Ranchi: Continuing with its charity works among distressed people affected by the pandemic, the Ranchi Archdiocese on Monday distributed dry ration packets among 100 people at Ranchi railway station. The packets contained 15 days ration that included rice, pulses, grams (chickpeas), soya beans and cooking oil.
Since May this year, the Ranchi Archdiocese has been in the forefront distributing dry ration among the Birhor tribesmen, daily wage workers, slum dwellers and HIV-affected people and their families in Ranchi district. The church is also distributing cooked meals to Covid-19 affected patients admitted at the Rajendra Institute Medical Sciences, Ranchi, their attendants and relatives.
The ashes of Father Stan Swamy arrived at the Jamshedpur Jesuit Province, from where he had begun his service in Jharkhand, on Friday and was placed at the Loyola Chapel for people to pay their last respects.
Jesuits and Catholics have planned Requiem Masses (held for the dead) at Jamshedpur and Ranchi.
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Politicians and tribal rights activists on Friday visited Bagaicha, the social research centre at Namkum near Ranchi that Fr Stan had set up and where he lived, and vowed to carry on with the movement to repeal the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Fr Stan, who passed away in a Mumbai hospital on Monday in judicial custody while awaiting bail for nine months, had challenged the UAPA in Bombay High Court. He had been arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon Maoist links case under the UAPA, which allows for detention without trial for six months.
Ranchi: The Society of Jesuits, Ranchi Archdiocese and Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM) have appealed to the chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, to ensure a Covid test, proper treatment and vaccination for octogenarian Father Stan Swamy and others who are in jail in connection to the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
While the official YouTube channel of the Ranchi Archdiocese has released a video clip of Father Joseph who after talking to Father Stan through his lawyer has discussed his medical condition, a written statement of the same dialogue has been tweeted by JJM appealing to chief minister Hemant Soren and all other MPs and MLAs from the state to approach Maharashtra CM and ensure treatment, vaccination and release on bail of Father Stan because of the extraordinary condition arising out of the pandemic.
Church leaders ask India to deploy military in Covid-19 crisis
Bishop Mascarenhas says the military has the resources and manpower to ease the national calamity
Patients breathe with the help of oxygen masks inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a Covid-19 ward in New Delhi on April 27. (Photo: Money Sharma/AFP)
As Covid-19 continues to claim thousands of lives daily in India, Catholic leaders have called on the federal government to deploy the military to deal with the crisis before it worsens.
“The second wave of Covid-19 is surely a national calamity and the entire nation is struggling as thousands are dying and hundreds of thousands are getting infected daily,” said Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, former secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).