India waited with baited breath as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the current fiscal year in the Parliament on Tuesday. Predictably, the budget was praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said ‘This budget brings in new hopes and opportunities for the people. It strengthens the economy; it’s full of […]
Against a background of ‘well-planned attacks’ on Christian institutions reported in the media and 486 incidents of violence against Christians in the past year (as reported by United Christian Front) the voice of the official church, the CBCI(Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India*) is missing. This is the gist of an appeal sent out to CBCI […]
The new front for confrontation against ‘Conversions to Christianity’ is opening up along India’s North-western border, as a leading Sikh cleric accuses ‘Christian missionaries’ of ‘aggressive proselytisation’ and vows to stem the tide. Even as Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore and various Christian leaders have condemned the continuous harassment on the Christian Missionaries in Karnataka […]
The Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India (CCBI) has established a Bioethics Forum, which will be headed by Archbishop Felix Toppo SJ of Ranchi, chairman of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine, will be head the forum. Father Christopher Vimalraj, currently the director of Germain Academy, from the Archdiocese of Bangalore is its first […]
Tributes and condolences are pouring in from all parts of the country as the Indian Christian community and national political and civic leaders mourn the death of 80 year old Oscar Fernandes, a prominent Catholic politician from Karnataka State and former Union minister, on September 13. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief over the […]
The National Solidarity Forum on Saturday (August 21) announced the recipients of its first ever ‘Kandhamal Award for Human Rights’. The Awards will be presented on August 25 at a virtual event. The individual award has gone posthumously to Odisha based social activist Paul Pradhan, who died this year, aged 72, and the award for […]
India voted in favour of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the condition that after independence all Indians are indigenous. Therefore, it does not consider the concept of “indigenous peoples”, and therefore the UNDRIP, applicable to India. In India, there are 705 ethnic groups officially recognized as “Scheduled Tribes,” although there are […]
Call it bad timing, political naivete, or simply a blinkered attitude to reality, but one thing is certain, a Kerala church is stirring up a hornet’s nest that is making a lot of Christians in North India jittery. A Syro-Malabar Catholic diocese in Kerala has announced a family welfare scheme for its faithful that flies […]
Shooting the messenger may be an unhealthy practice, and the health of journalists in India have become a cause for concern. Some 228 journalists have found themselves in pretty uncomfortable positions, and 13 among them were killed in the country that prides itself on being the home of the Mahatma of non-violence and the world’s […]
“My country is on fire, there is none to put it out,” he said. Even as he lamented, he was perhaps unaware of another kind of fire that has begun smouldering within the Catholic Church in India. Stanislaus Lourdaswamy’s death has brought the Church to a crossroads. The fire to call out injustice and spread […]
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany, popularly called, ‘Bethany Sisters, ’is celebrating their centenary year by building 100 houses for the poor. Father Raymond Francis Camillus Mascarenhas of Mangalore diocese founded the congregation on July 16, 1921, at Bendur, Mangalore (now Mangaluru,) to cater to people on the margins, according […]
The Prison Ministry of India (PMI) should go beyond visits to the prisons, intercessions, and organizing events on feast days and festivals. This was the thrust of views at a condolence event for Jesuit Human Rights Defender Stan Swamy organized by India’s foremost Catholic prison outreach programme with a presence in 27 States and union […]
