CATHOLIC CHURCH IS ONE OF THE BENEFICIARIES OF CONTRIBUTIONS FROM FOREIGN SOURCES FOR ITS CHARITY WORKS September 14, 2021. India’s top court has agreed to examine amendments made to a federal law that regulates foreign funding into the country after non-government organizations (NGOs) argued the changes hampered charity work. The Supreme Court, however, refused to stay the implementation of the law--Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Act (FCRA), 2020. A three-member bench headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar on Sept. 7 admitted the petitions challenging stringent provisions of the amended FCRA and directed the federal government to file its response within three weeks. The next hearing is on Oct. 5 The Catholic Church is one of the beneficiaries of foreign funds and donations for its charity works across the country. The petitioners, Noel Harper and Nigel Mills of Share and Care Foundation in Andhra Pradesh, and Sister Lissy Joseph and Annamma Joachim of the National Workers Welfare Trust in Telangana, said the amendments had severely restricted the use of foreign funds to serve the poor and needy. This coupled with an official government diktat to open bank accounts in the designated branch of an Indian multinational public sector bank in New Delhi latest by June 30, 2021, had

Hindu extremists opposed his faith.A 14-year-old Christian boy in eastern India is fighting for his life a month after suspected Hindu extremists threw flammable liquid on him and set him on fire, sources said. “He is very, very critical,” said Dr. K.N. Tiwari of the burn unit of Appolo Burn Hospital in Patna, Bihar state. “His survival chances are low.” On Aug. 11 three unidentified men on a motorbike threw the liquid on Nitish Kumar as he was returning home to Bihar state’s Kamta Nagar village, Gaya District, from his early morning routine of purchasing fresh vegetables. Drenched, Nitish initially thought they had mischievously thrown water on him, he said. “But soon my skin began to burn,” Nitish told Morning Star News, in agony. “The burning sensation increased with every passing second. I dropped the basket and ran towards my house [750 meters away] screaming and howling.” The motorbike did not stop, and in his pain he had no way of trying to see its license plate, he said. The fire burned 65 percent of his body, with 15 percent deep burns, said Sushma Sharma, a hospital volunteer treating Kumar. Pastor Rajkumar Bharati, also known as Began Mochi, head of the church the Kumar family

September 06, 2021 Another pastor attacked in central Indian state.Christian leaders submit a memorandum to Chhattisgarh’s district collector and chief minister on Sept. 2 informing them about Christian persecution in the state. A pastor and two of his companions in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh were attacked inside a police station after being accused of religious conversion — the second such incident in the space of a week. The latest attack by Hindu activists was reported on Sept. 5 at Purani Basti police station in the Bhatagaon area. According to police, Pastor Harish Sahu was called to the police station over complaints of forced religious conversions being carried out by him in the area. Several Hindu activists visited the police station while Pastor Sahu along with Prakash Masih and Chhattisgarh Christian Forum general secretary Ankush Bariyekar were there. The activists accused Pastor Sahu of indulging in religious conversion and manhandled and abused the trio. A video of the incident has surfaced on social media. After the incident, Bariyekar lodged a complaint with police and several people were booked for rioting, obscene acts and songs, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation. Who gave permission to Hindu fundamentalists to take the law into their own hands? “It is

THREE CHRISTIANS ARE MANHANDLED AND ABUSED IN A CHHATTISGARH POLICE STATION OVER ACCUSATIONS OF RELIGIOUS CONVERSION September 6, 2021. A pastor and two of his companions in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh were attacked inside a police station after being accused of religious conversion — the second such incident in the space of a week. The latest attack by Hindu activists was reported on Sept. 5 at Purani Basti police station in the Bhatagaon area. According to police, Pastor Harish Sahu was called to the police station over complaints of forced religious conversions being carried out by him in the area. Several Hindu activists visited the police station while Pastor Sahu along with Prakash Masih and Chhattisgarh Christian Forum general secretary Ankush Bariyekar were there. The activists accused Pastor Sahu of indulging in religious conversion and manhandled and abused the trio. A video of the incident has surfaced on social media. After the incident, Bariyekar lodged a complaint with police and several people were booked for rioting, obscene acts and songs, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation. It is a matter of concern for all of us as attacks on Christian people are reported very often here,” Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur told UCA News. “The

