Kochi: Turning beads into elegant rosaries isn’t merely Vilma Antony’s sustenance. It’s her spiritual calling. She counts the prayers of thanksgiving, devotion, and confession as she strings her silver beads, interspersing this activity with gospel readings at her village home a few miles from the South Indian port city ofContinue Reading
Chennai: Aruvi is a 25-year-old transgender person pursuing gender studies at the University of Hyderabad. Having previously worked in the IT sector, she is a strong advocate of the rights of the transgender community – who face discrimination across India. Aruvi lives in Chennai, the capital of the south IndianContinue Reading
By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy Panaji: Father Bolmax Fidelis Pereira, the parish priest of Sr Xavier Church in Goa’s Chicalim, is creating waves in the western Indian state with his youth group engaged in environmental protection and revival of agriculture. The priest spoke to Sister Lissy Maruthanakuzhy of Matters India about theContinue Reading
Yangon: Hammering at bamboo poles to erect a stilt house, minority Christians who have fled conflict in northern Myanmar are building a sanctuary on the outskirts of Yangon. The small Christian community in the Buddhist-majority nation is part of 200,000 people displaced since 2018 by fierce fighting in northern RakhineContinue Reading
New Delhi: They are the Buddhist Kung Fu nuns of Drukpa lineage, known globally for trekking across the Himalayas to clean trash, paddling through mountain rivers to break centuries-old taboos to educate others on women’s health, and adopting martial arts as a way to champion gender equality. They use theirContinue Reading
By Shraddha Agarwal New Delhi: Women are central to agriculture in India, and many – farmers as well as non-farmers, young and old, across class and caste lines – are present and resolute at the farmers’ protest sites around Delhi Vishavjot Grewal, a woman protesting at Singhu on the Haryana-DelhiContinue Reading
Ranchi : Every morning the daily market area of Ranchi is occupied by scores of women coming from rural areas in the periphery of the city. They put their shops by the roadside selling leaf made items, primarily dona-pattal (a term used for leaf bowls and plates). Women also sellContinue Reading
By C.M. Paul Sonada: The death of Divine Word Father Franz Josef Eilers, is the end of an era in pastoral communication in Asia,. The German missionary died January 13 at the age of 89 in Manila, his base in Asia. A great communication luminary, author and teacher, Father EilersContinue Reading
Kolkata: But in stark contrast to the Graeco-Roman arches and pillars adorning the tombs of the other Englishmen buried in the 250-year-old South Park street cemetery, Stuart’s grave is studded with miniature temple domes and tantric figurines. “Stuart had specified in his will that he wished his tomb to beContinue Reading
Mumbai: Though she is a hospital administrator and nurse in western India who once trained nurses in the South Sudan during ethnic fighting, a Catholic nun’s worst fear about getting COVID-19 was going on a ventilator. “I was certain that once I was put on the ventilator I would notContinue Reading
