Asia – Pacific

Punalur, India, Jan 15, 2020 / 02:42 pm (CNA).- The founder of a prominent non-denominational movement in India has returned to the Catholic faith of his baptism, after more than a decade as a Pentecostal pastor and traveling preacher.

Sajith Joseph, 36, was confirmed Dec. 21, 2019 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Punalur in the southern Indian state of Kerala. His family and nearly 50 other members of his movement were received into, or came back to, the Catholic Church the same day.

Joseph is the leader of Grace Community Global, which he founded in Kerala in 2011.

The group will now be under the jurisdiction of  Bishop Selvister Ponnumuthan of Punalur as a Catholic association, with the permission of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, which is responsible for international associations of the faithful. Joseph’s Facebook page describes Grace Community Global as “an ecumenical movement of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church.”

The group has around 2 million followers in 30 countries, and reaches many people through its televangelism programs.

Fr. Prasad Theruvath, OCD, was asked to act as chaplain to the group; he has served as the secretary of the Kerala bishops’ commission for inter-church dialogue.

Fr. Theruvath told CNA that a process of sorting out how the members of Grace Community Global want to proceed has begun. Most of the members are Protestant, but the group is also followed by Oriental Orthodox Christians, as well as Hindus and Muslims.

Those who do not want to continue with the group under its new Catholic identity will return to their “mother churches,” but there are many others who want to join the Catholic Church, he said.

They are trying to proceed with prudence, Fr. Theruvath explained, by “slowly preparing” those seeking conversion. “We are in the initial stages, [there is] lots of work to do.”

About the future of Grace Community Global, Joseph said that “the system has changed, but the function is the same.” Under the direction of the Kerala bishops, the group will continue their conventions and Sunday fellowship gatherings.  

Joseph told CNA he founded Grace Community Global while he was teaching in a Protestant seminary. He said he was “seeing the difference between Catholic theology and Protestant theology” through his studies, especially of early Church history.

He was reflecting a lot on Christian unity, he said, and he began the non-denominational group, intentionally calling it a “community” rather than a denomination or church.

“I was trying my level best to bring unity to Pentecostal groups through Grace Community Global,” Joseph explained, adding that he eventually realized this unity was “impossible because of the difference of doctrines.”

He came to see there is a “gap” in Protestant history which can only be filled by being a part of the apostolic Church, he said.

“Studying Church history made me rethink the beliefs I had. Then… the theological, doctrinal unity made me think secondly about Catholicism and Catholic theology. So, my theological convictions made me come back to Catholicism and the Catholic Church.”

What followed were four years of discussions with the bishops of Kerala, canonists, theologians, and eventually the Vatican, Joseph stated.

Joseph was born into a Catholic family, but when he was 16 years old his parents left the Church to join the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal ecclesial community.

Joseph was moved to become a preacher; by the age of 19, he was already preaching to small groups of people in Kerala.

He studied Protestant theology and became pastor of an Assemblies of God community. He taught at a Protestant seminary for a period, and started traveling to preach.

In 2011, he started Grace Community Global, which he led for several years before discovering that the unity he was seeking could be found in the Catholic Church.  

Around the time he started Grace Community, when Joseph was 28 years old, he had a powerful experience in prayer, he said, including a vision of Christ crucified and an altar, which he believes was revealing to him the truth of what Christ suffered on the cross, and his presence in the Eucharist.

“As a Protestant pastor, I was not able to digest that image [of an altar],” he said, noting that he wondered why God was showing him this.

According to Joseph, this experience left him with “a great boldness to pray for the sick,” leading him to start his healing ministry.

Fr. Theruvath said Joseph has the supernatural gift of healing, an extraordinary charism received through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The priest said “the Holy Spirit is working through this.”

“God is doing amazing things here!” Joseph rejoiced.

[…]

Sydney, Australia, Jan 13, 2020 / 06:18 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney urged Mass attendees Sunday to pray for an end to the Australia fires, which have destroyed thousands of homes, and to donate to those affected.

The bushfires in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia have killed at least 28, and destroyed more than 2,000 homes. More than 2,400 square miles are now on fire, and some 38,600 square miles have burned.

