Filipino archbishop: Face opposition with a martyr’s courage

New Delhi, India, Aug 25, 2017 / 03:57 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A group of bishops from across India met with the country’s new president and vice-president on Thursday, with both leaders voicing their support of the Church’s work in spiritual development and assistance to the poor.

President Ram Nath Kovind, elected at the end of July, told the bishops Aug. 24 that he appreciated, in particular, the work the Church does for the poor and downtrodden in the country.

He also said, as summarized in a statement from the bishops’ conference, that while the whole world speaks of development, spirituality is also an important aspect of development, urging the bishops to continue to promote it.

Led by Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Syro-Malankara Major Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Trivandrum and president of the Indian bishops’ conference, the bishops also included Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai; Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi; and Archbishop Filipe Neri do Rosario Ferrao of Goa and Daman.

Archbishop Abraham Viruthakulangara of Nagpur, Archbishop Albert D’Souza of Agra, Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, and Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, were also part of the delegation.

Bishop Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Indian bishops’ conference, also accompanied eight representatives of the Archdiocese of Delhi in a meeting with the new vice-president of India, Venkaiah Naidu, Aug. 24.

In the hour-long meeting, arranged by the Archdiocese of Delhi, Naidu said he appreciated the selfless work of the Church, adding that the Christian community in India was a peaceful community which had contributed a lot to the growth of the country.

He also said he remembered with affection his joyful association with the late Archbishop Samineni Arulappa, who died in 2005 after leading the Archdiocese of Hyderabad for almost 30 years.

India’s presidency is largely a ceremonial role, while the prime minister is head of the government and leader of the executive branch. Naidu described the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, as a secular person, but one who is interested in including all in his development programs.

Both the president and vice-president emphasized India’s secularity, and how this, since the beginning, has allowed for people to live in peace and harmony and “as one country,” which to continue is dependent on the end of the practice of vote banks.  

For his part, Naidu laid blame with politicians for fomenting current divisions and for using caste and religious groups to form vote banks.

He also called out the Gau Rakshak group, a Hindu nationalist organization which defends cows and which often commits acts of violence toward those suspected of slaughtering or consuming the animal, by saying that the cow is important, but that human beings are more important.  

Cardinal Cleemis conveyed the good wishes and prayers of the Catholic Church toward Kovind and they gifted him a bouquet of flowers, a garland, and a framed picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

According to a statement, he said that though the Christian community in India is a small minority, it has always served the country and will continue to serve the country in health care, education, and other areas, in particular, serving the poorest of the poor and the marginalized.

“We pray that God may bless you that you may continue to serve the country through your ministry,” he said.

During the visit with Naidu, Archbishop Couto congratulated him and assured him of the prayers of the Church. They presented him with a bouquet of flowers and a picture of St. Joseph with the Child Jesus. Accepting the picture, Naidu said that the image personified “compassion and love.”

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Tehran, Iran, Dec 11, 2018 / 02:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- While religious leaders marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week by saying that more should be done to preserve human rights, both Iran and China detained upwards of 100 Christians.

The United Nations declaration, which was proclaimed Dec. 10, 1948, affirms that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom … to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

Pope Francis told a conference meeting on human rights Monday that everyone is “called to contribute with courage and determination, in the specificity of their role, to the respect of the fundamental rights of every person.”

And ahead of the declaration’s anniversary, the Holy See’s representative to the United Nations said the occasion presented an opportunity to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,” while also warning that parts of the world are experiencing the consequences of failing to uphold those rights.

Thus, according to Open Doors UK, 114 Christians were arrested last week in Iran. And the New York Times reports that in China’s Sichuan province, a Protestant pastor and more than 100 members of his congregation were detained Dec. 9.

In China, the Sunday raid was conducted at Early Rain Covenant Church, an underground community in Chengdu, which is led by Wang Yi. Some members of the ecclesial community were released Dec. 10, but were then put under house arrest.

