The ‘Anjappam’ collective initiated by a Capuchin priest to feed the hungry with love and respect has opened its fourth branch in Changanacherry in Kottayam district in Kerala on Nov 1st.

The latest addition located in Panachikkal Buildings in the heart of Changanassery town was inaugurated by Capuchin Father Bobby Jose Kattikad, who is popularly known as ‘Bobbyachan.”

Fr Kattikad is known for his preaching, writing and evangelization through television, radio and social media.

Anjappam (five loaves), a concept visualized by Fr Kattikad and supported and facilitated by a community of friends who supports financially or otherwise, irrespective of caste or religion.

Anjappam restaurants have no cash desk or bills. Instead it has a box kept inside where people make contributions if they wish to. During the day, the restaurants act as places where good, healthy meals are available at affordable prices and in the evenings, they are transformed into libraries with reading spaces. It also acts as a hub for discussions and book reviews.

The restaurant chain funds itself through voluntary donations by customers. They uphold the thought that donations need not be in terms of money .Anyone who intends to help the poor and needy always have an option available here. This can be as spending one’s time at the restaurants, serving food and helping with cleaning activities.

The restaurants serve only vegetarian food. The members of the Trust take care to ensure that a majority of the vegetables are acquired locally so that they can provide healthy as well as environment friendly food, which is good for both the body and mind.

Anjappam also plans to distribute basic food packs free of cost to the homeless and other needy sections of society.

Anjappam currently has three other branches in Kerala – Ranni, Neyyattinkara and Kozhencherry.

“Walk the talk is to live the gospel values in day today life. The type of leadership in Pope Francis is participatory leadership. Then only any changes shall happen in clericalism,” said Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur on November 7 in his keynote address at the golden jubilee of Morning Star Regional Seminary, Kolkata.

Bishop Nayak asserted that the root of priestly formation lies in virtues of love, joy and humility.

“Merciful approach of God to all is to define the personality of true pastors. Avoiding luxury and embracing simplicity is the ideal of Francis in life,” said Bishop Nayak, an alumnus of the seminary.

The golden jubilee celebrations had a theme “to love all including those who do not love us.”

Sufficient openness for the laity in the Church in areas such as the diocesan councils for marriage, finance and pastoral is urgent, said the prelate.

He said that the next millennium will be of the laity.

Quoting Pope Francis, Bishop Nayak spoke on marching with joy and hope in current challenging situations of the Church.

In another talk, Father Soosai Mannickam, former staff, spoke about Pope Francis’ pastoral ministry expectations from the priests.

The principle character of a pastor is to know his people, (smell the sheep), the forgiving love of God (who am I to judge), the priest said.

Father Mannickam also noted that Pope Francis’ leadership is to inspire all.

“The new way of evangelizing God’s word is living a life in the values of the Kingdom a life of mercy and kindness in holiness.”

The Missionaries of Charity (MC) congregation has agreed to resume its service of giving children for adoption. The congregation founded by St Teresa of Kolkata, commonly known as Mother Teresa, dis-continued giving babies from their orphanages for adoption in Oct. 2015 after disagreeing with a new federal law that allowed single and divorced woman to adopt children.

The congregation has revised its stance and will join the centralized adoption service system set up by the government, said Maneka Gandhi, who heads the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

A delegation of three MC nuns including Sister Mary Prema Pierick met the minister on Oct. 29 and decided that children in its 79 homes can go into family care. The nuns in a Nov. 2 press release said they had agreed to register all their childcare homes with respective state governments as man-dated by the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015. Most MC homes for children are already registered and the remaining homes are in the process of completing registration formalities, the release said.