Latest revision as of 06:45, 13 December 2024

[edit] Cardinals

[edit] 2024: George Jacob Koovakad  creates history

Dec 7, 2024: The Times of India

In a grand consistory held in the Vatican Saturday, 51-year-old Keralite priest George Jacob Koovakad was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Francis.

Koovakad will be remembered in history as the first priest to be directly elevated as a cardinal from India. The other cardinals from India were bishops/archbishops before being elevated to this exalted post in the Church. The ceremony, held at St Peter’s Basilica and attended by clergy and dignitaries from around the world, witnessed the induction of 21 new cardinals. Hailing from the Archdiocese of Changanassery, Koovakad’s appointment brings the total number of Indian cardinals to six, further strengthening the country’s representation in the Vatican.


Koovakad, who has been organising the Pope’s international travels since 2020, shares a good relationship with him, and on Sept 2 last year, Pope Francis video called his grandmother, Sosamma Antony, 95, after her health deteriorated following Covid. Koovakad, who held the title of monsignor, was recently declared the titular archbishop of Nisibis in Turkey.


Earlier, Koovakad said: “...This is God’s will which I never expected. When I was sent here (in 2006), I was told by my respected seniors, that if it’s to learn the Bible, that can be done in Kerala itself, but since you are being sent to the Vatican it’s being done to learn things deeply.”


Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop emeritus of the Syro-Malabar Church, expressed his delight at the elevation of another Indian to the cardinalate. 


“It is a matter of immense pride for India that Archbishop George Koovakad will be created as a Cardinal by Pope Francis,” PM Modi posted on X.
Born on Aug 11, 1974, Koovakad was ordained as a priest on July 24, 2004. He later pursued training for diplomatic service at the prestigious Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. In 2006, he began his diplomatic career at the apostolic nunciature in Algeria.In 2020, he joined the secretariat of state of the Holy See, where he assumed responsibility for organising the Pope’s global travels.

[edit] Sexual offences by the clergy

[edit] 2019: Kerala Catholic Bishops’ guidelines

February , 2019: The Times of India

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has issued guidelines to protect minors and adults in church-run institutions from any form of sexual abuse. The guidelines, issued in the wake of several priests and bishops facing sexual assault charges, has proposed “strict action” against offenders.

Though the document titled KCBC Guidelines for Safe Environment Programme was issued in 2018, it entered public domain recently. On January 11, TOI had reported on Syro Malabar church’s decision to implement the norms. These also mooted a mechanism to address false accusations against the clergy, employees associated with the church.

[edit] 2020: Pope defrocks rape-convict vicar

Pope defrocks rape-convict Kerala vicar, March 2, 2020: The Times of India

Kozhikode:

Pope Francis has dismissed Robin Vadakkumchery, the Kerala vicar who was last year convicted of raping and impregnating a minor girl and jailed for 20 years, from priesthood.

“From now on, he won’t have any priestly rights and duties. He will be known as Robin Vadakkumchery,” Fr Jose Kocharakkal, official spokesperson for the Catholic diocese of Mananthavady, said on Sunday. Kocharakkal said Pope Francis expelled Vadakkumchery from the clergy on the basis of a report submitted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome on December 5. He had been convicted and sentenced by the Thalassery Protection of Children from Sexual Offences court in February 2019.

Vadakkumchery was the vicar of St Sebastian Church at Neendunoki, in Kannur district. The dismissal of a priest of the Catholic Church from the clerical state is a permanent measure reserved for the most serious offences. Only the Pope has the power to do so.

The Catholic diocese of Mananthavady had suspended Vadakkumchery from priestly duties on February 27, 2017, after an anonymous call to the Childline in Kannur. The caller said a minor girl had delivered a baby at a hospital run by the church, and that the child was immediately shifted to Holy Infant Mary’s Foundling Home at Vythiri in Wayanad. Vadakkumchery was arrested on February 28 from the Kochi airport while trying to flee to Canada. He is serving his sentence at Kannur central jail.

[edit] Vatican rejects Sister Lucy’s plea again

The Vatican has rejected the second appeal filed by a Kerala nun against the decision of Franciscan Clarist Congregation to expel her for “failing” to provide explanation for her lifestyle, which allegedly violated church rules, sources close to the nun claimed on Sunday. A few months ago, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in Vatican had dismissed Sister Lucy Kalappura’s first appeal challenging her expulsion. She filed the second appeal with the Vatican alleging that the ‘disciplinary action’ was taken for participating in protests by a group of nuns seeking arrest of a bishop accused of raping a fellow nun. “The sister has received a communication in Latin from Vatican saying that the appeal was rejected,” George Moolechalil of “Justice for Sister Lucy,” a social media platform supporting the nun said. PTI

[edit] Same sex-relationships

[edit] Meghalaya, 2023

Prabin Kalita, Dec 24, 2023: The Times of India

Meghalaya Catholic priests can ‘bless’ same sex-couples sans marriage rite

Guwahati : The Archdiocese of Shillong on Friday allowed Catholic priests in Meghalaya to bless same-sex couples, but clarified that the blessing will be in “informal words” and won’t signify approval of the union. This development comes days after Pope Francis approved this historic change in Vatican policy.
The Shillong Archdiocese is the first diocese of the Northeast. In a letter to the priests, Archbishop Victor Lyngdoh wrote that the blessings to same-sex couples will be without any type of ritual of the Church that resembles a marriage rite. It will be a “spontaneous prayer of a priest with informal words,” the Archbishop wrote, underlining that “this (the blessing) is not to be mistaken as the official liturgical and ritual blessings of the Church during marriage”.


The Archbishop referred to ‘Fiducia Supplicans’, Pope Francis’s declaration issued on December 18 which “stresses on the pastoral meaning of blessings”.
“Pope Francis has urged us not to ‘lose pastoral charity, which should permeate all our decisions and attitudes’ and to avoid being ‘judges who only deny, reject, and exclude’. Let us then respond to the Holy Father’s proposal by developing a broader understanding of blessings,” the ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ declaration states.