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Mother Teresa nuns baffled by conversion charge

Catholic-run institutes bear the brunt amid an anti-Christian purge in India. In other Asian nations, people grapple with the impacts of natural and manmade calamities.

Published: December 17, 2021 11:27 AM GMT

Updated: December 18, 2021 04:30 PM GMT

Police in Gujarat state of India have initiated a probe against an orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity congregation after a case was filed over attempted religious conversion of inmates.

The investigations started on Monday, days after a district social defense officer, in a casual visit, allegedly saw them praying and registered a complaint against the home for violating the state’s anti-conversion law.

The allegations say the girl inmates were made to wear crosses around their necks and keep the Bible in a storeroom they used regularly. The globally renowned congregation founded by Mother Teresa has been running the orphanage that has 48 girls including 22 mentally and physically challenged children.

Church officials described the accusation as false, fabricated and part of an orchestrated plan to defame minority Christians. They also vowed to challenge the case legally to prove their innocence.

Mother Teresa nuns baffled by conversion charge

Nuns from Missionaries of Charity distribute food to the needy on Peace Day to mark the death anniversary of founder Mother Teresa at the Mother House in Kolkata on Sept. 5. (Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP)

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The incident comes about a week after police in Madhya Pradesh state started a probe into a Catholic-run orphanage in Sagar Diocese following allegations that its inmates were given beef and taught the Bible, among other charges.

Church leaders denied the charges and said they were part of a well-planned campaign to denigrate the Church, especially by those who have an eye on the orphanage’s land.

St. Francis Orphanage in Shampura in Sagar district of Madyha Pradesh. (Photo: YouTube)

This was the third such incident targeting a Catholic-run institution in the diocese within a month.

Madhya Pradesh is among Indian states that ban religious conversion and consumption of beef. 


A boat carrying about 50 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers sank off the coast of Malaysia, leaving at least 19 dead and about 17 missing.

The boat capsized in the rough seas near Tanjung Balau of Johor state in Malaysia on Wednesday. Survivors said they were from the Indonesian island of Lombok, east of Bali, and had set sail for Malaysia from Batam, an Indonesian island close to Singapore.

A boat is brought to shore after capsizing near Tanjung Balau off the coast of Johor in an accident that authorities said killed at least 19 Indonesian migrants. (Photo: AFP)

Migration groups say between 100,000 to 200,000 Indonesians travel illegally to Malaysia for work each year, many of them recruited by trafficking gangs and subjected to exploitation.

A Catholic official condemned Indonesian authorities for failing to protect people from transnational human trafficking syndicates.

Thousands of people in the Philippines fled their homes and beachfront resorts as Super Typhoon Rai slammed into the country on Thursday. Disaster agencies said more than 90,000 people sought emergency shelter as the storm charged across the Pacific Ocean.

Weather forecasters said Rai was packing maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour. It was the strongest storm to hit the country this year. In the town of Dapa, families slept on the floor of a sports complex turned into a temporary evacuation center.

Flood-affected residents are evacuated from their homes next to a swollen river in Cagayan de Oro city on southern Mindanao island amid heavy rains brought about by Super Typhoon Rai on Dec. 16. (Photo: AFP)

Scores of flights were canceled, and dozens of ports temporarily closed as the weather bureau warned that storm surges could cause "life-threatening flooding" in low-lying coastal areas.

The Philippines is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change and is ravaged by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year.


The Catholic Church marked the golden jubilee of the birth of Bangladesh by honoring Christians who fought the War of Independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The Church conferred a special medal and a certificate of honor on some 40 former guerrilla fighters, representing 419 Christian former guerrillas officially recognized by the state, during a national program in capital Dhaka on Saturday.

Cardinal Patrick D'Rozario and Oblate Archbishop Bejoy N. D'Cruze of Dhaka (right) honor a Christian freedom fighter during an event in capital Dhaka to mark the golden jubilee of Bangladesh independence on Dec. 11. (Photo: Piyas Biswas)

In addition, 35 individuals representing clergy, religious and laypeople received memorial crests for their significant roles during the war including support to freedom fighters and refugees.

The 1,000 attendees included the who is who of Bangladesh government, all Catholic bishops of the eight dioceses, leaders and representatives from various parts of the country. The event also featured the unveiling of a special souvenir magazine and a colorful cultural function. 


In a positive development, authorities in Punjab province of Pakistan banned the use of a derogatory and abusive slur on mostly Christian sanitary workers.

