The provincial government in the western Indian state of Gujarat was compelled to roll back a ban on serving non-vegetarian food by street vendors after the poultry industry mostly run by Hindus objected to it.
The municipal authorities of four major cities — Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Bhavnagar — had imposed the ban and started evicting street cart ven-dors and roadside stall operators citing “vegetarian sensibilities” of the majority Hindu and Jain religious communities.
The official orders stated that food containing meat, chicken and eggs should not be sold at public places within a 100-meter radius of religious places, gardens, public places, schools and colleges.
They cited complaints from local residents that the “foul smell” of non-vegetarian food was offending their religious sentiments and affecting children.
The authorities were forced to withdraw the order after criticism that it was biased against businesses of minorities, especially Muslims, serving non-vegetarian food. It was clarified that the rollback on Nov. 16 was effected considering the impact it had on the poultry industry at the peak of the winter season when demand for chicken and eggs is high.
Judge’s transfer in nun’s rape case reversed
After rigorous public charges of foul play and sabotage, Kerala’s High Court in Kochi Nov. 20 overruled a move to transfer the trial judge from the high-profile case against a bishop in the alleged rapes of a nun.
Critics said the transfer of Judge G. Gopakumar, announced Nov. 12, would have stymied the completion of the three-year-old case against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar that oversees the accuser’s convent.
Gopakumar, who heads the district trial court in Kottayam, was the first to reject the bishop’s attempts to dismiss the case against him. Mulakkal’s subsequ-ent appeals to the appellate High Court and the Supreme Court in New Delhi were also denied. For months, trial proceedings have been closed to the public and news coverage is forbidden.
“The trial is in the final stage, and transfer of the judge at this stage is no doubt a body blow to the case. We are happy that the [state’s] top court has considered our demand,” Fr. Augustine Vattoly, said, calling the transfer timing abnormal. Vattoly, a priest in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, is a supporter of the survivor and five nuns who stay with her.
The Kerala government, with High Court approval, directed Gopakumar to take a new post in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital, 90 miles south of Kottayam. The High Court’s weekend order requires that Gopakumar complete the trial before a transfer can take effect. The rape survivor and both her supporters and Mulakkal’s had urged the court to keep Gopakumar in place to finish the rape trial.
54 lay people complete distance learning in theology
The need for Christians to move from blind faith to mature living of Christ’s values in society was stressed at a function organized by Vidyajyoti theologate in Delhi. The annual convocation and seminar conducted Vidyajyoti’s Distance Education Program in Theology was attended by 54 lay people from Europe and Malaysia, besides India. They awarded certificates for completing the course, Among them 44 attended the November 21 program online.
Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, the chief guest, lauded Vidyajyoti for conducting the “meaningful program” to equip the laity. The archbishop, who was a student of Vidyajyoti, stressed the need to bear witness to Jesus in the pluralistic world, through faith, truth and love. He reiterated that the Christians learning theology is part of the baptismal process.
Jesuits get court nod to prove Father Swamy innocent
The Bombay High Court has permitted the Jesuits to initiate separate proceedings to clear Father Stan Swamy’s name from accusation in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case.
The Jesuit Adivasi activist died July 5 under police custody at Holy Family hospital in Mumbai, western India. The National Investigation Agency arrested him October 8, 2020 from his residence near Ranchi, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
Father Swamy was arrested the 16th civil liberties activist to be arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for alleged anti-national activities.
The NIA accused 84-year-old Jesuit of being a member of banned Maoist group that conspired to overpower the Indian government.
On November 24, the bench comprising Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal heard Jesuit Father Frazer Macarenhas’ interim application that sought to clear Father Swamy’s name from the allegations.
The plea from the former principal of Mumbai’s Saint Xavier’s College urged the court also urged the court to order a mandatory judicial inquiry under section 176 (1-A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure into his elderly confrere’s death, reported Live Law, a website that reports legal matters.