Neighbors attack after seeing church leader visit him.A Christian in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state is in hiding after hard-line Hindu neighbors beat him unconscious with iron rods last month, sources said. Santosh Kumar, 35, left his home on Aug. 1 shortly after a church elder visited him in Kamaraj Nagar, Karur District. A Hindu neighbor who saw the elder visit him intercepted Kumar on the road shortly thereafter. “He started shouting at me, ‘Are you a Christian? Why are Christians visiting you?’” Kumar told Morning Star News. Kumar said the neighbor was drunk, and that he asked him, “What is your problem?” before going on his way, but the Hindu stopped him again and began shouting more loudly. Telling Kumar that India was a Hindu country, he asked the Christian why he still lived there, as Kumar asked him to please let him go on his way. “He threatened that he would murder me if I did not vacate my rented house immediately,” Kumar said. Soon two other area Hindus arrived on motorcycles and dragged him to bushes far from the road, he said. “Two persons were ready with iron rods there,” he told Morning Star News. “Two of them held me up while the

CHHATTISGARH CHRISTIAN FORUM HAS DOCUMENTED MORE THAN 200 ATTACKS ON THE STATE'S MINORITY COMMUNITY IN THE PAST TWO YEARS August 30, 2021. A Christian leader in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has accused the state government of inaction after six incidents of Christian attacks were reported within a week. The latest attack was reported from a remote village in Kabirdham district on Aug. 29. More than 100 Hindu activists beat up a pastor after barging into his house during a prayer service, said Mohit Garg, superintendent of police for the district. The mob also manhandled Pastor Kawalsingh Paraste’s family members and vandalized the house, damaging scriptures, articles of worship and household items, before fleeing. The incident occurred in Polmi village around 11am when the Sunday prayer service was underway, Garg said. “It is very unfortunate that we have witnessed repeated attacks on our Christian brothers and sisters last week. But it is nothing new. We have documented more than 200 such incidents in the state during the past two years,” Chhattisgarh Christian Forum president Arun Pannalal told UCA News. He said what was more unfortunate was that every time the government would try to play down the incidents and push for a compromise between

A pastor’s wife is still bed-ridden after hard-line Sikhs and Hindus broke her leg in an attack on their church last month in northern India, sources said. Carrying swords and wooden rods, the assailants also slashed the head of a church member in the attack on Christians gathered for a meal at the Evangelical Church of God in the Arniwala area of Fazilka District, Punjab state. “The physical injuries were very brutal, so that even over a month after the attack, the injured have not recovered,” pastor Roop Lal told Morning Star News. “The doctors told us the injured area [of his wife’s leg] is totally infected, and the skin in the area developed some kind of boils.” In the July 12 attack, about 15 men also vandalized a security camera and destroyed the church gate and other property, causing damages of about 30,000 rupees (US$404), he said. Pastor Lal’s wife, Raj Rani, underwent two surgeries on her left leg, and 19-year-old Lovepreet Singh received 18 stitches for a wound on his scalp. Surgeons at Faridkot Medical Hospital on July 24 addressed the infection on Rani’s leg, and she underwent a later operation to insert rods for the fracture, Pastor Lal said. Having no money

Two pastors and wife were comforting Hindu who lost family to COVID-19.Three Christians are in jail after hard-line Hindus in northern India last week beat two of them, both pastors, and a Hindu they were comforting in the loss of his family to COVID-19. Hindu neighbors from the upper-caste Thakur community in Phoolpur, Uttar Pradesh state on Aug. 3 attacked 62-year-old Lalji Vishwakarma and the two pastors, the Hindu said. “A mob of Hindu extremist neighbors from the Thakur community barged inside the house and falsely accused me and the pastors visiting my house of forced conversions,” Vishwakarma told Morning Star News. “They have no pity that I have been grieving my family’s death.” Pastor Neel Durai, pastor Vijay Kumar Patel and his wife, Kiran Devi, had come to pray for him and his granddaughters, Vishwakarma said. “I lost my wife, son and daughter-in-law to COVID one after the other,” he said. “My young granddaughters, ages 10 and 12, and I were longing for God’s servants to visit us, pray for us and comfort us.” No one else was invited to join them in the prayers, he said. His two granddaughters were the only others at the house as the pastors began reading from the