Vatican City, July 6, 2023: Pope Francis has released a letter announcing the establishment of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints’ “Commission for the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith,” in view of the Jubilee of 2025. The working group’s objective will be to draw up a catalogueContinue Reading
By Jose Kavi New Delhi, July 5, 2023: Sister Venita Fernandes has become the first Indian to head the Sisters of Charity of the Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa, an international Catholic religious congregation based in Italy. Sister Fernandes, a native of Balli-Fatorpa in the western Indian state ofContinue Reading
Rome, June 25, 2023: Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange — a Black Catholic nun who founded the United States’ first African American religious congregation in Baltimore in 1829 — has advanced another step toward sainthood. Under a decree signed by Pope Francis on June 23, Lange was recognized for her heroicContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Kochi, June 23, 2023: The ongoing violence in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur was condemned by the Mathruvedi (mothers’ forum) of the Syro-Malabar Church, based in Kerala, south. Representatives from 24 dioceses who attended the June 23 international senate meeting of the forum prayed forContinue Reading
By Jose Kavi New Delhi, June 16, 2023: The Syro-Malabar Synod has decided to open St Mary’s Basilica in Ernakulam, Kerala, closed for more than six months because of a controversy over the method of offering Mass. The decision was announced June 16 at the end of the synod’s weeklongContinue Reading
By Lissy Kurian Panaji, June 14, 2023: Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, the archbishop of Goa and Daman, has urged his people to reach out to those keeping away from the Church such as people in live-in relations. “Jesus was a leader who went in search of (lost) people. Likewise, weContinue Reading
Melbourne, June 1, 2023: Hundreds of people attended the episcopal ordination of Bishop John Panamthottathil, the second shepherd of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle in Melbourne. Bishops from India, Europe and the United States, as well as 20 members of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, were amongContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Kottayam, May 30, 2023: A Latin diocese in the southern Indian state of Kerala has created history when it selected a nun as the vice chancellor, the first woman to hold such a post in India. The diocese of Vijayapuram on May 29 appointed Sister MaryContinue Reading
By Matters India Reporter Kochi, May 30, 2023: The Vatican has directed the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church to hold an emergency meeting to resolve the controversy over celebration of Mass in the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. According to a press release, the synod will meet June 12-16 atContinue Reading
By Salvatore Cernuzio Vatican City, April 26, 2023: The Secretariat for the Synod announces that 70 “non-bishop members” appointed by the Pope—half of whom will be women—will be able to vote at the Synod General Assembly in October. Neither the nature nor the name is changing—which remains the Synod ofContinue Reading