“We gather in the shadow of a drought that has now lasted for three years and a bushfire season already the most intense in our country’s history,” Archbishop Fisher said during his homily at Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney Jan. 12.

“[We] stand with all those suffering the destruction of drought and fire, and all those assisting them.”

He applauded the efforts of volunteers and offered prayers for those who have lost property and lives.

“Our mettle as a community is being tested by fire,” he said.

“Together let us pray for a great outpouring of water from the heavens to cleanse our land of destruction and revivify both the bush and our hearts,” he added.

The archbishop applauded the humanitarian efforts of Catholic organizations throughout the country and encouraged parishioners to donate during a special collection at Mass on Jan. 26, Australia Day.

Archbishop Fisher pointed to the feast of the Baptism of Christ, saying this “baptism by fire” will cause the community to become stronger than before.

“Through the inferno of these past weeks, the spirit of our people was not consumed. Rather, their hardiness and goodness were on display.”

“If baptismal waters call us to higher ideals, they also purify us for living those ideals. Fire, too can test our mettle, even refine what is there,” he said. “As our nation passes through this baptism of fire, it can emerge stronger and greater than before.”

“Key Church agencies in welfare, health and education, are working with local parishes, CatholicCare services and St Vincent de Paul conferences to ensure a co-ordinated and effective response,” he said.

“The Church in Australia will direct collections on the Australia Day weekend to the St Vincent de Paul Bushfire Appeal, so that we can maintain this momentum and long continue to demonstrate human and Christian solidarity.”

The St Vincent de Paul Bushfire Appeal will provide victims with essential items, like food and clothing. It will also help victims cover unexpected bills and offer emotional support.

National President of the St Vincent de Paul Society Claire Victory encouraged people to offer financial donations, noting that the organization does not have the “capacity to sort and store additional furniture, clothing or other items in the affected areas right now.”

“We are present, at the service of those communities, providing personal and practical support and referral to professional services,” she said in a Jan. 8 statement.

“Right now, cash is needed,” she added. “Cash is the most useful contribution at this point in time.”

[…]

Lima, Peru, Jan 13, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- After controversial remarks last week, the Archbishop of Lima said Thursday that he did not intend to undermine the importance of prayer in the presence of the Eucharist.

“It is essential for us to maintain a level of entering and contemplating the mystery of the Lord made bread for us, the mystery of the transubstantiation as we call it more technically, which means the real presence of the Lord,” Archbishop Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio said Jan. 7.

Castillo’s remarks came after he told Lima’s synodal assembly Jan. 7 that “no one is converted with the tabernacle.” At that meeting, Castillo said that while Pope Francis has mentioned contemplation of the Eucharist as a source of spiritual growth, “no one is converted with the tabernacle. We are all converted from meeting people who ask us questions and who are human dramas where the possibility of encountering the Lord arises.”

“I can later sit before the tabernacle and pray and all that, and surely; but it is very rare that I have illumination in a passive state…Contemplation is extremely important but to the extent the faith has been transmitted, somebody communicated the faith to me,” Castillo added.

“We are all believers because someone announced the Gospel to us, from our mother who made the sign of the cross, the grandma. the dad, the aunt, classmates at school, the Christian community or the singing group…It’s in human relationships where the Lord is hidden, that his presence appears and we welcome him,” Castillo added.

The archbishop’s remarks, posted on YouTube, became a source of controversy in Peru, where they were seen by some Catholics to downplay the importance of the Eucharist, or the power of prayer.

After his comments were published, Castillo offered a “clarification,” explaining that “some people were a bit surprised by a point I made in the morning. What I said was, let’s say, before the tabernacle you don’t find your vocation, a vocation is found in life. And the tabernacle, as you know, is the place to visit where the permanent presence of the Lord is under the forms of bread and wine, and there the Real Presence.”

“Pope Francis said here in Trujillo that when one has a vocation, the vocation is always received in life,” Castillo added.

Castillo, who was a theology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, became Lima’s archbishop March 2, 2019.

