India

The government is set to lift restrictions in place since March 2020 to revive local tourism, which has lost more than 21.5 million jobs due to the pandemic. The decision was made possible by progress in the vaccination campaign, which has reached over 90 per cent of the population over 15 years of age in many Indian states.

Priya Rajan, a 28-year-old Christian Dalit, was sworn in last week. The city is India’s fourth largest. For Father Bosco, she is a “source of inspiration and courage” for all Dalit and Christian women.

According to the local prosecutor, there is no evidence of forced conversions in the Varadara shelter run by the Sisters of Mother Teresa. The case began with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights inspecting the facility. The Sisters will “continue our work to serve the poorest of the poor,” one of the nuns said; however, the anti-Christian campaign by Hindu extremists continues.

Sr Rosela and Sr Ann rejected the prospect of moving to a safer area so as not to abandon those who suffer. The link between the Missionaries of Charity and Ukraine goes back to Mother Teresa herself, who managed to cross the Iron Curtain into the then Soviet Union in 1987 to assist the victims of Chernobyl. Today, she repeats her appeal for peace: "I beg you on my knees: nothing can ever justify the pain and losses caused by your weapons".

Today's headlines: protests against the war in Ukraine continue in St Petersburg and other Russian cities, with hundreds of arrests; Israel expropriates Jerusalem's Alexander Nevsky Church from the Russians; the majority party in Georgia wants to speed up its entry into the EU; the Pope will visit East Timor by the end of the year.

Fr. Errol Fernandes SJ has undertaken a new project for the people of Savarde, a village in Palghar district, to spare women a dangerous trek to collect water. The next step will be to improve the local school.

Across the continent, local Churches heed Pope Francis’s call to pray for peace. In the Philippines, the bishops are praying “that the Lord move the consciences of the Russian people”. In South Korea, the Archdiocese of Seoul is sending emergency aid to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ukraine. In Myanmar, people are praying for peace in Kyiv the Diocese of Pyay. In India, Christians of all confessions pray and appeal together for a ceasefire.

Today's headlines: dozens of priests and deacons from the Moscow Patriarchate sign an appeal for an end to the "fratricidal war"; Chinese companies operating in Russia have started asking for advance payments; Pyongyang hid the invasion of Ukraine for days and blamed the imperialist West; Hong Kong activist convicted under anti-sedition law; in India four Christians arrested on false conversion charges.

Indians were the largest contingent of foreign university students. Almost all of them were enrolled in medicine because of low fees compared to India’s private schools. At least one Indian student was killed in the bombing of Kharkiv. India’s evacuation plan involves flying students home after getting them across the border into a neighbouring East European country.

In Japan bishops condemn the Russian invasion citing John Paul II who in Hiroshima said that, “resorting to war is neither inevitable nor indispensable”. Likewise, “We really pray ardently that everybody sees the senselessness of violence,” said Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay. In China Catholics will heed the appeal Pope Francis made for a day of fasting and prayer on 2 March.

Educated but unemployed, or workers treated like cannon fodder. This is the picture that emerges from recent surveys on the Indian labour market. In the automotive sector, thousands of workers are seriously injured and have no protection. But the car industry is expected to be worth 300 billion dollars in 2026.

According to the Hunger Watch Survey-II conducted between December and January, one household in three was at risk of going to bed without enough food in the month preceding the survey. Rising debt is also a great concern. For the survey’s authors, the authorities “are in denial mode.”