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Impoverished tribal or indigenous Catholics in eastern India’s Jharkhand state readily embrace Lenten austerities in addition to their already hard life. Eugene Lakra, an Oraon tribesman from the state's Gumla Diocese explained that during Lent their daily routine changes and they ban all kinds of recreation including singing and dancing and consuming rice wine, a customary drink among tribal people. Tribal people also avoid celebrations such as dancing during Lent and stop their daily evening gatherings. "Even when we walk back from fields, we don't sing or greet people loudly. We all keep a prayerful silence," he told UCANEWS. "Visitors to villages are often surprised to see the tribal people, who otherwise miss no occasion to sing and dance, remaining quiet during Lent as though they have forgotten how to sing," Lakra said.Lakra’s neighbor Rakesh Kujur, also an Oraon, said it is "not so difficult to fast" because peo...
More young priests, nuns and brothers are needed to train as lawyers in India as cases flood the court system delaying justice, while, for the poor, it may not come at all. This urgency was expressed at the Delhi National Capital Region Lawyers' Forum that brought together 30 professionals to discuss "the prophetic call of legal professionals in the Indian Church today" March 23-24 in New Delhi. "More than any ministry in the Catholic Church we need religious lawyers who can give their services unconditionally to the people living on the margins of society," said Holy Cross Sister Rani Punnasseril, a lawyer. She told UCANEWS that the need is most urgent for rural Catholics and tribal people who do not know what to do when their human rights are violated. "Some of them do not even have enough money to get a lawyer and fight their case in a court," she said.India has some 900 men and women religious who are lawyers but many of them...
(Vatican Radio) Mexicans who help build the much vaunted “border wall” along the frontier with the United States would be acting immorally and considered as traitors, according to the Archdiocese of Mexico.In its weekly newsletter the Archdiocese warns, “Any company intending to invest in the wall of Trump, would be immoral, but also all its shareholders and owners should be considered traitors to the homeland.” It also stresses, “Signing up for a project that is a serious affront to dignity, is shooting yourself in the foot.”Mexico’s economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo agrees it would not be in companies’ interests to participate in building the wall. Meanwhile, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has stressed that Mexico will never pay for a border wall.Listen to James Blears’ report:
(Vatican Radio) The recent rededication of the ‘Edicule’, or chapel surrounding Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem’s Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, is an important sign of the growing cooperation among the different Christian Churches in the Holy LandThat’s the view of Belgian Father Frans Bowen, a Missionary of Africa who has been living in Jerusalem for almost 50 years. He works closely with the Vatican as a member of the joint international commissions for dialogue with both the Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.During a visit to Jerusalem with the Tantur Ecumenical Institute last week, Philippa Hitchen, spoke to Fr Frans about the complex relationships among Christians in the land where Christ was born….Listen: Fr Frans explains that in Jerusalem the three most visible communities are the Greek Orthodox, the Latin, (or Roman Catholic) and the Armenian patriarchates. These communities are the principle groups included in the ‘St...
Church leaders have called for an impartial probe and justice after police assaulted Catholics in Bangladesh injuring about 25 villagers. Four "plainclothes policemen" entered Doripara village under Holy Family Catholic Church in Gazipur district near Dhaka on the night of March 24. They didn't have identity cards or a warrant but they started raiding the house of a local woman. "When asked what they were doing, they claimed they were policemen but failed to show IDs," Biren Benjamin Gomes, a Catholic eyewitness, told UCANEWS. They looted 5,000 taka (US$63) from the house and raided another home, he said. "Women started screaming 'robbers, robbers' and hundreds of neighbors rushed to help. They beat up the intruders before elderly men stopped them," Gomes, president of Bhawal Christian Jubo Samity, a Catholic youth forum covering seven parishes in Gazipur and Dhaka. Then, about 35 riot police, armed with guns and ba...
(Vatican Radio) “Silence in the face of the suppression of unborn life makes us complicit in the crime of abortion.” That, in synthesis, is the message of the Mexican bishops in a communique sent on the national ‘Day for Life’ celebrated on 25 March, the Solemnity of the Annunciation.“Life is not a good we gave ourselves but a gift which we have received,” reads the communique signed by Bishop Francisco Javier Chavolla Ramos of Toluca and head of the Mexican Bishops’ Commission for Life.“No one may violate the integrity of another human being: neither for research purposes, nor because they are elderly, disabled, sick, unable to understand, nor a migrant.”‘Anti-human and criminal confusion’The bishops’ communique reads, “Today in Mexico there are many threats to family life” aimed at changing the face and dignity of life through legal means.In the current society, it reads, “the ideology of r...
Afghanistan launched a 5-day campaign on Monday to vaccinate 8.8 million children against polio, in a effort to eradicate the virus in the country by the end of the decade. The March 27-31 campaign is the first of the National Immunization Days (NIDs) for polio eradication in 2017 by the Ministry of Public Health of Afghanistan. More than 7.9 million aged 6 months to 5 years will be given vitamin A tablets. The campaign will cover all provinces, except Bamyam, Daikonda and Ghor provinces due to cold weather.Poliomyelitis or olio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus which invades the nervous system, and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle such as contaminated water or food and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs. One in 200 in...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Followingthe resignation of a prominent member and abuse survivor, a pontificalcommission charged with addressing issues related to clergy sex abuse vowed tocontinue to seek input from victims and survivors.The Pontifical Commissionfor the Protection of Minors said the resignation of Marie Collins was a"central topic" of its March 24-26 plenary assembly, and it "expressedstrong support for her continuing work" to promote healing for abusevictims and ensuring best practices for prevention. "Commissionmembers have unanimously agreed to find new ways to ensure its work is shapedand informed with and by victims/survivors. Several ideas that have beensuccessfully implemented elsewhere are being carefully considered forrecommendation to the Holy Father," the commission said in a March 26statement published by the Vatican. Amongthe main concerns addressed by the commission was outreach out to victims, anissue first raised ...
BERLIN (AP) -- Thieves broke into the German capital's Bode Museum before dawn Monday and made off with a massive 100-kilogram (221-pound) gold coin worth millions of dollars, police said....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As a billionaire developer, Donald Trump built casinos, luxe condo towers and lush golf courses. Now, as president, Trump aims to develop perhaps his most ambitious and surely his most contentious project yet: A wall along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border....
