The plaintive cry of a frightened girl fending off an incestuous father, or a son resisting his father’s efforts to make him a partner in crime? Neither! This is what millions of English speaking Christians devoutly, but unthinkingly, say every time that they recite “Our Father … lead us not into temptation”. “Recite” is the…

This is about a cardinal, and his alleged capital sins. It is not about Cardinal Jaime Sin, the 30th archbishop of Manila (31/8/1928 – 21/6/2005) of Chinese Filipino descent, who courageously fought against the Filipino dictators of his time. This is about Cardinal George Alencherry, the archbishop of the Syro-Malabar archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly in Kerala.…

It’s that time of year when well meaning people ask us what is good about Good Friday, if it commemorates the death of a great person like Jesus. It is also when people will call up their Christian friends to wish them a Happy Good Friday. Good Friday, for those who don’t know, is probably…

It’s that time of year when we are never endingly reminded about temptations – Jesus’, not ours! After all, we are goody-goody church goers. We haven’t defrauded a bank, murdered somebody in a communal riot, and haven’t had the guts to covet the neighbour’s spouse! So why bother about temptations? After all, Lent is about…

The Gospel reading was from Mathew chapter 13, on the sower and the seed. The occasion was the Episcopal Silver Jubilee of Abp Albert D’souza (72) of Agra. It was being celebrated on 28th January at St Peter’s College, Agra. Drawing from the Gospel Bp Ignatius Menezes, emeritus of Ajmer diocese, said that in the…

My heart swelled with pride, and my tears welled up with joy. I was watching the 69th Republic Day Parade (RPD) on TV. I try to watch it every year. The only time I saw it live was in 1958 when my father was invited by the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen Thimayya. This…