The global glow of the 2022 Christmas celebration – with its candles and shining trees, colorful Santas and flying reindeer, gifts and cakes – has faded. However, time cannot diminish the core message of Christmas: Human life is precious. Christmas is the most life-affirming “birthday party” human history has ever witnessed. The birth of Jesus — the Lord of life — in the simple Bethlehem stable brought new life to the world and gave a new direction to human history.
Filipino prelate appointed member of Vatican dicastery
Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu as a member of the newly-established Dicastery for Culture and Education. “This symbolized the pope’s trust not only in the archbishop but in every Filipino,” Cebu Archdiocese said in a statement while announcing the appointment on Feb. 12.
Two new Catholic bishops appointed, one retires in India
Two bishops were appointed and one retired on February 4 in the Indian Catholic Church.
Pope Francis appointed Father Wilbert Marwein as the bishop of Nongstoin, a diocese in the northern Indian state of Meghalaya, and Father James Shekhar as the bishop of Buxar diocese in Bihar.
The Pope on the same day accepted the resignation Bishop Devadass Ambrose Mariadoss of Thanjavur diocese in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Prelate who took middle path in Bangalore liturgy dispute dies
Archbishop Emeritus Ignatius Paul Pinto of Bangalore, a renowned liturgist who found a middle path to solve the language controversy in the archdiocese, died February 8. He was 98.
The ball is in the court of Rajasthan’s Congress government
A four-century-old chapel in western India dating back to the Portuguese colonial era faces a threat of demolition as the administration aims to acquire land to turn it into a football stadium, local Catholics say.
Catholic leaders say the chapel of Our Lady Of Remedies in Daman faces threat due to a controversial beautification drive planned by Praful Patel, the administrator and a leader of the pro-Hindu Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Daman and Diu is a federally ruled territory that comes directly under the administrative control of the BJP-led government in New Delhi.
Territory’s administrator Patel neither confirmed nor denied the move to demolish the chapel to expand the football field.
“No, I have no idea, you ask the local authorities,” he told.
But local Catholics said the administration was firm about the demolition plan.
Evangelical church torched in Madhya Pradesh
Unidentified persons have set fire to a Protestant church in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Police have launched a probe against those behind the burning of the Evangelical Lutheran church under Kesla police station in Narmadapuram district.
People came to know about the incident only on February 12 morning when they went the church for their Sunday service.
“I do not know when it happened, but we came to know it on Sunday morning,” Church pastor Mahesh Kumre told on February 13.
According to him, the vandals entered the church through the grill after breaking it open.
They burnt everything inside the six-year-old church including a copy of the Bible, prayer books, fans and chairs among others.
Since none stayed in the church the vandals had sufficient time to destroy everything in-side the church, the pastor said.
Indian states asked to report on Christian persecution
India’s top court has directed seven state governments to present details of the action taken by their law enforcement agencies in cases of alleged attacks against Christians and their institutions.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Feb. 6 ordered the state of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh to present the information within three weeks.
The order came while hearing a public interest petition (PIL) filed by Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore along with the National Solidarity Forum and the Evangelical Fellowship of India.
The Supreme Court at an earlier hearing on Sept. 1 last year had directed the federal home ministry to obtain reports from eight states to enable it to assess the claims of the Christian petitioners on the alleged violent incidents against their community members and institutions.
The eights states were to provide information on the incidents of “criminal wrongdoings” that occurred in 2021, as alleged in the petitions, verifying the registration of cases by police on receiving information about the crime, the status of investigations, the arrests made, and charges filed in court for prosecuting the culprits.
The Supreme Court said the verification exercise was needed to determine whether directions issued by it in a number of earlier judgments were being followed by the provincial authorities. The judgments made the states accountable for preventing violence and taking action against perpetrators of sectarian violence, especially the lynchings of minorities.
India nabs 2,000 people in child marriage crackdown
More than 2,000 people were arrested Friday in India’s remote northeast after a government crackdown on illegal child marriages, police said.
India is home to more than 220 million child brides, according to UN figures, but the number of child weddings has fallen dramatically this century.
The two-week police campaign in Assam state began after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called on public help to abolish the “evil practice”.
Sarma said almost one in every eight women in Assam had to bear children before turning 18 which was contributing to high infant and maternal mortality rates in the state.
State police director general GP Singh said 2,044 people were arrested in the first day, including 52 priests and legal authorities who had presided over marriages.
Singh said girls as young as 12 were still being married to men in the state and police had come up with a total of 4,074 cases to investigate.
The legal marriage age in India is 18 but millions of children are forced to tie the knot when they are younger, particularly in poorer rural areas.
Many parents marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security.
India’s minorities get the raw deal in budget allocations
It is an open secret. There is no love lost between India’s religious minorities and the federal government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
When Muslims, the largest minority that makes up 14.2 percent of the nation’s 1.4 billion people, needed a healing touch they got a budgetary shock in the form of a major cut to funds meant for their welfare.
The presentation of this week’s national budget was greeted with disappointment and cynicism by the nation’s 170 million Muslims, accentuating the existing trust deficit between them and the ruling dispensation.
Christians, the second largest minority group comprising 23 million people, along with the others had expected increased budgetary allocations to continue the ongoing welfare schemes, notably the merit-cum-means scholarship for professional and technical courses meant for students.
Instead, they got the proverbial rude jolt in the form of a slash in the allocations for different welfare schemes, which they were least expecting.
After all, for years now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been chanting his pet credo, Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas – meaning ‘together, for everyone’s growth, with everyone’s trust’ – assuring the minorities that they will not face any discrimination.
Clearly, the budget has turned out to be exactly the opposite. It only helps to reaffirm the minorities’ perception that the BJP is biased and discriminates against them, treating them as second-class citizens.
Consider these figures to see why minorities are angry and disappointed.
The budget allocation for the federal ministry of minority affairs has been reduced by 38 percent from 50.205 billion rupees (US$610 million) last year to 30.970 billion rupees (US$376 million) now.
Catholics seek reinstatement of sex-accused bishop in India
More than a thousand Catholics joined a rally on Feb. 5, demanding the reinstatement of a bishop in the southern Indian state of Karnataka who is facing allegations of sexual abuse and financial mismanagement.
The Vatican appointed Retired Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore the apostolic administrator of Mysore Diocese last month, after announcing that Bishop Kannikadass A William of Mysore has proceeded on leave due to health reasons.
“We demand that our Bishop William be immediately reinstated,” said Mathew Suresh, convenor of Mysore Diocesan Laity Voice, which organized the rally.
Suresh, former public relations officer of the diocese, told UCA News that a memorandum was submitted to Archbishop Moras after the rally.
“Filthy messages by some diocesan priests regarding our bishop are being circulated on social media, alleging that the bishop was kicked out of the diocese as he has five mistresses and many illegitimate children,” Suresh said.
The protest – named peace and prayer rally – covered some three kilometers through a public road from St Joseph’s Cathedral to culminate at the Bishop’s House at Bannimantap.