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RAMBO NAMO has done it again, and succeeded in grabbing the headlines. At a rally at Ferguson College, Pune, on 14th July, he accused the Congress of hiding behind a burqa. I have no problem with Narendra Modi attacking the Congress party, its policies or performance. However, he stoops too low to attack persons. His…

(Portents for the Future) From the time of his election about 4 months ago, I have been an unabashed fan of Pope Francis. He has just published his first encyclical “Lumen Fidei” (The Light of Faith) on 29th June, the feast of Sts Peter & Paul. Through the good offices of a friend I was…

The print media is called the Fourth Estate. During World War II spies were known as the Fifth Columnists. What of the electronic media (EM)? Should we call them the Sixth State of modern society? I would certainly not call them the sixth sense, for reasons that I shall elaborate. Actually, I don’t see much…

(A reflection on the Catholic Directory of India 1912, in the light of the latest Catholic Directory of India 2013) During my school days I hated history, perhaps because it was taught so badly. Today, history fascinates me, be it of the country, the origin of the universe, or the church in India. This article…

(The concluding part of the trilogy on the Catholic Directory of India) It is presumed that facts and figures speak for themselves. That largely depends on how they are presented and the methodology used. In recent times our country has been rocked by the “presumptive losses” incurred in the allocation of natural resources like coal,…

It is finally out – The Catholic Directory of India 2013 (CDI 13). I have always been an ardent collector of the CDIs, because I believe that they contain a wealth of information on the state (or status) of the church in India. The oldest CDI that I have is of 1912, and the latest…

Does the pope need advice? Should he appoint advisors? Pope Francis has already answered those questions by appointing a group of eight cardinals as advisors – the PG8. It includes one from India – Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, who is also the President of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI) and that of the…

When I awoke on the 14th morning my wife told me that a new pope had been elected.  My initial reaction was of dismay, because she didn’t say who it was.  I was apprehensive of a hasty decision, as happened in the previous conclave; and said so in my last article “Past, Present, Future –…

This is not about grammar, which is not my forte.  Nor is it about glamour. (Hard to believe that he who recently demitted office reverted to wearing red shoes – yuk).  This is a hard-boiled reflection on the papacy – its past, present and future.  As the 115 remaining cardinals in the consistory prepare to…

(A sequel to “Sparring over the Rod”) Two young men in the prime of their lives hung from trees, not far from each other. Their deaths were inter-related, but in total contrast to each other. One of these young men was a 33 year old from Nazareth, called Jesus. The other was Judas Iscariot. Christians…