Nirmala Carvalho

A prayer campaign for freedom and democracy has been launched continuing to Sunday. Human rights groups are campaigning for India to recognise the status if Burmese refugees and urging New Dehli to put Human Rights ahead of commercial interests.

The Communist Party has not yet reacted to last week’s great demonstration when 30,000 people demanded formal apologies for the insulting remarks made about Mgr Mar Paul Chittilappilly, bishop of Thiruvambady. The issue was sparked by claims and counterclaims concerning the life of a former Communist Party secretary who supposedly requested the last sacraments on his death bed.

Over 117thousand deaths for pregnancy and childbirth in 2005. Births take place in the home assisted by a midwife and in some states women never see a doctor during pregnancy. The Churches commitment in rural areas where public healthcare never arrives.

According to Penpa Tsering, Executive Director of Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre, the controversy unleashed by china over the meeting between the Tibetan leader and President Bush are born of the communist regimes’ fear regarding the Dalai Lama’s influence in the International political sphere.

Appointed cardinal by Benedict XVI, the archbishop of Mumbai tells AsiaNews he was surprised, and is humbled by his new responsibilities, which impel him to re-place the Gospel at the centre of Indian Catholics’ lives. The priorities of his pastoral mission are the defence of life and human rights as well as the proclamation of the evangelical message.

The International Food Policy Research Institute shows that 40 per cent of the world’s underweight children under five live in India. Add disadvantaged groups like the poor and women who have a hard time feeding themselves and you get 400 million people. Priests and activists point the finger at corruption and bad governance.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the attack, but authorities have no doubts as to its terrorist nature. The injured have been taken to the Christian hospital of Ludhiana. The political world condemns the blast promising compensation to victims and medical support for the survivors.

The bishop of Jaipur-Ajmer will visit this afternoon people wounded in yesterday’s attack against the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisthi Shrine, one of the most venerated in the country. For Mgr Menezes, hatred runs against religious teachings and only causes destruction.

A group of more than 35 young Tibetan exiles in India protest against a new Chinese law that seeks to regulate Buddhist reincarnations. They call on the international community and the International Olympic Committee to intervene.

According to Lenin Raghuvanshi, winner of the 2007 Gwangju Prize, the behaviour of the Indian executive shames the entire population. Only with the help of the international community, Beijing and Dehli in first place, can the carnage of Myanmar be stopped.

The bishop of Jashpur talks to AsiaNews about the latest bill to amend the state’s existing anti-conversion law. The Church is not afraid because repression strengthens its faith.

The Delhi Archdiocese has organised a vigil Sunday to take place in Sacred Heart Cathedral. The archbishop explains his worries over the junta’s actions and recalls: the Church proclaims the sanctity of life, there were humanity is oppressed, we lift up a chorus of voices.