At the age of 83, Sister Elsie Vadakkekara never miss-es her appointment with the poor on the streets, not even during a pandemic lockdown.
Summer, winter or in pouring monsoon rains, the Catholic nun is on the streets at midday every day to dis-tribute food to mentally ill people living rough in her neighborhood in western India’s Gujarat state.
Sister Elsie is a member of the Sisters of St Ann of Providence congregation based in Mithapur in Rajkot Diocese. She has defied the pandemic’s threat to her life to feed these abandoned people, a passion she has continued for a decade.
“I cannot sit in the comfort of my convent when my people are left fending for themselves, especially during this pandemic lockdown,” Sister Elsie told UCA News.
Father Swamy admitted in Catholic hospital on court orders
Jesuit tribal activist Father Stan Swamy was on May 28 admitted to a Catholic hospital in Mumbai following the Bombay High Court intervention.
Father Swamy arrived at Holy Family Hospital in Bandra, a Mumbai suburb, at 9:45 pm, according to Jesuit Father Arockiasamy Santhanam, spokesperson for the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, who is monitoring his senior confrere’s case.
“We are happy that the court has understood rightly the health condition, health emergency and the dire need for urgent medical treatments for Stan and granted the relief,” Father Santhanam told Matters India.
According to him, initial investigations at hospital showed Covid symptoms. “Stan is shifted to Covid ICU. He is on oxygen,” he added.
According to him, Father Frazer Mascar-enhas, the former principal of Mumbai’s St Xavier’s college and the visitor permitted by the court, met Father Swamy in the hospital.
In earlier video conference with judges, Father Swamy refused hospitalization and pleaded for interim bail to go to Ranchi, in eastern India, to be with his people.
However, as his health condition deteriorated Father Swamy obliged to the suggestion of hospitalization after his lawyer, with the court permission, interacted with him through the counsel call facility. “He is unable to stand, walk and eat without helpers,” Father Santhanam said.
Earlier in the day, the court directed Maharashtra government to transfer the 84-year-old priest, accused in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case, to the Holy Family Hospital from Taloja Central Jail and treat him.
Church workers rally to help victims of Indian cyclone
Church workers are struggling to organize food and drinking water for thousands of people a week after Cyclone Tauktae ravaged the coast of western India. What we need urgently is food and water,” said Father Thomas Mathew, director of social work in Rajkot Diocese.
Indian appointed bishop in Papua New Guinea
Pope Francis on May 13 appointed a missionary priest from India as the bishop of Aitape, a diocese in Papua New Guinea, a country in Oceania.
Bishop-elect Siby Mathew Peedikayil is a member of the Heralds of Good News, an India-based congregation. The 50-year-old priest is the current vicar general of the diocese of Vanimo. He was born on December 6, 1970, to Mathew Varkey and Annakutty Peedikayil, a Catholic family in Meloram near Peruvanthanam in the Idukki district of Kerala. He was ordained priest on February 1, 1995.
120 young men take vows to be Salesians in South Asia
In spite of the pandemic times disrupting regular novitiate schedules, in the nine novitiates of South Asia region, this year has more novices making their first profession than last year. Starting from traditional 24th May date for the first professions, this year there are 120 young men making their first profession on varied dates of 24th May, 31st May, 30th June, 15th August and 8th September.
Last year in South Asia region only 93 novices made their first profession as Salesians of Don Bosco.
Church converts hospital into Covid-care centre
The diocese of Balasore in Odisha has converted its 100-bed hospital into a centre for Covid care. The Church gesture was in response to a request from the District Magistrate, says Fr Paul Koonamparampath, the director of Jyoti Hospital in Balasore. Accord-ing to the priest, Odisha has seen a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases and the infection rate in Balasore was 27%.
Catholic press body mourns death of priest-editor
The Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) on May 27 mourned the passing away of Father Cheriyan Nereveetil, former chief editor of Sathyadeepam (Light of Truth), an Institutional member of the organization. The 49-year-old priest died on May 27 from head injuries sustained in a road accident two weeks ago.
