West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu has handed over the letter of Approval of Autonomy for Salesian College in Sonada.
The event took place December 21 during the meeting of principals of 64 colleges affiliated to North Bengal University with the education minister.
College principal Father George Thadathil received the letter in the presence of North Bengal University Vice Chancellor Om Prakash Mishra, Inspector of Colleges Subrata Sanyal and Registrar Nupur Das (Officiating).
Salesian College established in 1933 in Shillong, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya was and translocated to Sonada in Darjeeling in 1938.
It is the third non engineering college in Bengal to become autonomous. Other two are St Xavier’s College Kolkata (1860) and Ramkrishna Mission College Narendarpur Kolkata (1960).
While thanking the West Bengal government for granting autonomous status, Father Thadathil, who is principal of the Salesian College Sonada and Siliguri for the past 22 years, said, “Being the first college in North Bengal to be autonomous, we now have the task of being trail blazer in higher education standards.”
The Salesian College, with its campuses in Siliguri since 2009 and Sonada in Darjeeling district is a government recognized, minority educational institution of the Catholic Church, managed by the Calcutta province of the Salesians.

The Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church remains a divided house as the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly launched year-long celebrations to mark its centenary.
Around 200 priests from the archdiocese concelebrated Mass led by Father Antony Narikulam, rector of the St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, on Dec. 21. No bishops attended it.
Father Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the council of priests, delivered the message of the celebrations that entail year-long events, which were unveiled at a public meeting later.
The inaugural Eucharist was held at a college close to Mount St. Thomas, the headquarters of the Church and home to its head, Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry.
The archdiocese is the seat of the Major Archbishop.
However, the cardinal, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, and other prelates were conspicuous by their absence at the opening Eucharist.
Father Jose Vithayathil, the senior-most priest in the archdiocese, lit the ceremonial lamp to mark the occasion and special candles were lit across all the churches in the archdiocese.
Father Mundadan told UCA News that since Ernakulam-Angamaly was the first archdiocese of the church, its centenary also becomes the centenary of establishing the Church’s hierarchy.
“But celebrations were restricted to the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese,” Father Mundadan told UCA News when asked about the absence of bishops.
“We did not invite the top hierarchy as they were dead against our traditional mass and we planned the inaugural mass in our traditional format,” he added.

The Apostolic Carmel Sisters organized a unique Christmas celebration with transgender community in Bengaluru, giving a message of gender equality and inter-religious amity.
The celebration held a week ago at the Apostolic Carmel Generalate in Jayanagar in collaboration with the Teachers Training Institute at the same campus attracted 57 transgenders, several teachers and general public.
The principal of the Sacred Heart Teachers’ Training Institute, Sr. Clarice welcomed the transgenders by offering them a rose. “Christmas is for all and the presence of trangender community has added more meaning to our celebration”, said the Apostolic Carmel nun who invited the special group this year.
According to 2011 survey in India, there are 487,803 transgender population in India. Bengaluru city alone has over 10,000 Transgenders among a 13 million population, most of them live by either sex work, begging or religious activities.
“We need to build a world of love including those who are rejected by the society”, said Fr. Joseph Naveen Kumar, the parish priest of the Christa Prabhalaya Church, Jayanagar who led a prayer of blessing on the occasion. Appreciating the initiative taken by the Apostolic Carmel Sisters to include transgenders for their celebration, he said this was in tune with the call of Pope Francis.

Giving up is not an option for a missionary said Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao diocese in Arunachal Pradesh celebrating hisRuby Jubilee of Priestly Ordination here on 19 December 2022.
As a missionary, making others live gives meaning to one’s life, said the missionary Bishop who became a priest on 1982 and since then has been serving mostly in eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh.
Addressing his friends and past pupils who came from different parts of North East India, Bishop George said, “In our efforts to make others live, we will encounter challenges of all kinds but the moment we give up we lose the meaning of our life as a missionary”.
Recalling his initial days of his work among the youth of Arunachal Pradesh, Bishop George said, “When I first visited Arunachal Pradesh in 1980 I was kept under detention for 18 hours. I did not know then the church will grow to be what it is today”.
Among many collaborates of the Salesian prelate present was Father Mathew Pulingathil, the first Rector who received and groomed the young boy George for the Arunachal Mission among the youth.
Recollecting how the Salesian congregation entrusted the responsibility of guiding Arunachal youth with Deacon George at Bosco Bible School (BBS) in Tinsukia, Father Pulingathil said, “I believe that decision was not mine but God’s. I say this having seen the result of what has been achieved.”

Raipur, Dec 22, 2022: Hundreds of indigenous people who follow the Christian faith have been driven out of their homes in the Maoist-infested Bastar region of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
“At least 300 families who lived in Narayanpur and Kondegaon districts were ousted from their homes in the past two months,” says Pastor Moses Logan, president of the Chhattisgarh State Christian Welfare Society.
The persecuted include women and children who were beaten up in public when they refused to give up their new faith.
“The persecution against Christian faithful has increased manifold in the past couple of months,” Pastor Logan told Matters India December 20.
He also pointed out many among the persecuted people are not Christians.
The attackers have destroyed Christian houses and forcibly taken away household items and other live stock. They also destroyed the Christians farms and crops.
“We used to face persecution earlier also but now it has reached a new height with people forced to give up their faith and those opposing such pressure are driven out from their homes,” Logan bemoaned.
Quoting from reports he gathered from his people ín villages, the pastor said, “At least 300 families were driven out from their homes and most of them have taken shelter in different places including government facilities.”
Church leaders in the state say organized violence against Christians has increased alarmingly as the state police and district administration remain silent spectators.
The police refused to register cases against the attackers, instead tell the Christians to make peace with their tormentors.