The Vatican has replaced Indian Catholic Bishop K A William of Mysore with retired Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore as the apostolic administrator of southern India’s Karnataka state.
The order came on Saturday after Bishop William was probed by a Vatican-appointed team of bishops for alleged involvement in serious crimes like murder, rape, and misappropriation of church funds. He has been ordered to “take a period of absence from the ministry.”
Bishop Kannikadass A William of Mysore. (Photo: UCAN files)
Father Gnana Prakash, a senior priest of Mysore diocese, who sought action against the bishop, said the Vatican’s action followed meticulous scrutiny and proper investigation of the allegations by a three-member bishops’ inquiry committee.
In a letter to Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, the priest had accused Bishop William of murder, rape, sodomy, kidnapping, and embezzlement of funds. Some 37 priests also made similar reports to the Vatican. Bishop William termed the allegations baseless and priests targeted him for his efforts to reform the Church.
In Bangladesh, thousands of religious and ethnic minorities joined a march from the second-largest city of Chittagong to the capital Dhaka this week to call on the government to formulate laws to protect them from discrimination and oppression.
Following the march, their leaders submitted a petition with a list of demands to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday. They urged the government to act on their demands before the next general election scheduled for next January.
Members of religious minority communities join a mass hunger strike for the rights and protection of minorities in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Oct. 22, 2022. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News)
The march was jointly organized by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, and the United Front of Ethnic-Religious Minorities in Bangladesh. The petition contained a number of pledges from the ruling Awami League party made before 2018 national election.
These include the formulation and implementation of a Minorities Protection Act, Anti-Discrimination Act, Vested Property Transfer Act, Intestate Property Conservation Act, a national minorities commission, a special land tribunal to deal with land disputes involving minorities, and a minority affairs ministry.
Church officials in Sri Lanka have criticized the promotion of a senior police officer who is accused of failing to act in time to prevent the deadly Easter Sunday bombings of churches in 2019 despite having prior intelligence information.
The government recently made Nilantha Jayawardena the acting Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police. He is tipped to become the next chief of police in Sri Lanka. Church leaders are unhappy and believe the appointment is aimed at hiding the truth behind the bombings, which killed 269 people, and injured more than 500.
Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilantha Jayawardena has been accused of failing to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings of churches in Sri Lanka in 2019. (Photo: Sri Lanka Guardian)
A group of suicide bombers affiliated with the local Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath was being blamed but despite several probes, the main perpetrators are reported to be still at large. Jayawardena is accused of deleting all data related to the bombings from his computer in an attempt to destroy evidence against him.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry has recommended filing criminal charges against Jayawardena but he has survived and remains untouched.
Over 1.6 million Catholics flocked to the popular Black Nazarene feast to honor Jesus in the Philippine capital Manila from January 6-10. Large number of devotees joined the feast despite the cancellation of the Traslacion – the solemn grand procession attended by millions of devotees who walk barefoot.
The feast was held after a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic with some restrictions in place including a bar on the grand procession with the statue of Black Nazarene. Due largely to the restrictions, the number of Catholics joining the festival was far less.
Filipino Catholics participate in a midnight Mass on Jan. 9 during the Black Nazarene feast in Manila. (Photo: Archdiocese of Manila)
According to the parish priest of the local Quiapo Church, Father Earl Valdez, more than five million joined in 2019 before the pandemic hit.
Though the annual procession was banned, several families walked barefoot on the streets with their own image of the Black Nazarene wearing face masks and shields. Manila archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula led the midnight Mass on Monday that drew about 500,000 devotees.
An Indonesian Catholic mother, who lost a son in a deadly crackdown on a student protest in 1998, has joined rights activists asking President Jokowi Widodo to go beyond offering an apology and take concrete measures to deliver justice to victims of human rights violations.
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