Castillo’s remarks were intended as a commentary on a Jan. 20, 2018 discourse from Pope Francis to priests and consecrated religious in Trujillo, Peru. In that speech, the pope discussed the importance of prayer before the Eucharist.

“Sit down a while and allow him to look at you and remember those times he looked at you and looks at you. Allow yourselves to receive his gaze. This is the most precious possession of a consecrated person: the Lord’s gaze,” Francis said in his remarks.

The pope added that the Lord finds and heals believers in the difficult circumstances of their own life, and from those circumstances, brings them to contemplate him in the presence of the Eucharist.

That, Castillo claimed Jan. 7 in his clarification, is the point he had been trying to make.

The “first encounter with the vocation and the successive kerygmatic encounters are in life and in often terrible situations and sometimes also very beautiful situations, but they aren’t, let’s say, in a moment where I’m alone and there’s a kind of look from the Host at me and me at the Host.”

The archbishop’s clarification, however, also raised a concern about the role of contemplation in life.

“And we have to take into account something that is very important: all that which are  sacraments are signs the Lord has left to remember life and to live life more deeply, to nourish life, but not to replace it.” 

Nevertheless, Castillo added, “I can’t then say tomorrow we all go to the tabernacle and we only devote ourselves to be before the tabernacle, because that’s the truest part of life. [Because] who’s cooking?  And who’s preparing something to eat? So if we see things that way, with [contemplation] as the greatest thing there is, and the only thing that is, be careful.”

Pope Francis has referred to the importance of praying before the Eucharist.

In September 2018, speaking to the bishops in mission territories, the pope explained that a bishop, being a successor of the apostles, is called by Jesus to remain with him and therefore “before the tabernacle he learns to entrust himself to and to trust in the Lord,” because “there he finds his strength and his confidence.”

On Jan. 31, 2019, the pope recalled Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, and said that for the priest to look at reality “with the eyes of a man and with the eyes of God,” he has to spend “ample time before the tabernacle”

At Midnight Mass, Dec. 24, 2019, Pope Francis also spoke of the importance of contemplating Christ in the Eucharist present in the tabernacle.

“Today is the right day to draw near to the tabernacle, the crèche, the manger, and to say thank you. Let us receive the gift that is Jesus, in order then to become gift like Jesus. To become gift is to give meaning to life. And it is the best way to change the world: we change, the Church changes, history changes, once we stop trying to change others but try to change ourselves and to make of our life a gift,” the pontiff said.

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Melbourne, Australia, Jan 13, 2020 / 10:30 am (CNA).- Cardinal George Pell has reportedly been transferred out of the Melbourne prison in which he has been incarcerated for more than a year after a drone illegally flew over the prison grounds.

Ac… […]

Bangalore, India, Jan 9, 2020 / 12:37 am (CNA).- Catholics in India are seeking to erect the nation’s tallest statue of Jesus, over objections by Hindi groups who say one of their gods lives on the hill designated for the project.

Work began las… […]

Tehran, Iran, Jan 7, 2020 / 11:25 am (CNA).- As tensions escalate between Iran and the United States following the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the pope’s diplomat in Tehran is appealing for dialogue.

Archbishop Leo Boccardi has served as apostolic nuncio to Iran since 2013. Speaking to EWTN News from Tehran, Boccardi said he has been keeping the Vatican updated on the situation on the ground in Tehran with regular dispatches to the Secretariat of State.

“I believe that the words of the Holy Father have been an invitation to moderation, to dialogue, to negotiation to get through the tension and to see, to hope, that there are none of these … acts of revenge,” Archbishop Boccardi told EWTN News Jan. 6.

The pope called for dialogue and self-control in the “terrible air of tension” in his Angelus address Jan. 5.

Archbishop Boccardi said he does not foresee immediate implications for the small population of Christians living in Iran due to the U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani, saying it is not a religious conflict. “It is a war that is unfolding between Iran and another particular opponent who has a name and surname,” Boccardi said.

US President Donald Trump ordered the drone strike that killed Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, as well as Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, at the Baghdad International Airport Jan. 3.

