MUMBAI – A Catholic school in western India has requested police protection after members of a Hindu nationalist group known for staging aggressive “reconversion” ceremonies announced the intention to “by hook or crook” conduct a Hindu ritual known as Saraswati Puja at the school on Ash Wednesday. Saraswati Puja is a ritual performed in honour of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, considered the embodiment of wisdom and creativity. It’s typically carried out on the Hindu festival of Basant Panchami that marks preparations for the arrival of spring, and which falls this year on 14 February, the same date as Ash Wednesday. The individuals who said they plan to conduct the rite identified themselves as members of the Hindu Jagran Manch, which was founded in 1982 and is known for its efforts to resist the influence of other religions and to promote the “reconversion” of Muslims and Christians in India to Hinduism. According to media reports, a member of the Hindu Jagran Manch argued that the school should permit the celebration of the Saraswati Puja ritual at the Don Bosco School in Dhajanagar, on the outskirts of Udaipur, because the majority of its students are Hindu. The group also said they would seek support from the

A Christian community event to be held at Sankal village in the tribal taluka of Dediapada in Narmada district on February 11 was “called off” after right-wing organisations flagged the gathering for alleged “religious conversion”. However, the organisers denied the allegations. The event titled ‘Aatmik Jagruti Sabha’ was called off after the Dediapada police launched an inquiry and summoned its organisers to record their statements. The police action came after the Narmada district administration forwarded to the Superintendent of Police a memorandum by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Rashtriya Adivasi Manch of Narmada district alleging “religious conversion”. The area also witnessed protests from local villagers in the run-up to the event, which was to be held for the first time in Dediapada in the premises of a local church. Meanwhile, Amarsinh Vasava, a member of local Christian body Samast Kristi Samaj, said it was only a spiritual gathering. “The event has been called off because of the protests… It is not true that it was a platform for religious conversion; it was only to be a spiritual gathering. In today’s times, people are aware and it is not easy to lure someone to convert into another faith and the allegations are

The Syro-Malabar Catholic Congress presented Kerala state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with the petition late last month after a major signature campaign, one meant to address what the congress described as “unprecedented crises” facing the Christian community there. Vijayan “was very concerned and assured to consider our demands,” Catholic Congress President Biju Parayannilam told UCA News this month. “Around half a million Catholics” in Kerala signed the petition, UCA News said.“Ordinary people are struggling to eke out a living and we want the government to focus its attention on their problems,” Father Philip Kaviyil, director of the Catholic Congress’ global committee, told the news outlet. Among the demands presented to the government was the timely delivery of social security payments. Elderly citizens in the state are given the equivalent of about $20 per month from the government, but they “are not getting it on time, making their life miserable,” the priest said. Farmers are also reportedly struggling to make ends meet while also dealing with wild animal attacks.Parayannilam said the activists were “hopeful that the government will make some positive announcement regarding our demands in the current budget session of the state assembly.” Vatican News noted that Christians make up about 20% of the local population in Kerala, with the

Guwahati: Several radical Hindu (Sanatani) organizations on Wednesday gave a clarion call to Christian Missionaries of Assam to remove the idols of Jesus and Merry from the schools they are running and to stop Christian prayers in the school assemblies, where many Hindu students are taking part. Addressing a press conference in Guwahati on Wednesday, Kutumba Surakshya Parishad president Satya Ranjan Boraah said: “These Christian Missionaries are converting the schools and educational institutes into religious institutes. We will not allow it. We will observe them for some time be for 10 to 15 days and thereafter we will do what we should do and they will be responsible for any untoward incident.” We will not spare. We will not say what we will do. If a 10-year-old child can’t recite Jai Sriram on the school campus, how can they preach Jesus and Merry on the school campus,” Borah questioned. “We warn them not to wear religious clothes by fathers, sisters and brothers in the schools. They have to wear normal clothes. They should remove the idols of Jesus, Merry and Cross from the school complex. They should also remove churches from school complexes and p[rayers in the schools,” Borah also said. “If they do not hear us,

Barabanki: Ten people, including a priest, have been arrested here for allegedly luring people to convert to Christianity, police said on Wednesday. The arrests were made from Chakhar village. Additional Superintendent of Police S N Sinha said that 16 people were named in the case of religious conversion of which 10, including a priest, have been arrested. He said that Father Domnic Pintu, a resident of Mangalore in Karnataka, is among the arrested. The action was taken on a complaint from VHP district president Brijesh Kumar Vaish on Monday that mass conversion was going on to take place in the village, police said. This article is originally published on  https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/priest-among-10-arrested-for-religious-conversion-in-up-cops-5014742

