Amid surging Covid-19 infections in the Christian majority Nagaland, Governor R N Ravi has requested Church leaders to influence people to follow corona virus protocols.
The governor held a meeting on April 19 with leaders of various Christian denominations in Nagaland at Dr Imkongliba Hal inside Raj Bhavan, his residence, in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state.
The governor discussed the Covid-19 situation in the country as well as in Nagaland. He told the Church leader to use their moral and spiritual authority to save people from the pandemic.
On April 19, Nagaland reported 13 positive cases, taking the state’s caseload to 12,568. On the same day, India reported nearly 260,000 cases.
Covid-19 claims seven Catholic priests in Indian state
Seven Catholic priests have died of Covid-19 in the space of four days in India’s Gujarat state, one of the worst-hit areas where government and private hospitals are adding more beds as infections spiral out of control.
In one day, April 19, Gujarat reported as many as 7,107 fresh corona virus cases and 177 deaths. The death toll has reached 5,494 since the pandemic hit the western state last year.
Father Pascal Jacob Ninama of Baroda Diocese is the latest victim. The 56-year-old died on the morning of April 20. Father Paulraj Napoleon of the same diocese died of the virus on April 17.
The other priests to have died in Gujarat were three Jesuits — Fathers Jerry Sequeira, Jesuraj Arputham and Erwin Lazarado — Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Father John Fisher and Divine Word Father Francis Rayyappan.
“All seven of them died of Covid-19 between April 16 and 20,” said Father Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit social activist based in Ahmedabad, the state’s largest city.
“The situation here is very bad and beyond imagination. You can see long queues in front of hospitals to get their sick admitted. You can also see lines of dead bodies waiting to be cremated,” he told UCA News
The government “is in denial mode” and “not sharing the real picture,” the priest said, sharing the common fear that the state’s healthcare facilities have collapsed, unable even to provide oxygen to care for the sick.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of his home state Gujarat for fourteen years until 2014. While heading the state government, Modi touted Gujarat as a role model of development in the country.
In the run-up to general elections in 2014, Modi promised to implement the Gujarat model across India to turn it into a prosperous nation.
Modi’s critics claim the state’s inability to deal with Covid-19 is proof that the so-called Gujarat model of development was a media creation. “The Gujarat model is nothing but media publicity. The state lacks basic facilities to take care of the poor and the middle class,” Father Prakash said. “It is true some people under Modi became rich and super-rich, but that does not mean that all the people of Gujarat have become wealthy.”
Arunachal’s Apatani tribe gets first Catholic nun
The Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh got its first Catholic nun when Sister Dulley Yakang made her First religious profession as the member of the Congregation of the Mother Carmel.
She took the vows April 17 at a ceremony in Mount Carmel Parish, Dimapur, the commercial capital of the northeastern Indian state.
“It is indeed a matter of pride for all of our Apatani community that one of our own became a religious sister,” said Nani Yase Teresa, the president of Apatani Catholic Women Association of Itangar diocese. “I used to pray for her daily during my family prayers and I pray that many more youth from Arunachal Pradesh become fathers and sisters like Sister Yakang” she added.
Sister Yakang is the daughter of Dulley Buda and Dulley Adii of Hapoli parish. She is the third among the nine siblings and started her formation for religious life after completing her bachelor degree.
She made her religious profession together with four others in the presence of their provincial Sister Emilin and Bishop James Thoppil of Kohima.
Newly professed CMC nunsCongratulating Sister Yakang, Bishop John Thomas of Itanagar said, “It is a matter of joy for the young Church in Arunachal Pradesh to get a vocation to religious life. We are very proud of her and we wish her happy and fruitful religious life.”
Sister Yakang is the tenth religious nun of indigenous origin from Itanagar diocese.
“I hope she will be a source of inspiration for many more young people to come forward to offer their lives in the service of the people,” said Bishop Thomas.
Archbishop Sirkar promoter of local Church
With the death of Archbishop Lucan Sirkar on April 18, the Church in Bengal lost a stalwart leader whose major concern was to build local leadership with local resources.
