In Andhra Pradesh state in India, patients with AIDs have suffered discrimination in state-run hospitals and have turned to Catholic health centres. “When government hospitals refuse to treat these patients, the poor ones turn to nongovernment organisations and religious charities like Karunalayam, a Roman Catholic mission in Warangal,” stated a New York Times report. Continue Read more
Posts Tagged ‘India’
Communists back Catholics over Indian land issue
Friday, March 14th, 2014
Communists in a south Indian state have declared support for five Christian candidates in national elections. The Left Democratic Front, an alliance of communist parties in Kerala, has come out for the candidates because of a common position on a land issue. Christian groups, led by a number of Catholic bishops, have been campaigning against Read more
Uphill struggle against misogyny in India
Tuesday, March 4th, 2014
My heart grieved after reading the story of the young American woman who was stabbed to death by her Indian husband of five months, who subsequently killed himself. It grieves for all the young girls who are forced to remain subdued because of the threat of rape or sexual violence – abuse explained by some Read more
Hindu politician calls for stop to religious conversions in India
Friday, February 28th, 2014
An extremist Indian political leader has called for a stop to religious conversions in his country, other those than to Hinduism. At a rally in Bhopal, Ashok Singhal of the fundamentalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), also called for Hindu families to have at least five children each. This is to stop them becoming outnumbered by Read more
Reformed killer gets invite from Pope
Tuesday, December 10th, 2013Eighteen years after Samundar Singh brutally stabbed a Catholic nun in Madhya Pradesh and flung her on the roadside to bleed to death, the former convict and reformed killer, has been invited to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican. The nun, Sister Rani Maria, was stabbed 54 times inside a packed Indore-bound bus passing through Read more
Daughters for sale: India’s child slavery scourge
Tuesday, September 24th, 2013
On the day that Durga Mala was rescued, she lay crying on the stone floor, where she was attempting to cool her back. She was 11 years old and her skin was covered with blisters, from her shoulder blades to her buttocks. A few days earlier, her owners had poured hot oil over her because Read more
It’s a girl: the deadliest words in the world
Friday, August 2nd, 2013
The United Nations estimates that as many as 200 million girls are missing today, the majority from India and China. What are the cultural patterns and individual stories behind this shocking statistic? Evan Grae Davis, an American who has extensive experience in the developing world, has produced a documentary film that answers this question through Read more
Difference is no barrier to harmony
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Outside a lepers’ colony in Navi Mumbai, India, is a small chapel. Painted in both Hindi and English on the outside of the chapel, it reads: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples”. The chapel welcomes people of all faiths, and is visited by lepers who have been rejected from Read more
New cardinals show universality of Church
Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI sent a clear signal about the universality of the Catholic Church when he created six new cardinals on November 24. For the first time in decades, all of the new cardinals came from countries outside Europe. “I want to highlight in particular the fact that the Church is the Church of all Read more
Doctors feed aborted girls to dogs, hiding sex-selection abortions
Monday, May 28th, 2012India Today reports eye-witness accounts of doctors in one city are so desperate to hide evidence that they are doing sex-selection abortions that they are feeding the remains of aborted girl babies to dogs. Sme physicians in the city of Beed, India are engaging in the practice, according to India Today, which spoke with Varsha Deshpande Read more