A condolence message from ICPA president Ignatius Gonsalves saluted Father Nereveetil for setting high standards in media while giving an edifying witness as a media person and a pastor.
German Catholic Priests Defy Rome to Offer Blessings to Gay Couples
More than 100 Roman Catholic parishes in Germany offered blessings to gay couples on May 10 in defiance of church teaching and their own bishops.
The call for nationwide blessings came in response to a decree issued by the Vatican on March 15, reinforcing the church’s prohibition of priests asking for God’s benevolence for gay couples, stating that God “does not and cannot bless sin.”
A group of 16 German priests and volunteers organized a petition that within days collected more than 2,000 signatures. Encouraged by the response, they decided to take their action one step further and declare May 10 — chosen because of its association with Noah, who in the Bible is recognized by God with a rainbow, a symbol that has more recently been adopted by the L.G.B.T.Q. community — as a day to hold blessing ceremonies for any and all couples, but especially those in same-sex unions.
“In view of the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to bless homosexual partnerships, we raise our voices and say: We will continue to accompany people who enter into a binding partnership in the future and bless their relationship,” the group said in a state-ment. “We will not refuse a blessing ceremony.”
The Vatican had no comment on Monday, but the head of the conference of Roman Catholic bishops in Germany, Georg Bätzing, who is also the bishop of Limburg, rejected using public blessing ceremonies as what he called “instruments for symbolic actions on church policy or for protests.”
“It is part of the pastoral ministry of the church to treat all of these people fairly in their respective concrete situations on their life’s journey and to accompany them pastorally,” Bishop Bätzing said in a statement, speaking for the country’s bishops. “In this context, however, I do not consider public actions such as those planned for 10 May to be helpful or a way forward.”
French Bishops Fund New Mosque
Debate has emerged in France due to news about the diocese of Tours helping fund a new Muslim worship center. According to La Nouvelle République, Salah Merabti, president of the Muslim community of Indreet-Loire — which is about 150 miles southwest of Paris — recently thanked the local Catholic diocese for its contribution to the mosque, which is just a part of a brand new community center.
He told the paper that his co-religionists received 150,000 euros from Coca-Cola Algeria, as well as funding from local elected officials, the Jewish community and the Catholic diocese. “This is comforting,” he said. In 2019, as many as 9,000 Muslims showed up at the construction site to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fasting period. In 2020, COVID restrictions kept them away.
Following the revelation, Abp. Vincent Jordy justified the contribution by saying that it was merely a symbolic gesture in gratitude for a contribution Muslims allegedly made towards the visit of St John Paul II in 1996. In a signed statement on the archdiocesan website, Abp. Jordy dodged some of the blame. He declared:
An article published on April 13 in La Nouvelle République, titled “The mosque of Tours awaits its roof, its dome and its donations,” evokes the financial situation of this site. In this regard, it is emphasized that various contributors are participating in this project, including the diocese of Tours. Questions that have reached us about this article lead us to provide the following clarifications.
German Catholic group calls on bishops to unite with Rome
A German Catholic group appealed on May 8 to the country’s bishops to unite with Rome amid a day of protest at the Vatican’s “no” to same-sex blessings. The initiative “Maria 1.0” called on the bishops to stop the blessing celebrations for same-sex partnerships planned by some priests for May 10.
In a May 8 statement, Clara Steinbrecher, leader of the group, said: “The planned blessing celebrations are a targeted pro-vocation in the direction of Pope Francis and should therefore be omitted by the priests.”
CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, said that she urged priests and bishops to “accompany people in all life situations pastorally and compassionately” while preserving unity with Rome.
Maria 1.0 is inviting “all Catholics and people of good-will” to say a decade of the rosary on May 10, thus expressing their bond with the Virgin Mary and the whole Church. “We call on people to ask the Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with Jesus Christ so that he may keep the bishops and priests in unity with the pope and the whole Church,” Steinbrecher said.