Archbishop Lucas succeeded Archbishop Henry D’Souza on April 14, 2000, and remained Archbishop until Feb 23, 2012.
During those 12 years his sincere efforts were to build local leadership, promoting local vocations for future mission. His efforts resulted in many local vocations from Santhal, Adivasis communities. Vocations came also from Odisha and Bengal states.
Many priests who serve the archdiocese now are basically from local grassroots. That’s certainly Archbishop Sirkar’s great contribution to the Church.
I am indebted to him for entrusting me with important offices in the archdiocese.
He appointed me the dean of Howrah-Hooghly and Kolkata city Deanery. I was appointed editor of The Herald, the dio-cesan weekly. He also encourag-ed me to promote Bangla Herald. Besides being pro vicar of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary since May 1, 2002, I was one of the archdiocesan consulters and a member of the Arch-diocesan Finance Committee.
Christians in India accuse government of double-standard as millions attend Hindu festival
Devotees take holy dips in the river Ganges during Shahi snan or a Royal bath at Kumbh mela, in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, April 12, 2021. As states across India are declaring some version of a lockdown to battle rising Covid cases as part of a nation- wide second-wave, thousands of pilgrims are gathering on the banks of the river Ganga for the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela. The faithful believe that a dip in the waters of the Ganga will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death.
Some Catholic leaders are accusing the government of India of a double standard for allowing millions of pilgrims to participate in a large Hindu ceremony, while strictly imposing COVID-19 rules on the worship of religious minorities.
The Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. The faithful congregate in the northern city of Haridwar and take a dip in the waters of the Ganges, which they believe will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death. The Kumbh Mela, which runs through April, comes during India’s worst surge in new infections since the pandemic began, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 new cases per day. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.
Bishops set prayer day as pandemic deaths spiral in India
Catholic leaders have urged their people across India to strictly follow Covid-19 restrictions as they dedicated a day of prayer to contain the infection spreading like wildfire.
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India president Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai has written to bishops asking them to hold a day of prayer and fast on May 7 seeking divine intervention to save the country from the spreading pandemic.
“We are recording around 300,000 new cases of corona-virus every single day. The second wave has hit us like a tsunami and we are yet to reach the peak,” his April 22 letter said. “Added to this is the apparent lack of planning, resulting in a shortage of hospital beds, anti-viral drugs, oxygen and vaccines. It could get worse before it gets better.”
Cardinal Gracias urged people to follow Covid-19 protocols such as wearing masks, main-taining physical distancing and sanitizing hands as well as adhering to restrictions and curfews imposed to break the chain of infections.
The prelate also wants every-one to get vaccinated against the viral disease.
Sheshan’s shrine is closed but its amusement park is open, like other tourist spots
The Catholic diocese of Shanghai has announced that pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan will be cancelled in May due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the amusement park on Sheshan Hill has been open for some time, as have many mass tourist spots in the country.
The shrine of Sheshan is a national Marian shrine and in the month of May there is a tradition from the various Chinese dioceses to go on pilgrimage walking up the hill on which the basilica stands, stopping in the intermediate chapels and marking the stations of the Cross, up to the summit where the church stands, crowned by the statue of Mary presenting her Son to the world.
According to the diocesan announcement, “as the pandemic at home and abroad is still not under control, and measures for the prevention of the pandemic are still in place in the nation, to comply with the demands and regulations of the [Shanghai] municipal government … The annual May pilgrimage to Sheshan has been cancelled”.
The announcement explains that the Sheshan basilica, the intermediate chapels and other areas are closed and there will be no pilgrimages and religious activities. The presence of groups of pilgrims and individuals are not allowed. Catholics are advised to stay home and pray asking for an end to the pandemic, so that they can return to normal life.
Throughout China, places of worship have been gradually reopened in many provinces since March and community religious practice has resumed. Despite strict health measures, many Catholic churches have also reopened and masses are again being celebrated with the live participation of faithful. In Beijing, Shanghai and other provinces, the reopening was enthusiastically announced, although the closure continues in some parts of the country.