Church official blames government policies for increased suicide cases
Church officials in India say suicide cases in India have increased mainly because of government’s wrong economic reforms and insensitive policies.
“Many have come to a rock-bottom with no jobs, no income and no hope for a better tomorrow,” says Father Faustine Lobo, regional director of social apostolate of bishops in Karnataka, a southern Indian state.
The priest, who is engaged in grassroots works, also says demonetization and increasing fuel prices on a daily basis has hit the common man directly.
According to the recently released Indian government data, an average 30 suicide cases took place daily in the country in 2020, allegedly due to “joblessness, bankruptcy and poverty.”
The report published by the National Crimes Records Bureau says as many as 10,662 suicide cases in 2020 were directly linked to poverty — 5,213 due to bankruptcy, 3,548 suicides joblessness and 1,901 cases from other forms of poverty. “The increase in deaths by poverty went up by 69 percent from the previous year, while suicides from joblessness hiked by 24 percent,” says the report as quoted in the Times of India.
Father Lobo says the hike suicide case indicates the frustration people go through because of the government’s pro corporate policies and actions that are “totally against common man’s welfare in the country.” He said bankruptcy and joblessness contribute to poverty and the crime bureau’s report indicates a state of “utter hopeless situation” people now face.
Nepal: Korean nuns, volunteers arrested for “illegal conversion” get bail
A High Court in Nepal on November 18 granted bail to two Catholic nuns and two volunteers from South Korea, who were arrested for “illegal conversion” in Nepal slums.
“Thank God for praying for Korean Sisters and volunteers. They got bail finally, thank you all for praying,” says a note from Father Silas Bogati, the vicar general of Nepal, posted on the “Couples for Christ – Nepal” WhatsApp group.
Sisters Gemma Lucia Kim and Martha Park Byongsuk, members of the Sisters of St Paul of Chartres Congregation, and two volunteers wee arrested September 14 after being accused of converting Hindus by coercion and allurement. The Koreans were kept in a jail at Pokhara, the nuns’ base in Nepal some 200 km northwest of Kathmandu, the national capital.
The High Court granted the bail after the district court in Pokhara rejected the nuns’ application. The bail was given at around 4 pm (local time). The nuns are expected to be released November 19 after the bail is paid and formalities are done at the lower court, a source in Kathmandu told Matters India.
The nuns will have to appear for hearing in case at the lower district court at a given date.
Nepal’s Catholic Church, which has been praying for the nuns and their companions, was relieved and happy, the source added.
The two nuns have been managing “St. Paul’s Happy Home,” a center in Pokhara that provides accommodation, food, education, medical services and skills training to about 120 slum children at Bus-Park. The home is named St. Paul’s in honor of their congregation’s patron.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the nuns distributed food rations to the poor, but some people accused them of alluring them to become Catholics by giving low-quality food.
Bishop Paul Simick, the Apostolic Vicar of Nepal, has told Aid to the Church in Need that the nuns’ arrest and denial of bail has shocked the Nepalese Catholic community. The allegations against the nuns “are utterly baseless and unjust,” he asserted.
The prelate clarified that Catholics do not indulge in forceful conversion and “the Korean sisters are known for doing exclusively social work.”
200 priests seek foreign help in Indonesia’s Papua region
Nearly 200 Catholic priests in Papua have called on the international community, includ-ing the United Nations, to play a more active role in bringing peace to Indonesia’s violence-plagued easternmost region.
In addition to diocesan priests, Franciscan, Augustinian, Jesuit and Missionaries of the Sacred Heart clerics were among 194 priests who said their call was part of an effort to be “pro-actively involved in the fight for justice, truth and peace” in Papua.
The region is caught in the grip of an insurgency being waged by separatist rebels against security forces in which innocent civilians are caught in the middle, they said in a statement.
The priests asked other countries to join them in urging rebels of the National Liberation Army of the Free Papua Organi-zation and security forces to call and observe an immediate cease-fire.