Church leaders have expressed their strong disapproval of a pro-Hindu state government’s attempt to clandestinely profile Christian missionaries in a central Indian state. “Some of our institutions indeed got a questionnaire from the local police, but we are yet to reply,” said Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh state. Police are circulating the questionnaire among the Christian community seeking details of missionaries working in the state, the institutions run by them, and their funding sources.“I do not know why single out Christians and collect such details. I see some ulterior motives behind it,” Bishop Almeida told UCA News on Feb. 7. The police want details like the name and address of the individual missionary or institution, work objectives, bank account, and sources of foreign funding. They are also seeking names and phone numbers of those working with the missionary in case he/she runs a non-governmental organization (NGO). The questionnaire also sought to know whether Christians resort to religious conversion activities, which are banned under a stringent anti-conversion law passed by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2021. “We will seek legal opinion before sharing any information as police are trying to gather the information unofficially,” Bishop Almeida said. Most of the information sought is already there in the public

A body bringing together India’s Latin Catholic, Syro-Malabar, and Syro-Malankara bishops deplored Wednesday increasing attacks on the country’s Christian minority. In a six-page statement issued Feb. 7, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) expressed alarm at rising intolerance in Indian society and political life. It said: “Attacks on Christians continue to increase in different parts of India. Destruction of homes and churches, harassment of personnel serving in orphanages, hostels, educational and healthcare institutions on false allegations of conversion have become common.” Christians account for around 2.3% of India’s population, forming the country’s third-largest religious group, after Muslims (14.2%), and Hindus (79.8%). Roughly a third of Indian Christians — more than 20 million people — are Catholic. They belong to three autonomous particular churches: the Latin Church, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Since 2014, India has been led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In April and May this year, India is scheduled to hold general elections, in which Modi will seek a third term in power. In January, the advocacy group Open Doors listed India as the world’s 11th worst country in which to be a Christian. It noted that an increasing number of Indian states were

ROME – In the latest signs of what critics have long described as a deteriorating climate for religious minorities in India under a Hindu nationalist government, several Protestants, including two American nationals, and a Catholic priest have been arrested in separate incidents under the country’s controversial anti-conversion laws. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Father Dominic Pinto of the Lucknow diocese was arrested Feb. 5 along with six Protestants on charges of trying to convert poor Dalits, or “untouchables,” from Hinduism to Christianity, while in Assam, in far northeastern India, two American Baptists were fined Feb. 2 for engaging in religious activities that violated the conditions of their tourist visas. The Americans, named John Matthew Bone and Michael James Flinchum, were not arrested but were compelled to pay a fine of $500. Pinto, meanwhile, and his Protestant companions, remain in custody pending a bail application. According to local media reports, Pinto is the director of the Navintha pastoral center of the Lucknow diocese, which he had agreed to make available to a group called Khrist Bhakts, or “followers of Christ,” composed of Hindus, Muslims and members of other religions who nevertheless find inspiration in Christ and pray to him. Sources said that while the

Police have arrested seven Christians including a Catholic priest and five Protestant pastors for allegedly trying to convert poor Hindus in northern Indian Uttar Pradesh state. Catholic Father Dominic Pinto of Lucknow diocese was arrested with six others on Feb. 5 after a group of hard-line Hindu activists complained to police in Barabanki district. The Hindu activists alleged that a mass religious conversion gathering was held at Navintha, the diocesan pastoral center."There is not an iota of truth" in the allegation, said Father Donald D’Souza, chancellor and spokesperson of Lucknow diocese. Pinto "did not even attend the prayer gathering. He only provided space for it to be held at the pastoral center, which is a normal practice,” D’Souza told UCA News on Feb. 6. D'Souza said people who call themselves “Khrist Bhakts” (followers of Christ), who are not converted to Christianity but follow the teachings of Christ, organize their prayer gatherings. Often they hold such gatherings at the diocesan center. “Nobody is converted or asked to become Christian. But still, police arrested our people,” D’Souza lamented. The police complaint filed at the Deva police station named 15 persons including five women. They were accused of violating the state’s sweeping anti-conversion law. The complainant Brijesh Kumar Vaishya accused them of luring poor Hindus including women and

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir’s oldest missionary St Joseph school is staring at closure as the school administration is struggling to get its land lease, which has expired, renewed and authorities have reportedly refused to register its students for board examinations due to absence of land lease documents. The St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district was established in 1905 on the government land leased to the school management by the authorities. The lease of the land, according to the school management, expired in 2018 and they had approached the concerned government department for renewal of the land lease well before its expiry. “The file including the recommendation of Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla is pending for approval in the office of Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir since April 2022,” the school management said. The Lt Governor administration in Jammu and Kashmir in 2022 amended the rules under the Education Act, 2002 to provide for fresh guidelines relating to the use of land and building structures by private schools in the UT. It had ordered that all those private schools which are established on the state land should close the schooling of the enrolled children soon. With authorities not renewing the land lease, the Board of School Education