In many dioceses – for example in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Inner Mongolia – the reopening coincided with the celebrations of Holy Week: the mass in Coena Domini with the ceremony of the washing of the feet; the Via Crucis; baptisms of catechumens at Easter; the distribution of Easter eggs.
Priest’s book documents history of Christianity in Bangladesh
A senior Catholic priest has authored and published a book that documents the history of Christianity in Bangladesh spanning over five centuries with an aim to inspire young Catholics to better understand the advent and growth of Catholicism amid various challenges. Father Albert Thomas Rozario’s Bangla-language book Bangladeshey Christodhormo and Christomondolir Etikotha (Christian Religion and Christianity in Bangladesh) was launched by Oblate Archbishop Bejoy N. D’Cruze of Dhaka on April 12. Father Rozario, 61, is a diocesan priest and pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in the Savar area covered by Dhaka Archdiocese. The priest, who is a Supreme Court lawyer, also teaches civil and criminal law to students at Holy Spirit National Major Seminary in capital Dhaka.
The 300-page book is the third Bangla-language book on the history of Christianity and the Catholic Church in Bangladesh after Bangladeshey Catholic Mondoli (The Catholic Church in Bangladesh) by Canada-based Catholic writer and journalist Jerome D’Costa in 1986 and Bangladeshey Christomondoly Porichiti (Introduction to Church in Bangladesh) by Father Dilip Stephen Costa in 2020.
Father Rozario earlier authored a Christian introduction to practical law for Christians and Shadhu-Shaddhy Der Jibon Kotha (The Life of Saints).
Vatican issues message for Ramadan: Christians and Muslims as witnesses of hope
The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue released a message addre-ssed to Muslims today titled ‘Christians and Muslims: Witnesses of Hope’ on the occasion of Ramadan and ahead of the feast of Id al-Fimr, the Festival of Break-ing the Fast, which marks the end of the holy month.
Signed by the president of the Pontifical Council, Card Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, MCCJ, and its secretary, Fr Indunil Kodithuwakku Janakaratne Kankanamalage, the statement stresses the meaning hope has for believers, based on the “belief that all our problems and trials have a meaning, a value and a purpose, however difficult or impossible it may be for us to understand the reason for them or to find a way out of them.”
“During these long months of suffering, anguish and sorrow, especially during the lockdown periods, we sensed our need for divine assistance, but also for expressions and gestures of fraternal solidarity: a telephone call, a message of support and comfort, a prayer, help in buying medicines or food, advice, and, to put it simply, the security of knowing that someone is always there for us in times of necessity.
“The divine assistance that we need and seek, especially in circumstances like those of the current pandemic, is manifold: God’s mercy, pardon, providence and other spiritual and material gifts.”
“While optimism is a human attitude, hope has its basis in something religious: God loves us, and therefore cares for us through his providence. He does this in his own mysterious ways, which are not always comprehensible to us.”
Catholic media tycoon jailed in Hong Kong
Catholic media tycoon and philanthropist Jimmy Lai has been jailed for 14 months in Hong Kong after being found guilty of unauthorized assembly.
He was among nine activists in court on April 16 who were earlier found guilty of charges relating to pro-democracy de-monstrations in the Chinese territory in 2019.
Lai, 72, has donated millions of dollars to Catholic causes and has been retired Cardinal Joseph Zen’s biggest financial backer.
He made his fortune through mid-market fashion chain Gior-dano before putting his wealth into media companies Next Media and the city’s leading anti-Beijing newspaper Apple Daily.
Lai’s jailing comes as the Chinese Communist Party inten-sifies its crackdown on Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms.
Earlier this week, Apple Daily published a handwritten letter by Lai, sent from prison, which read: “It is our responsi-bility as journalists to seek justice. As long as we are not blinded by unjust temptations, as long as we do not let evil get its way through us, we are fulfilling our responsibility.”
Speaking to the BBC before the hearing, Lai said that even if he were to be imprisoned, he would still be “living my life meaningfully.” “I came here with one dollar. I got everything I have because of this place. If this is the payback time, this is my redemption,” he said.