“We also firmly support inviting the UN high commissi-oner for human rights to come, see and hear the actual human rights conditions in Papua,” they said.
They also called on the go-vernment and agencies providing funds for development in Papua to review certain policies being conducted such as increasing troop deployments, which trigg-ers more violence and increased state oppression.
“There are even those in government who accuse priests who talk about human rights issues of being among the separa-tists,” they said.
Life is cheap in Thailand’s murder capital
Violent crime targeted by disgruntled locals at family members and acquaintances has been claiming victim after victim in southern Thai provinces notorious for hair-trigger tempers and rampant gun violence.
In one recent incident in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, which has been dubbed “the murder capital of Thailand,” the assistant head of a village shot dead his two-year-old daughter on Nov. 16 during a heated, drunken quarrel with his 27-year-old wife.
The man, who took umbrage at his wife for berating him for getting visibly drunk at home, reached for his gun and took a shot at his wife but missed. He then shot his daughter, killing the toddler instantly.
The villager then tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head but survived with a severe head wound, according to police.
The day before, a 60-year-old man in the southern province of Songkhla, which borders Nakhon Si Thammarat, shot his 88-year-old father dead following a quarrel in an incident that was recorded on a home surveillance camera. The man tried to flee but was arrested by police.
Gun violence has long been a serious problem in Thailand, especially in the South, with a per capita murder rate that is higher than that in the United States, according to experts.
In Nakhon Si Thammarat, which has a population of some 1.5 million, scores of locals have been shot dead this year alone and many more are likely to die before the year is out.
Iraqi Christian leaders hope to continue building on pope’s March visit
Nahla and Valentina like to stop and pray at Mar Elia Chaldean Catholic Church in the centre of this small majority Christian community. The grounds of the church once shelt-ered several hundred Christians who were forced to flee their homes in 2014 when Islamic State militants attacked Mosul and surrounding villages some 50 miles away.
The tents and caravans that dominated the property are gone, but the women say many Christian families remain unable to return home.
“Although we are from Ankawa, there are still many displaced in our midst from Mosul, Qaraqosh, and other towns, but they are now in apartments, having to pay rent and wondering if they will ever be able to go back,” Nahla told the Catholic News Service after lighting a candle near the saint’s statue.
“The pope gave us a lot of hope with his visit in March. It was wonderful to see our churches united in welcoming him and enjoying the many Masses, but in practical ways, we don’t feel much has changed in the circumsta-nces,” she said. “Being separated is so difficult.”
Chaldean Catholic Abp Bashar Warda of Irbil and other church officials acknowledge the pain that many still feel, but Abp Warda said the papal visit helped to inspire and recharge Iraq, which has struggled to regain a firm footing after years of conflict and sectarian violence.
Traditions mark Christ the King feast in Bangladesh
Catholic Surobhi Minj never misses a Sunday Mass. And, the November Sunday of the feast of Christ the King has become a harvest festival for her community in Bangladesh.
On the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe on November 21 Surobhi and family members wore new clothes to go to the church. They carried with them 15-kilogram rice from the latest harvest and offered it to Christ the King.
Surobhi also carried a cake she baked from the newly harvested paddy and shared it with everyone including the priest and nuns after the priest blessed the harvest offerings.
Local Catholics like Surobhi offer a share of their farm produce during the feast, making it a sort of harvest festival for indigenous Catholics across Bangladesh.
Surobhi planted paddy in her 0.251 hectors of land. “We harvested and stored it in the house. I am yet to measure this year’s yield but it’s better than previous years. I devoted a little to God because, without His grace and blessings, we cannot consume this crop at home,” the 34-year-old Oraon indigenous farmer said.
The premises of her Saint Anthony’s parish Church in Rajshahi Diocese were flooded with a variety of fresh crops on Sunday morning.
Like Minj, several Catholics in the parish had come to offer their harvests to Christ the King. Some even sold a part of the yield to gift new clothes to the priest.