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Posted by News on 20/1/2003, 6:59 am
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INDIA: Jesuits reject verbal attack by Hindu leader
New Delhi. Jesuits in India defended their order against a verbal attack
from the leader of a prominent fundamentalist Hindu group as alumni of
Jesuit schools worldwide prepared to meet in Calcutta. K. S. Sudarshan,
head of the pro-Hindu nationalist organisation RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, or National Volunteer Corps), recently described the Jesuits as the
"Pope's soldiers" and claimed that they had taken an oath to use "violent
and barbaric means to decimate all those who don't follow the Roman
Catholic religion."
Sudarshan's comments, quoted in the media, came after the president of
India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, accepted an invitation to inaugurate the
four-day meeting of the World Jesuit Alumni Congress from 21 to 24 January.
President Kalam, who is a Muslim, as a student had attended a Jesuit
college in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. A large majority of the
graduates of India's 120 Jesuit schools and 20 colleges are Hindu.
INDIA: Christians can foster peace in Gujarat, newly ordained bishop says
Ahmedabad. A newly ordained Catholic bishop in Gujarat says Christians are
well positioned to foster peace in the western Indian state, where
Hindu-Muslim violence last year left more than 1,000 people dead. Bishop
Thomas Macwan of Ahmedabad, whose episciopal ordination was on Jan. 11,
recently told the press, "I believe Christians are acceptable to both
Hindus and Muslims. Therefore, our role in maintaining peace is important."
Bishop Macwan, the first Gujarat native to become a bishop, said he wants
Christians to engage in peace restoration efforts in the state as it passes
through "a critical phase." Christians can be "peace messegers," he
observed, because they have earned the respect of the state's majority
Hindus. According to the 50-year-old prelate, that kind of respect was
evident in a congratulatory message he received from the state's chief
minister, Narendra Modi, of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party.

CHINA: Macau bishop awarded government medal, urges greater integration
with the mainland
Macau. The Macau bishop, who is to receive a government award, says
integrating his Church with its mainland counterpart is an essntial need.
Bishop Domingos Lam Ka-tseung, 74, recently told reporters that the local
Church in Macau must have a broad vision. "Due to political reasons in the
past, the Church in Macau and mainland China were separated," he admitted,
but thanks to more cooperation with the Church in China, "the situation now
is different and we must integrate."
Bishop Lam was talking some weeks after it was announced he would receive
the Golden Lotus Medal in late January. This award is the second highest
decoration conferred by the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR)
government. Macau reverted from Portuguese rule to Chinese sovereignty in
December 1999. The SAR government presents the medal each year to citizens
who have made distinctive personal achievements or else wise helped society.

VIETNAM: New bishop of Hai Phong stresses role of lay Church workers
Ho Chi Minh City. The newly ordained bishop of Hai Phong says training
laity as Church workers is his top priority as shepherd. Bishop Joseph Vu
Van Thien of Hai Phong, Vietnam's youngest bishop, says the "urgent need in
the immediate future" is to have more trained catechists and lay Church
workers help priests carry out diocesan work. The 43-year-old prelate, who
was ordained on Jan. 2, talked about his plan in an interview published in
the Ho Chi Minh City-based Catholic weekly "Cong Giao va Dan Toc"
(Catholicism and nation).
The reason for such laity training, the newly installed bishop said, is
that there are only 30 priests in his diocese to serve some 120,000
Catholics in 62 parishes. The diocese is based in Hai Phong, 100 kilometers
east of Ha Noi. "We have many pastoral difficulties," such as the lack of
trained catechists to teach religion, Bishop Thien said. To address this
urgent need, he added, the diocese will run courses.

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