What the monarch did or did not believe, or even the entirely different question of whether or not he went to church, has nothing whatever to do with the purely constitutional function of being Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and it never has had. Just so long as he is not a Catholic, and from our point of view as Catholics, lucky us. We have worse things to worry about, as Sanad Sahelia writes:
Amid the continuing war and restrictions on access to the holy sites, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has canceled the traditional Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, announcing “exceptional measures” regarding this year’s Holy Week and Easter celebrations.
The Palm Sunday procession will instead be replaced by a time of prayer for the city in a location yet to be announced.
The patriarchate also announced the postponement of the chrism Mass until circumstances allow — most likely during the Easter season after necessary ecclesiastical approvals are obtained.
At the same time, it affirmed that the churches of the diocese will remain open and that priests and pastors will work, within the limits of what is possible, to ensure the participation of the faithful in prayers and liturgical celebrations.
The patriarchate explained that this year it has not been possible to hold the traditional Lenten pilgrimage in Jerusalem, with its celebrations at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the sites associated with Christ’s passion. It noted that, although the faithful have been able to prepare individually, they have felt the absence of the communal journey toward Easter, which is an essential element of the Church’s spiritual life.
Continuing restrictions
The patriarchate said the security conditions linked to the conflict do not suggest any improvement in the near future. It stressed that, in coordination with the other Churches and the relevant authorities, it is continuing to assess possible ways to hold the celebrations within the available framework.
Decisions, it said, will be made on a day-by-day basis according to developments on the ground. According to the statement, it has become clear that it will not be possible to organize normal celebrations open to all the faithful, prompting the patriarchate to adopt a set of organizational measures.
The patriarchate said this reality constitutes “another wound added to the many wounds caused by the conflict.” The pain, it said, is not limited to the consequences of war but also includes the inability to celebrate Easter together “in a fitting way.” Yet it stressed the need not to surrender to despair and called for perseverance in prayer.
In this context, the patriarchate called on the faithful to unite in prayer on Saturday, March 28, by reciting the rosary for peace and reassurance, especially for those suffering because of the conflict. It concluded by affirming that Easter remains, despite every circumstance, a sign of hope, recalling that “no darkness, not even the darkness of war, can have the last word” and that the empty tomb remains a witness to the victory of life over hatred and mercy over sin.
And as Anto Akkara writes:
Catholic leaders in one of India’s most populous states are demanding the repeal of a new law that criminalizes religious conversion — the 13th such measure enacted across the country under the ruling Hindu-nationalist government.
“We protest this move. We have urged the government to repeal this law. Copies of our [Western Regional Bishops’ Council] statement have been sent to the chief minister and governor of the state,” Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur, chairman of the Western Regional Bishops’ Council, told EWTN News on March 23.
“Far from safeguarding religious freedom, this law, in its present form, effectively undermines the very right it claims to protect, i.e., the freedom to choose and profess one’s religion, as guaranteed under Articles 19, 21, and 25 of the Constitution of India,” the Western Regional Bishops’ Council said in its March 19 statement.
Expressing “deep disappointment and strong protest” against the bill, the bishops’ council said sections of the legislation “amount to a direct and unjustified interference in the legitimate religious practices of the Catholic Church, particularly its Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program. It is equally disheartening that the ruling party has passed this bill [on March 16] without adequate consultation with the communities most affected by it.”
A threat to conscience
The statement pointed out that sections of the legislation “mandate that any individual intending to convert must submit a notice 60 days in advance to the competent authority. ... This provision intrudes deeply into the personal domain of conscience and belief, opening the door to scrutiny, suspicion, and harassment.”
“This section, like most sections in the bill, is manifestly arbitrary and violative of individual’s right to privacy protected by Article 21 [under Fundamental Rights],” the statement cautioned.
Given the serious concern, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India distributed the statement to media across the country.
Laity and civil society
“We are very disappointed that the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill was passed in haste and rammed through the Assembly owing to the brute majority of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government,” said Dolphy D’Souza, spokesperson of the Bombay Catholic Sabha — a lay forum of the Archdiocese of Bombay.
“One of our demands was to give opportunity to discuss the provisions of the bill, some of which are draconian, which has the propensity to be misused against minorities, women, and interfaith marriages, as is evident from states where this law has been implemented,” D’Souza said in a March 21 statement.
“This law will be a tool used to harass minorities, women, and interfaith marriages and those who want to convert out of their personal choice voluntarily. While the bill is titled Freedom of Religion Act, it curtails this fundamental right,” D’Souza told EWTN News.
“This bill also criminalizes all charitable works including imparting education under the vague terms of ‘allurement.’ It will give unbridled power to [Hindu] vigilante groups and ‘suo motu’ powers to police to harass and intimidate citizens, encouraging violence and attacks,” he cautioned.
A week before the legislation was passed, a coalition of 35 civil rights, social action, Muslim, and Christian groups had condemned the bill as a “threat to constitutional freedom.”
“Article 25 guarantees the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion, which includes the right to adopt and change one’s faith,” the groups asserted.
“The political agenda behind this legislation is to polarize and divide communities on religious lines,” said Irfan Engineer, who heads the Center for Study of Society and Secularism, one of the groups that signed the statement.
Hindu nationalists, Engineer said, are using the propaganda of “love jihad” — marriage for the purpose of conversion — to defend the legislation. He pointed out, however, that “the committee appointed by the state government studied 152 interreligious marriages and found no conversion motive.”
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