By Sujata Jena Bhubaneswar, April 24, 2024: An ashram started by a group of nuns in southern Indian town has completed 25 years promoting interfaith harmony. The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary congregation founded the Ishalaya Ashram in 2000 at Palamaner in Andhra Pradesh state in response to the Second VaticanContinue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Bengaluru, April 18, 2024: Members of six women congregations have come together to empower “youth at risk” in Bengaluru, a southern Indian city with more than 3 million youth. “This is the perfect example of synodality in action as envisaged by Pope Francis,” said Apostolic Carmel SisterContinue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Bengaluru, April 10, 2024: In the past three decades, a tiny secular institute of consecrated laywomen has changed the fate of hundreds of street children in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru. “We are only 12 members in India, and three of us work among street childrenContinue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Kochi, Jan 26, 2024: Nuns in a southern Indian archdiocese find themselves caught between a papal order and the local priests and Catholics who defy the pope’s ultimatum on how to celebrate Mass. The situation in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese is “disgusting and frightening,” said Sr. Linet ofContinue Reading
By Saji Thomas Bhopal, Jan 9, 2023: Sister Anne Mathew spends most of her time in eucharistic adoration in a home for elderly nuns in a southern Indian town. “Prayer works for me and is my strength,” the 81-year-old former nurse, who had worked for years in Austria and Switzerland,Continue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Imphal, Dec 6, 2023: Friends and relatives of Shantirani are at the forefront of a civil war in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, but the 28-year-old is fighting her own war against drug addiction. Helping Shantirani (not her real name) and about 25 other women areContinue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Imphal, Nov 10, 2023: Laughter and singing reverberated through a girls orphanage in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, as violence raged on the streets outside. “Not that we are not affected by the violence, but we feel safe and secure here,” Anjali Khouchung, a 12-year-old residentContinue Reading
By Purushottam Nayak and Dibakar Paricha Sankarakhole, Oct 28, 2028: Kantheswar Digal, who tops the list of the 35 Kandhamal martyrs on the road to beatification, fearlessly witnessed his Catholic faith in the face of anti-Christian violence, brutal persecution and death in Kandhamal. His life serves as a beacon ofContinue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Kochi, Oct 21, 2023: Catholic nuns in a southern Indian archdiocese have a new mission: to keep faith alive while priests and laypeople clash with bishops over liturgy. “Our parish church had remained closed for several months because of the dispute,” Sr. Graceline Jose, who serves St.Continue Reading
By Thomas Scaria Polur, India: Kavitha was 14 and Navyashree 16 (names changed) when they were married off, but their marriages did not last long: their in-laws threw out the two village girls from their homes in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh. “Today, both are under our care andContinue Reading