Government authorities have refused to pay COVID-19 compensation for the deaths of four Catholic sisters to their community in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The Sisters of the Poor, an indigenous order, say they are owed 50,000 rupees ($630) for each of the sisters who died, after India’s Supreme Court ordered provincial governments to pay the families of those who died from the coronavirus.
“I moved the claims for compensation,” Sr. said. Kiran Mandoth for UCA News. “Village and district officials made me run from pillar to post to collect nearly a dozen documents including death certificates. I was made to wait for over a year to be told that the nuns were not eligible for compensation .”
UCA News reported that government officials are drawing a distinction between congregations and relatives of the deceased, who are legally eligible for the claim.
But “once a girl becomes a nun, her religious congregation becomes her family,” Mandoth said. “In the case of the nuns, the officials accepted the applications together with the legal documents provided by the congregation. So why this discriminatory attitude when it comes to payment?”
Fr. Jacob Palakkappilly, the spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops’ Council of Kerala, called on the government to treat every citizen of India equally and asked the state human rights commission to intervene.
At least 210 sisters died of the coronavirus in India, church officials told UCA News.
Latin American/Caribbean religions meet with bishops
The Episcopal Council of Latin America (CELAM, the region’s council of bishops) hosted its assembly July 12-14 in Bogota, Colombia. In the spirit of synodality, the Latin American/Caribbean Confederation of Religion (CLAR, which brings together the region’s national religious conferences) participated in the assembly, which also inaugurated the council’s new headquarters.
“The present is an opportune time to strengthen our personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the reality of the continent and in the heart of the Church,” said the final message of the assembly. “We need a spirituality with open eyes to have a contemplative gaze. This gaze reveals God in the depths of human and historical reality; it is not an aseptic or distant contemplation, but an open sensitivity to the pains and joys of peoples ours.”
The document also calls on the church to “boldly and creatively proclaim the Gospel of Life”, especially in neglected communities, and to end clericalism.
“We want to encourage community consultation and discernment, increasingly opening up to lay people’s participation and influence in decision-making.”
Asking St. Oscar Romero and other Latin American martyrs to give strength and courage to the Church in its commitment to justice and fraternity, the joint statement also reaffirms “our preferential option for the poor.”
The message quotes the warning of Pope Francis in Dear Amazon about a globalized economy that can “shamelessly damage the environment and our human, social and cultural assets without being able to listen to the voices of the original peoples, their cultures and their visions of the world”. Such an orientation helps the church to be a “poor church for the poor,” a church that rethinks its way of life, language, and church structures that prevent a connection with the marginalized.
“We encourage a culture of meeting so that in times of war our region is a space of peace,” the message concludes. “We place this message in the hands of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of our continent; she will know how to accompany us as Mother in this new phase of the Church of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The video will commemorate a great anniversary of the Dominicans of Sinsinawas
The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, are celebrating 175 years of preaching and teaching the Gospel “in word and deed wherever they are called.” The community, which more than 3,400 women have joined since 1847, includes more than 500 ministry locations across the United States and beyond, according to a news release.
A new video commemorating this anniversary, “In Good Company: The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa,” will premiere on YouTube at 6:30 PM Central Time on August 11. The event will also include a live chat and question-and-answer session starting at 6 p.m
The 30-minute video traces the history of the congregation from its origins, when most of the sisters were educators, to modern ministries in many fields.
“It was the sisters’ love for each other and the Dominican way of life that really drew me” to becoming a sister, Dominican Sr. said in the press release. Priscilla Torres. “We are all different. And yet when we come together, we are a collective, loyal group of women.”
Loras College Productions of Dubuque, Iowa, produced the video, which was funded in part by a grant from the Fred J. Brunner Foundation. The video will be available here.
New book by Carmelite nun focuses on ‘extravagant love’
Paulist Press has announced the publication of a new book on the “self-explosion in love,” or kenosis, of Jesus Christ.
Extravagant Love: Jesus’ Self-Emptying is written by acclaimed spiritual author Ruth Burrows, the pen name of Sister Rachel, a Carmelite monastic nun living in Quidenham, England.
In a description of the book, the New Jersey-based publisher notes that the kenosis of Christ is central to the identity of the Sisters of Jesus of Nazareth, Kentucky, for whom these reflections were originally composed.
“In baptism we are all immersed in the self-emptying life of Jesus and are called to live this way of love in whatever situation we find ourselves,” the publisher said. “It is not surprising, then, that while the book was originally written to benefit a particular religious community, it is in fact deeply significant for all followers of Jesus.”
Burrows has authored more than a dozen books on prayer and the mystical life.
