Tribute paid to Indian Jesuit who stood up for tribal people

Tribute paid to Indian Jesuit who stood up for tribal people

Christians and civil society members across India paid rich tributes to Jesuit Father Stan Swamy on July 7, his first death anniversary. The 84-year Jesuit, who died a prisoner, is seen as a victim of India’s discriminatory socio-political system as he was detained for nine months without trial.

Indian Christians and civil society groups pay tributes to the indomitable spirit of Jesuit priest and tribal people’s rights activist Father Stan Swamy on his first death anniversary this Tuesday.

The 85-year-old priest had died in under judicial custody on July 5th, 2021, after his arrest in a controversial case alleging his connection with left-wing Maoist rebels in 2020.

He was denied bail and medical services by the courts despite his serious illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease, causing deterioration of his health.

In Ranchi, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, where the he lived for over three decades and in Virgalur, his native village in southern Tamil Nadu state, local communities brought out a rally to mark his death anniversary and erected a pillar in his memory declaring July 5 as “Father Stan Swamy Day.”

Hong Kong’s former Vatican representative has warned the city’s Catholic missionaries to prepare for a tougher future as China tightened its iron-fisted control over the former British colony.

Monsignor Javier Herrera-Corona, the unofficial Vatican representative in Hong Kong, had four meetings with representatives of 50 Catholic religious orders before he ended his six-year term in March, warning the missioners about impending crackdowns and urged missionary groups to take appropriate measures to protect the property, record files, and funds of their missions.

The draconian national security law passed in June 2020 triggered a flurry of arrests and jailing of pro-democracy politicians and supporters including prominent Catholic figures including media tycoon Jimmy Lai.

Many have fled the city and relocated to other countries including Taiwan to avoid arrest and abuses.

In Pakistan, Catholic charity Caritas joined government rescue efforts as devastating monsoon rain and flooding hit the nation leaving at least 77 people dead on Wednesday. Caritas Pakistan says it has activated its emergency response teams in all units in the country’s seven Catholic dioceses.

Media reports suggest most deaths occurred in southwestern province of Balochistan, where some 39 people died by drowning and electrocution. The Balochistan government has declared the provincial capital Quetta as disaster area and imposed a state of emergency.

Quetta-based pastor Irfan James told UCA News that many women and children were missing in the Mastung area of Balochistan as floodwater inundated houses of people with many desperately seeking life-saving aid materials.

Poorly built homes in rural areas of Pakistan are prone to flooding that regularly wreak havoc in the country. The worst flood in 2010 left about 2,000 people killed and more than 20 million displaced.

Hundreds of mostly Christian ethnic Tripura people marched on the streets demanding justice and compensation for four of their men shot dead by an armed rebel group in Bangladesh’s restive Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The rally on Sunday was organized by the Tripura Welfare Association to protest the June 21 killing by insurgent group, Kuki-Chin National Front, in Rangamati district. Three Tripura members from the same family died as gunmen opened fire, while another person was hacked to death and two children were seriously injured.

The latest violence comes as the region experiences a rise in violence and deaths amid a turf war between rival armed groups. The region continues to be restive despite the government signing an accord in 1997 with the main ethnic political party to end more than two decades of deadly insurgency.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts is home to dozens of ethnic groups who are mostly Buddhists and some Christians. Since 1970s it has seen a state-sponsored influx of Bengali Muslims, sparking communal tensions and conflicts. 

Catholic bishops and a youth group in the Philippines have expressed disappointment after a lawmaker filed a bill seeking to legalize divorce in the country under the new President Ferdinand Marcos Junior. Lawmaker Edcel Lagman re-filed the “Absolute Divorce Act” on Sunday.

The parliamentarian said it aims to liberate “beleaguered and tormented wives” from “irretrievably dysfunctional marriages or inordinately abusive marital relations.”

In an interview with Radio Veritas Asia, Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said the divorce bill would rather destroy than protect the family. Retired Bishop Arturo Basters of Sorsogon said by supporting the divorce bill lawmakers would contradict their oath to uphold the constitution by safeguarding the family.

Catholic group, Youth for Christ, said that all must protect the family as it is the basic unit of the society where the youth learn to grow in love and to be good Christians.

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