted by his followers last week.
“Peace be upon him,” stated a Khan sticker on the back wind-shield of a car whose photo was shared on Facebook.
The Islamic honorific, commonly used by Sunni Muslims, follows specifically after uttering the name of the Prophet Muhammad.
One can easily dismiss the image as being photoshopped. Well, guess again after reading the comments from diehard followers of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
“Peace be upon you, brother. Peace be upon everyone. It’s a prayer for safety, everyone should give it to each other,” stated Mohammad Bahoo Sarwar, president of Bahoo Films Corporation. All hail the cricketer hero who led the national team to its first and only World Cup win on March 25, 1992. A cult of personality was born that day.
Sadly, most people in the Islamic republic are neither as liberal nor moderate as Sarwar thinks. Media outlets in Pakistan follow a strict editorial policy of using this expression whenever mentioning the Prophet Muhammad. Religious minorities can be easily accused of blasphemy for using the same title with their names.
C. Raja Mohan, a contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express, even compared Khan to the Biblical character Samson determined to bring down the house of Pakistan, dominated until now by the army.
Catholic midwife honoured on Kartini Day in Indonesia
A Catholic midwife who has served a remote Indonesian province for more than three decades was among 10 women honoured by the government during its 144th Kartini Day celebrations.
Yovita Mariati, a midwife from Sikka district in East Nusa Tenggara province, received the award at the state palace in Jakarta on April 21.
Indonesians celebrate the day annually to commemorate the birth of their national heroine Raden Ajeng Kartini, hailed as a symbol of women’s empowerment for promoting gender equity and women’s rights during the Dutch colonial era.
Mariati has served new mothers and children as a midwife in Sikka district’s Nangalimang villages for the past 34 years.
The 54-year-old is a mother of four children who was widowed in 1999. She doesn’t get paid for her work and survives by selling hand-woven fabrics.
But that hasn’t stopped her from working for and advocating medical interventions to prevent diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and tuberculosis in the villages.
“I am crying and touched because it turns out that someone cares about what I have been doing all this time. I never thought that one day I would be rewarded like this”
An emotional Mariati, who received the award from First Lady Iriana Widodo, said: “I am crying and touched because it turns out that someone cares about what I have been doing all this time. I never thought that one day I would be rewarded like this.” She said she had only tried to do what she could for her fellow humans based on her high school education and the training and experience she had gained while being on the job.
Francis has opened the Vatican’s top leadership to women. Are lay cardinals next?
Pope Francis is reorganizing the Vatican Curia — the church’s administrators and his senior staff — and may name new cardinals in June. Francis’ new apostolic constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), issued last month, noted that the heads of dicasteries and other offices that manage the church need not be ordained. This highlighted Francis’ stated aim to give “more space” to women in the church.
Most of the important dicasteries are as a matter of fact headed by cardinals. But if any Catholic can head a curial office, the question becomes, does the title come with the job? More importantly, is the title needed to do the job?
If the main duty of a cardinal is to be an adviser to the pope, and there is no ordination required, it could make sense to restart the tradition of lay cardinals and to include women in the mix. Since the 16th century, cardinals have come mostly from the ranks of priests and bishops, but this has not always been the case. Some Spanish and Italian royals were created cardinals in the medieval church. More recently, Pope Pius IX named the curial lawyer Teodolfo Mertel a cardinal, two months before ordaining him deacon in 1858.
Mertel was not exactly a lay cardinal — he received clerical tonsure, a rite just short of ordination, in his late 30s — but he remained a cardinal deacon for the rest of his life. As auditor of the papal treasury, he oversaw a good part of the Vatican’s money.
There is even historical evidence of female deacons doing much the same. A sixth-century inscription recalls the Deacon Anna, who, with her brother, appears to have served as the treasurer of Rome.
Cologne Catholics who answer survey demand curbs on leaders’ power
Archdiocesan Catholics who responded to a survey preparing for the 2023 worldwide Synod of Bishops on synodality called for some big changes in the church. The German Catholic news agency KNA reported that a statement on the archdiocese’s website noted a majority of respondents called for the faithful to be given greater self-determination and demanded major curbs on the power of the church leadership and priests. Offices, ministries and functions should be assigned on a temporary basis, they said. In addition, church members should have a democratic say in matters such as the election of bishops.
The Archdiocese of Cologne has just under 1.9 million Catholics, KNA reported. More than 1,700 people — about .09 percent of archdiocesan Catholics — took part in the non-representative online survey, “Tell the pope — what should the future of the church look like?” They submitted more than 5,400 contributions and 1,200 comments.
The survey results were summarized by an agency in accordance with social science standards. The findings showed that respondents favoured a “separation of powers as in democracies” instead of “priest-center-edness.” In addition, people of all sexual orientations and those who had been married several times should feel fully accepted in the faith community, respondents said.
Priest’s unexplained expulsion from Russia fuels fears for foreign clergy
A Catholic priest was expelled from Russia without explanation, amid fears for the well-being of other clergy ministering in the country.
Father Fernando Vera, a Mexican member of Opus Dei, left Russia in mid-April after being told his residence permit was revoked.
Father Kirill Gorbunov, spokesman for the Russian bishops’ conference, told Catholic News Service April 21 no reason had been given for the priest’s expulsion, adding that the Catholic Church had “no reason” to believe it was connected with the conflict in Ukraine.
“All he did was relay to people what our bishops had already said – there’s no indication he went beyond that,” Gorbunov told. “The letter he received states that a person has the right to appeal, so we hope he’ll reapply for a visa and have a chance to resume his service here.”
“Although I haven’t listened to his church homilies, I know him personally as a balanced, reasonable person, who wouldn’t take radical positions. …Most priests and religious order members here are foreigners, and their superiors abroad are growing worried about them, with some suggesting they should consider leaving Russia for their own safety.”