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In a notification on International Human Rights Day, Attock district office said from that day the term chuhra or low caste should not be used for sanitary workers and legal action will be taken against violators.

A sanitation worker of Lahore Water Management Company in Pakistan holds a placard that states “I am a human being, not a trash can.” (Photo supplied)

For decades, this term has been used to refer to sanitation workers with its origins in the Indian subcontinent’s Hindu Churha case that is historically associated with the sweeping and cleaning profession.

Even though many members have converted to Islam and Christianity, they are called by the abusive term and often barred from taking up other professions rather than defiling jobs like cleaning. In Pakistan, most road sweepers are poor Christians and they are referred to by other abusive terms in local languages.


Vietnam has intensified its crackdown on rights activists and dissidents. On Tuesday, the People’s Court of Hanoi City jailed the nation’s most famous human rights activist and dissident journalist, Pham Doan Trang, for nine years on allegations of “propaganda against the state.”

She was charged after giving interviews to foreign newspapers and publishing reports on marine pollution and religious violations in Vietnam. Trang won the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize for Impact in 2019.

Pham Doan Trang (center) and her friends before her arrest in 2020. (Photo courtesy of Pham Thanh Nghien's Facebook)

She was arrested in October 2020. On Wednesday, the same court in Hanoi City jailed two land rights activists to a total of 16 years for spreading anti-state information.

Nguyen Thi Tam and Trinh Ba Phuong, both victims of rampant land grabbing, were sentenced to six and 10 years respectively. The activists drew the ire of the authorities for reporting a violent police raid on farmers in Dong Tam commune in early 2020.


The Catholic Church in Singapore marked the closing of celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Catholicism in the city-state with an eight-day festival. On Saturday, all Catholic churches in Singapore held concurrent Masses, and for the first time in history the simultaneous ringing of bells by all churches was sounded throughout the island for one minute.

Archbishop William Goh concelebrated the Mass at the Good Shepherd Cathedral, the oldest Catholic church in Singapore, with apostolic nuncio Archbishop Marek Zalewski. Among the dignitaries present were Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and representatives from the French and Portuguese embassies.

Catholics participate in a Mass at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd in Singapore. The Catholic Church in the city state will mark the end of 200th anniversary celebrations with a festival from Dec. 4-11. (Photo: Cathedral of the Good Shepherd)

In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Lee praised Catholics for their contributions to nation building through education, health care and social welfare and promoting harmony over two centuries.

French priest and saint Laurent Marie Joseph Imbert brought the Catholic faith to Singapore in 1821. Singapore Archdiocese has about 360,000 Catholics.


Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, consecrated Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral in Bahrain last Friday. It is the newest and largest cathedral in the Persian Gulf region.

Until now, Bahrain only had one church in the capital, Manama, and a chapel in the suburbs to serve the country's more than 90,000 Catholics. Bahrain, a tiny Muslim-majority nation, has built the spectacular church in response to the Gulf region's increasing Catholic population, now estimated at 2.5 million.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle gifts a replica of Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral to Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Khalifa during its inauguration in Awali, Bahrain, on Dec. 9. (Photo: AFP)

Catholics in Bahrain hail mainly from the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka and the rest are South Americans, Europeans and Arabs. The new cathedral has seating capacity for 2,300 worshippers. It is the seat of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The land plot for the cathedral was donated by Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa eight years ago.


Christians in conflict-torn Myanmar are bracing for a joyless Christmas. In Christian-majority ethnic regions, the sounds of gunfire, fighter jets and heavy weapons have replaced the sounds of carols.

Instead of carrying out preparations for Christmas, thousands of people are spending their time in the jungle and makeshift camps after fleeing their homes as a result of the military’s scorched-earth campaign in ethnic regions.

Youths exercise at a camp for internally displaced people in Demoso in Myanmar's Kayah state. Civilians in Kayah state have sought the safety of rural IDP camps as fighting continues between rebel groups and the military. (Photo: AFP)

Several Catholic and Protestant churches in Chin state and Kayah state in have been bombed and destroyed in deliberate attacks by junta forces. More than 200,000 people have been displaced in predominantly Christian Kachin, Kayah, Chin, Karen and Shan states following the escalation in fighting between the military and ethnic armed groups and People Defense Forces since March.

About 1,300 people have been killed and over 10,000 arrested since February’s military coup.

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