A new television channel has been launched in Iraq as an initiative to save Syriac, a language spoken for more than 2,000 years which was once the most common in Christian liturgies.
An ancient dialect of Aramaic, Syriac has traditionally been the language spoken by Christians in Iraq and neighbouring Syria. The goal of the new station Al-Syriania is “to preserve the Syriac language” according to its director Jack Anwia.
“Once, Syriac was a language widespread across the Middle East,” he said last week, adding that Baghdad has a duty “to keep it from extinction”. He added that “the beauty of Iraq is its cultural and religious diversity”.
Iraq’s government launched the channel in April with around 40 staff and a variety of programming, from cinema to art and history.
“It’s true that we speak Syriac at home, but unfortunately I feel that our language is disappearing slowly but surely,” said Mariam Albert, a news presenter on Al-Syriania.
“It is important to have a television station that represents us,” she added.
Syriac-speaking communities in both Iraq and Syria have declined over the years, owing to decades of conflict driving minorities to migrate. Today, Iraq is overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim but also home to Sunni Muslims, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and other minorities, with Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages.
Pope Francis ‘progressively improving’ after abdominal surgery
Pope Francis’s medical team reported June 9 morning that two days after undergoing surgery for an abdominal hernia, the pontiff is continually improving and spent the morning reading following a lengthy rest the day before.
A June 9 statement from the Vatican said that Pope Francis “rested well during the night,” and that his medical team says his clinical status “is progressively improving and the post-operative course is regular.”
Francis breakfasted and got out of bed after, spending most of the day in an armchair in his room, allowing him “to read the newspapers” and to begin “the initial resumption of his work.”
Pope Francis underwent abdominal surgery Wednesday afternoon for what the Vatican described as “a lacerated incisional hernia” causing recurrent pain “and worsening sub-occlusive syndromes,” meaning there is a hernia in the abdominal wall at the place of a previous surgical incision in which the intestine goes out and comes in, creating discomfort.
The pope spent Thursday resting, and maintained a liquid diet, apart from receiving communion for the Catholic Feast of Corpus Christi, which commemorates Jesus’s death on the Cross.
He also voiced gratitude for the many well-wishes and messages of support that have come in from around the world.
A Vatican statement Thursday evening said Francis was particularly moved by a message he received from the family of infant Miguel Angel, who was baptized by the pontiff on March 31, while Francis was admitted to the Gemelli hospital for bronchitis.
Syro-Malabar liturgy dispute raised in Ireland
The liturgy dispute in India’s Syro-Malabar Church was raised at an annual pilgrimage to an international Eucharistic and Marian Shrine in Ireland’s Knock town.
Around 4,000 Catholics attended the May 13 pilgrimage of the Syro Malabar Community living in Ireland that was led by Bishop Stephen Chirappanath, the Apostolic Visitor of the Syro Malabar Catholics in Europe.
Manipur: Jesuit lawyer suggests three-fold legal aid to victims
Jesuit lawyer Father Santhanam Arokiasamy on May 16 proposed a three-fold legal assistance to the victims of the recent violence in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur.
Father Arokiasamy, who is the convener of the National Lawyers Forum of Priests and Religious (NLFRP), made the proposals in a letter addressed to the chief justice of India and the chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).
Knanaya priest denies permission, couple garlands before closed church
A Catholic couple exchanged marriage vows and garlanded each other in front of a closed church after the groom’s priest defied a court order and refused to issue a mandatory certificate. Had the Kottayam Knanaya archdiocese granted Justin John permission to marry Vijimol Shaji, he would have become the first member of the endogamous and closed community to retain his church membership after marrying outside the sect.
Faith comforts family of Indian Catholic killed by stray bullet in Sudan
An Indian Catholic killed by a stray bullet in Sudan in front of his wife and daughter on April 15 is finally home, with his remains returned to the southern Indian state of Kerala May 19 and laid to rest the next day.
Albert Augustine, a former Indian soldier who had been working in private security for a Sudanese company, was killed when he opened a window in his Khartoum apartment.
121 churches of 15 denominations destroyed in Manipur violence
As normalcy has limped back to Manipur, Churches have taken stock of the damages they have suffered during the four-day mayhem that ravaged the northeastern Indian state.
According to a list publi-shed by the Churachandpur District Christian Goodwill Church, as many as 121 churches and buildings belonging to 15 denominations were torched or destroyed in the ethnic violence that began on May 3 across Manipur.
