(Vatican Radio) India is marking its 70th Independence Day on Aug. 15, in commemoration of the day in 1947 when what was the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two newly independent states – Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan. Pakistan celebrates its Independence a day earlier on August 14.Partition-triggered tragedyThe boundary lines between the two new nations, hastily drawn up just weeks before, were not made public until two days later. Muslims and Hindus on the wrong sides of the divide, suddenly felt themselves in enemy land, especially in divided Punjab and Bengal. This triggered a panicked and chaotic mass migration - one of the largest history has witnessed outside war and famine – that resulted in a massive loss of life on both sides.No-one knows the exact number but it is estimated between 500,000 to 1 million were killed. Tens of thousands of women were raped or abducted and about 12 million people became ref...
(Vatican Radio) India is marking its 70th Independence Day on Aug. 15, in commemoration of the day in 1947 when what was the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two newly independent states – Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan. Pakistan celebrates its Independence a day earlier on August 14.
Partition-triggered tragedy
The boundary lines between the two new nations, hastily drawn up just weeks before, were not made public until two days later. Muslims and Hindus on the wrong sides of the divide, suddenly felt themselves in enemy land, especially in divided Punjab and Bengal. This triggered a panicked and chaotic mass migration - one of the largest history has witnessed outside war and famine – that resulted in a massive loss of life on both sides.
No-one knows the exact number but it is estimated between 500,000 to 1 million were killed. Tens of thousands of women were raped or abducted and about 12 million people became refugees.
70-year enmity
This year, India and Pakistan are marking 70 years of their freedom and partition, the legacy of which still continues to affect the lives of millions. The two neighbours have not only fought three wars and built up their armies but have also developed nuclear weapons. According to some, they even fought a 4th war, although their 1999 clash was without a formal declaration of war.
Indian Christians
A common denominator in this majority Hindu-Muslim issue between India and Pakistan has been the other minority religious groups who are on both sides of the divide. Among them are Christians, some 28 million of whom are in India. Of these, 19.9 million are Catholics or about 1.5 percent of India’s some 1.3 billion population. As India turns 70 on August 15, we called Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, the secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), to know about what Catholics feel about the nation. Speaking on his mobile phone from India, Bishop Mascarenhas briefly expressed the hopes and aspirations of the Catholic Church of India.
Listen:
First and foremost, we are very grateful to this great country, its civilization and its very tolerant community for the space they have given the Catholic Church and the Catholic community in the past 70 years.
Our hopes and aspirations for this country are that this tolerant spirit, peace and traditional harmony we have been enjoying, continue, so that we can continue contributing to nation-building and to the good of this country.
We also hope and pray that this country might go forward with inclusive development for all its people, taking in the poor, the marginalized, the tribals, the Dalits and the poor, with whom our hearts are always there as Catholics and as the Catholic Church.
Outer details of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Chicago. / Credit: Eric Allix RogersCNA Staff, May 15, 2024 / 12:12 pm (CNA).Catholics and city preservationists in Chicago are scrambling to try to preserve a historic parish on the city's North Side, one that has survived a century of the city's development including being fully moved to a new location after it was first built. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish will hold its final Mass on Sunday, May 19, before the parish merges with nearby St. Mary of the Lake. The consolidation is part of the Archdiocese of Chicago's ongoing "Renew My Church" initiative that has closed and merged dozens of parishes in order to address shrinking budgets and priest shortages. The archdiocese announced the Lourdes parish merger in 2021. Katerina Garcia, the president of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church Preservation Society, told "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Tracy Sabol this week that parishioners at the parish dispute ...
Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, SJ, archbishop of Hong Kong, China. / Credit: Daniel IbáñezRome Newsroom, May 15, 2024 / 14:17 pm (CNA).Cardinal Stephen Chow recently visited three Catholic dioceses in mainland China, one year after the bishop of Hong Kong's first historic trip to Beijing.Chow led a 10-person delegation of Catholics from Hong Kong to the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Shantou, and Shenzhen in April in his second official visit to China since becoming bishop of Hong Kong."We brought our people to have an encounter … where we share common concerns, for example, youth ministry, catechism, marriage and family," Chow said in a video interview published May 5.Here is a look at some of the Catholic communities Chow visited:St. Joseph's Cathedral in ShantouSt. Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou, China. Credit: Kc1446 at Chinese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHundreds of Chinese Catholics attended a Mass in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Shantou concelebrated...
Stained-glass window at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. / Credit: Ella Manthey/ShutterstockSt. Louis, Mo., May 15, 2024 / 14:47 pm (CNA).Two St. Louis parishes that appealed to the Vatican after Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski ordered them to merge last year have had their appeals upheld by the Holy See, reversing the archbishop's prior decision.As part of the archdiocese's major pastoral planning initiative dubbed "All Things New," Rozanski announced a year ago that the number of parishes would be reduced by nearly 50 by way of parish mergers and closures.Under canon law, a diocesan bishop has the authority to alter parishes, but only for a just reason specific to each parish. Concern for souls must be the principal motivation for modifying a parish.Amid the All Things New process, a number of parishes announced their intention to send appeals to the Vatican, putting aspects of the mergers planned for the parishes on hold until the Dicastery for the Clergy's rulings. Af...