The airstrike followed an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and U.S. officials claim that Soleimani had planned additional attacks against Americans. The US State Department had designated Soleimani a global terrorist in 2011.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani pledged revenge for the drone attack that killed Soleimani, and Trump threatened in a tweet Jan. 4 to target Iranian cultural sites if Iran were to strike any Americans, a move which Pentagon officials later rejected. Chants of “Death to America” were heard at Soleimani’s funeral Jan. 6.

“Good politics is at the service of peace, the whole international community must put itself at the service of peace, not only in the region but in the whole world,” Archbishop Boccardi said in an Italian Vatican Radio interview Jan. 3.

“The appeal is to lower tension, call everyone to negotiation,” he said. “We must believe in dialogue.”

Boccardi said that a peaceful Middle East is the responsibility of the international community. The nuncio said “pacta sunt servanda” (agreements are to be kept) is an important rule for diplomacy, and underlined that the rules of law must be respected by everyone.

“We must ‘arm ourselves’ with other weapons which are those of justice and goodwill,” he said.

Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako, Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, echoed the nuncio’s sentiment, calling for prayer, prudence, and dialogue.

“I have to say personally that I am very shocked by hearing the words ‘taking revenge,’” Sako told EWTN News Jan. 6.

“We are very lucky to be Christian because our culture and our education and our mentality is a mentality of peace, respect, and life, and not of blood and taking revenge,” the Iraqi cardinal said.

Sako said that he believes that Europe can be a bridge to aid with dialogue between Iran and Iraq, as well as with the United States.

“The international community has a responsibility for what is happening in the region in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Iran now. They should help people to sit together and to dialogue in a civilized way and to look for a political solution … not fighting, and threatening people and so on,” he said.

“And I ask all of our Christians to pray for us and to keep us in their prayers,” he added.

Alan Holdren contributed to this report.

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Beijing, China, Jan 6, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- China will enforce new restrictions on religious groups, organizations, meetings, and other related events starting on Feb 1. 

The country’s state-controlled media announced the new policy on D… […]

New Delhi, India, Jan 6, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Church officials in India have said the nations will not host the 2021 Asian Youth Day as planned, ucanews reported Monday.

“Our country was given the responsibility of hosting Asian Youth Day … After consultations with higher authorities, it was decided that it was better to call off the event as the present scenario does not allow us to hold the program,” Bishop Nazarene Soosai of Kottar, head of the Indian bishops’ youth commission, told ucanews Jan. 6.

India’s ruling political party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has been increasingly hostile to religious freedom for minorities.

Bishop Soosai commented, “We had hoped that there would be a change of government in 2019, but that did not happen and the present situation does not look good either.

The BJP came to power in 2014, and strengthened its majority in the 2019 general election.

Asian Youth Day is an event held for young Catholics in Asia every few years. The first Asian Youth Day was held in Thailand in 1999.

The most recent iteration took place in Indonesia in 2017. At the conclusion of that event, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay announced that India would be hosting the following Asian Youth Day, which was then anticipated to take place in 2020.

The recent report of ucanews said the Indian Asian Youth Day was to have taken place in October 2021.

Fr. Chetan Machado, an official of the Indian bishops’ youth council, told ucanews that “there are several practical reasons why this event was cancelled. A major reason was the granting visa to our visitors from neighboring countries … the present situation does not permit us to host this program.”

Asian Youth Day was held once before in India, in 2003 in Bangalore.

According to the 2019 report from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, “religious freedom conditions in India continued a downward trend” in 2018.

The commission said India’s “history of religious freedom has come under attack in recent years with the growth of exclusionary extremist narratives—including, at times, the government’s allowance and encouragement of mob violence against religious minorities—that have facilitated an egregious and ongoing campaign of violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu minorities. Both public and private actors have engaged in this campaign.”

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Manila, Philippines, Jan 6, 2020 / 10:48 am (CNA).- The Supreme Court of the Philippines has reiterated its dismissal of a petition to redefine marriage in the country to include same-sex couples.

The court had initially dismissed the petition in Sept… […]

Melbourne, Australia, Jan 5, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- As fires throughout parts of Australia continue to worsen, the Archbishop of Melbourne called for prayers and encouraged Catholics to donate to those in need.

“On this first weekend of the New… […]