The violence has claimed more than 70 lives and wounded 200 people. According to an official record, some 30,000 people have been displaced.
According to Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, the head of the Catholic Church in Manipur, about 45,000 people now live in relief camps in the valley and the hills. Around 13,800 are in Imphal west, around 11,800 in Imphal East, around 4,500 in Bishnupur, 5,500 in Churachandpur, around 7,000 people in Kangpokpi district.
Christianity, with several denominations, is the second most followed religion in Manipur, according to 2011 census data of India.
Survivors of Manipur violence recount bloodcurdling stories
On May 2, a day before Manipur went up in flames, T. Khupminthang, took shelter in the house of his employer, a Meitei, along with his son and three others.
The five Kuki tribals were residents of Churachandpur district, but worked in Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state.
Two of them did not survive the violence that lasted until May 6. A Meitei mob killed them.
On May 3, Khupminthang and others decided to seek shelter at an Army Camp. As they were ready to leave, hundreds of Meitei people descended on the house with sticks and iron rods. The five fled upstairs but were overpowered.
The mob then took them to a room and asked for their identification cards. Some in the mob shouted they were looking for the “Kukis.” On realizing one of their captives was a member of the Zou community, the mob said they pardoned him. Someone in the mob said Zous are part of the Kukis, the attackers’ mood changed.
The mob took three of them away while T Khupminthang and another person were hidden by their employer for an hour. T. Khupminthang later said he heard the cries of one of the captives. T. Khuplunthang and the other person went to the Singzamei army camp.
The mob that took the three tortured them and left them for dead on an Imphal street. Their attackers had taken the videos of the attack and posted them online. The police presumed the three dead and took their bodies to the morgue of a hospital in Imphal.
While two of them had died already, Khuplunthang’s son regained conscious and requested a nurse for her phone to call his mother in Churachandpur. He begged her to rescue him.
Protect humans from wild animals: Cardinal Alencherry pleads
Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church has termed as “a shame” the increasing cases of wild animals killing humans in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
“Incidents of wild animals entering villages and killing and injuring humans are on the rise,” laments the cardinal’s May 19 press statement that cited wild buffalos killing three people on May 18 at different places in the state.
A farmer Thomas Plavanakuzhili, a resident of Erumeli Kannamela area, was attacked by a wild buffalo when he was in his rubber plantation.
One Chackochan was attacked by another wild buffalo when he was sitting on the verandah of his house. Around the same time, Samuel Varghese, a resident of Kollam Anchal, was killed in a wild buffalo attack.
“Similar incidents are happening in many places. This is an absolute disgrace to a civilized society,” said the cardinal’s statement.
The prelate wants the government to take immediate steps to control wild animals that threaten humans and protect human life.
“The complacency of those responsible in this regard is objectionable. It is unjustifiable to deny humans the respect, and protection that is given to wild animals.”
The cardinal wants the government to make the necessary legislation instead of issuing regular statements announcing meager financial aid.
“Legal measures taken in other developed countries to protect wild animals and control the dangerous increase in their numbers should be a model for our country,” he added.
10 people arrested on conversion charges in India
Police arrested 10 people under the stringent anti-conversion law after a raid on a Christian prayer gathering in a central Indian state.
Some 70 Christians had gathered at a private residence in Kotwali in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh state on May 13 when a police team arrived and stopped their prayer meeting alleging “religious conversion activity.”
“Our people were arrested after branding the routine prayer meeting as a conversion activity,” a pastor speaking on condition of anonymity said on May 15.
Police also seized copies of the Bible and other documents from the residence. The 10 people who were arrested were produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
“We are confident our innocence will be proved in the court of law and our people will be released from prison,” the pastor said, adding such raids on prayer gatherings inside houses and arrests of the Christians had become a trend in Madhya Pradesh.
The state government is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The raid and arrests were initiated by the police on the basis of a complaint filed by Ashram Baiga, who is from a local indigenous community.
Baiga alleged that the arrested people had offered him 100,000 rupees (US$820) to convert him to Christianity.
The police arrested those they believed to be the leaders of the group and also filed cases against 12 others for violating various provisions of the state’s sweeping anti-conversion law passed in 2021.
The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, prohibits unlawful conversion from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, any other fraudulent means, and allurement. Violators face a prison term of up to 10 years.
The law is often used to target Christians and their prayer gatherings held in remote parts of the state.
The law also criminalizes inter-religious marriages, especially between Christians and Muslim men marrying Hindu girls, without prior approval from the government.