Saturday, September 5, 2009

Kerala Catholic Bishops Council to work for empowering women

September 5,2009
Kerala Catholic Bishops Council to work for empowering women
KOCHI: The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council on Saturday declared that the Church and the Bishops Council will work hand in hand with all Government machineries and organizations towards empowerment of women within the state.
In the public meeting here to publish the ‘Linga Samthwa Nayarekha’ (Action plan for equality of sexes) the KCBC women’s commission decided to work towards empowering women in all spheres making use of the Church organizations towards this end.
KCBC has visualized a number of actions within the action plan published on Saturday towards this end. KCBC women’s’ Commission Chairperson Bishop Mar Matthew Anikuzhikkattil uncovered first copy of the action plan in the meeting. The action plan chisels out a work mode for the Catholic Church to rise above the differences of Caste, race and work, in the field of women empowerment and work for the betterment of all women making use of the Church organizations for such awareness campaigns.
The KCBC has decided to increase women representation in all church organizations, to include women in evangelization works, help them achieve their goals in the field of Science and Technology etc.
Addressing the public meeting the Bishop said, “It is through bringing awareness in the society about who is woman and who is man that we could bring about equality of sexes.”
He also inaugurated the regional meet of the KCBC Women’s Commission. Bishop Varghese Chackalackal said, “It is impossible to bring equality of sexes by law.” Fr. Stephen Alathara , the KCBC Deputy Secretary, Sr.Lilly Francis, and many others spoke at the meet.
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Kerala Bishops council asks government to close down liquor shops

September 5, 2009
Kerala Bishops council asks government to close down liquor shops
KOCHI:The Kerala Bishops Council, highest decision making body of the Catholic church in the state on Saturday asked the state Government to close down all liquor shops as per the Central Government's directive, on highways and busy roads.
In a statement issued by the KCBC it is due to drunken driving that the number of accidents on highways and busy roads increase. The statement also points out that the finding comes from government agencies conducting surveys on road accidents.
The statement undersigned by Archbishop Dr. Daniel Acharuparambil says, “Instead of coming out with proper anti-liquor campaigns, the state government with just the single motive of increasing tax revenue through sale of liquor, is causing great harm to the society at large by giving sanction to more such shops. This has to stop immediately."
Liquor sales in the state had touched an all time high with the ongoing onam celebrations with 34 crores. And the state planning board conducting a survey on the road accidents have come forward with their findings as there were 27,972 accidents in 2008 in which 32,934 people got injured and 2,868 people lost their lives.
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Friday, September 4, 2009

Catholic Church in Kerala and Mizoram encourage more children for catholic families

Catholic Church in Kerala and Mizoram encourage more children for catholic families

NEWDELHI: The Catholic leaders of the Kerala and Mizoram Churches have come forward encouraging their fold to bear more children fearing the communities dwindling population.
Kerala Catholic Church has already initiated a number of programmes in hospitals run by the Church such as fertilization of the infertile couples and tubectomies for women.

Fr. Jose Kottayil from Kerala says, “The church will extend support to women who want to undergo recanalisation or reversal of tubectomy. A recanalisation surgery in other hospitals costs around 50,000 rupees. In our church-run non-profit hospitals we can bring down the cost to 10,000 rupees.”
Kerala parishes are now active with seminars and awareness programmes for the smaller catholic families making them aware of the need to have larger families for the welfare of the community. Meanwhile the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has agreed to provide financial help to families bearing a third child or the fourth one.
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