Wang is a prominent human rights activist; he met with US president George W. Bush in 2006 to discuss religious freedom in China.

Sam Brownback, the US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, tweeted about the raid, saying, “we’re deeply concerned” about the government “crackdown on house churches.”

“We call on China to release leaders/congregants & allow members of unregistered churches to exercise their #ReligiousFreedom rights,” Brownback wrote.

Religious freedom is officially guaranteed by the Chinese constitution, but religious groups must register with the government, and are overseen by the Chinese Communist Party. President Xi Jinping has in recent years pushed for the Sinicization of religion and strengthened government oversight.

China has practiced greater repressions of Muslims in recent years; it is believed that as many as 1 million Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnoreligious group in China’s far west, are being held in extra-legal detention.

The Telegraph reported Dec. 10 that many of the Christians detained in Iran last week were converts from Islam. They were instructed to cut off ties with Christian groups and to relate the story of their Christian activities.

Shia Islam is the state religion of Iran, though several religious minorities are recognized and granted freedom of worship. However, conversion from Islam is strictly prohibited.

Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told the Telegraph that the reinstatement of sanctions on Iran by the US “has contributed to the government’s ever-increasing dependence on hardline Islamic ayatollahs, who naturally see Christianity as a threat to their power. For this reason, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing an increase in Christian persecution.”

An Open Doors spokesperson, Zoe Smith, commented that the increase in arrests of Christians “follows an established trend of the Iranian government – as the number of converts to Christianity increase, so the authorities place greater restrictions on churches,” adding that “the restrictions are worse for churches seen to be attended by Christians who have converted from Islam.”

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CNA Staff, Apr 8, 2020 / 03:02 pm (CNA).- St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne was vandalized overnight Wednesday, hours after Cardinal George Pell was acquitted by Australia’s High Court of a sexual abuse conviction and released from prison.

The door to the cathedral was spray painted with a cartoon image of a devil, along with the message “ROT IN HELL, PELL.” Other doors were daubed with upside-down crosses, the words “NO JUSTICE,” “PAEDO RAPIST,” and “The law protects the powerful.” 

Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne told Australian media that while he was upset about the vandalism, he was “not entirely surprised.” 

“There remains such strong emotions around all of these matters,” Comensoli told Australian news network 3AW.

Images taken of the cathedral showed police in attendance and that at least some of the graffiti had been covered up with a black trash bag. 

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Church officials had covered up this graffiti “Rot in Hell Pell” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with plastic . But revealed it to allow police investigators to examine it. 6pm <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/7NewsMelbourne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#7NewsMelbourne</a> <a href=”https://t.co/j3LlIJxwWs”>pic.twitter.com/j3LlIJxwWs</a></p>&mdash; NickMcCallum7 (@NickMcCallum7) <a href=”https://twitter.com/NickMcCallum7/status/1247673837942001664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 7, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

A tricycle was tied to the fence of the monastery in a Melbourne suburb where Pell spent his first night of freedom after more than 400 days in prison. 

“I think everyone is going to continue to hold their own particular position on all of this,” said Comensoli, adding that he hoped “people in the cooler light of the evening will consider what the High Court judgment said and see that in its legal context.”

The director of the office of the Archbishop of Melbourne told Australian media that security around the cathedral would be increased in the following days to prevent further acts of vandalism. 

Pell was convicted in December 2018 of sexually assaulting two choirboys at the Melbourne Cathedral in 1996. On April 7, the Australian High Court unanimously ruled that the evidence presented during the trial would not have allowed the jury to avoid reasonable doubt and ordered Pell’s acquittal and release after more than 400 days in prison. 

The High Court’s Tuesday decision marked the end of a nearly three-year legal process which began in June 2017, when the cardinal was charged with several counts of sexual assault dating back decades. The majority of these charges were dropped before they could be brought to trial. 

Pell, who was most recently the Archbishop of Sydney prior to leaving Australia in 2014 for a position of Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy, has returned to Sydney after his release from prison.

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