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The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India is encouraging its faithful to settle in other countries. “We are trying to encourage our people to migrate to South Africa,” Chacko Sebastian, secretary of the Syro-Malabar Church’s laity commission said. The commission plans to visit South Africa and Australia in the next four months to explore the possibilities of settling their people in those countries. “South Africa offers an excellent opportunity for farmers, who form the majority our people,” Sebastian said.
The Church had previously promoted migration to the Konkan region of western India, a move that initially met with resistance from right-wing Hindu groups. Sebastian said resistance soon subsided after the Church succeeded in winning the confidence of local people. The lay leader said some 40 families have already migrated to the Konkan region. Several Religious houses and dioceses have bought land there to start educational institutions, he added.

Bishop Mathew Arackal of Kanjirapally, chairperson of the Church’s laity commission, is promoting the migration. As land has become scarce and expensive in Kerala, agriculture has become non remunerative, the prelate said. He said South Africa offers “very fertile land” for “hard working” Syrian Catholics. The only hitch is its political instability and ethnic clashes. South Africa offers land on a 99-year lease he said, adding that Saudi Arabia has leased 100,000 hectares for farming activities. Bishop Arackal says the UN program for food security offers Catholics an opportunity to undertake new ventures.
“Food security is the great concern of the Church. The only way we can ensure food security is to double food production. We are taking up this challenge as the mission of the Church,” he said. Joseph Louis says the laity should work for the success of the Church initiative. “We should look beyond territories and borders and expand globally,” he added.

Goa Church criticizes proposed police law
 

The Goa diocesan Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) has criticized the draft of a police law, which it says undermines civil liberties. “The provisions in the bill for police accountability appear to be a facile attempt to bow down to the dictates of the Supreme Court,” said Father Maverick Fernandes, CSJP executive secretary. The Supreme Court had in 2006 directed the federal and all state governments to implement six directives which would kick start police reforms and ensure that police accountability is enhanced. While implementing the directives of the court, the Goa government simultaneously drafted a new police law to replace the existing 1861 Police Act.
 

The Goa Police Bill was introduced in the state assembly in August 2008 and the House referred it to a select committee. “The bill in its present form has several defects and undermines civil liberties, gives additional power to the police without ensuring the requisite accountability,” Father Fernandes said in a statement. The priest said that despite several requests to the select committee for people’s participation while drafting the bill, it failed to hold public debates and consultations or invite public submissions on the matter.
 

Father Fernandes said that the state government implemented the court’s directives but in a “highly watered down fashion.” The bill discards the directives of the Supreme Court, one of which says that the police complaints committee be chaired by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or High Court with names proposed by the Chief Justice. “It indicates that police functioning will not improve and will continue to remain a force that imposes law instead of becoming a service that upholds the law,” he added. The priests said “communities are the beneficiaries of good policing and victims of bad policing (and hence) reiterate our demand to encourage the participation of the community in the process of enacting laws.”
 

Vatican Seeks Full Unity of All Christians
 

In his remarks, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which takes place annually from 18 to 25 January and the theme of which this year is drawn from the Acts of the Apostles: "one in the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer". The Pope pointed out that "it is highly significant that this theme should have been proposed by the Churches and Christian communities of Jerusalem, meeting in ecumenical spirit. We know how many trials our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land and the Middle East have to face. Their service is ... strengthened by a witness which, in some cases, even goes so far as the sacrifice of their lives. And so, while we joyfully welcome the points for reflection suggested by the communities living in Jerusalem, we gather close around them and this becomes another factor of communion for us all.
 

"Today too", he added, "in order to live in the world as a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of unity among men, we Christians must base our lives on these four pillars: life founded on the faith of the Apostles transmitted through the living Tradition of the Church, fraternal communion, the Eucharist and prayer. Only in this way, remaining firmly united to Christ, can the Church carry out her mission effectively, despite the limits and shortcomings of her members, despite her divisions".
 

The Holy Father then went on to refer to this Sunday’s Gospel reading in which St. Paul, concerned about disagreements in the Christian community of Corinth, poses the question: "Has Christ been divided?" By saying this, the Pope explained, the Apostle is affirming that "any division in the Church is an offence to Christ. At the same time he is saying that it is in Christ, the one Head and Lord, that we can become united by the endless power of His grace". "A serious commitment to convert to Christ is the way that leads the Church - at a time that God will decide - to full visible unity. One sign of this are the ecumenical meetings taking place throughout the world over these days", he concluded.