July 13, 2026 – United Yam

Syro-Malabar Church in the U.S. gathers for joyful celebration of unity – #Catholic – CHICAGO — While most Christians can’t trace their faith lineage to a specific saint, Syro-Malabar Catholics know exactly who brought their ancestors the faith. They proudly call themselves “St. Thomas Christians” — descendants of the first Christians to whom St. Thomas the Apostle brought the Gospel in Kerala, India, in A.D. 52.The Syro-Malabar community came together July 9–12 in Chicago for “Syro26,” a jubilee convention not only to honor its 25th year as an official eparchy in the U.S. but also to reaffirm and celebrate its unity as a church after liturgical disputes in India nearly led to a schism last year.Counting some 5 million members worldwide, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is the largest of the 22 Eastern Catholic churches in communion with Rome. Originally found mostly in India, the church has experienced explosive growth in the U.S. during the 21st century.Just 25 years ago, St. John Paul II established the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy to serve the growing immigrant community. Headquartered in Chicago, the eparchy — what Western Churches call a “diocese” — has jurisdiction over the entire U.S., a region that includes some 87,000 souls who attend 53 parishes and 32 missions, served by 86 devoted priests.More than 3,500 people flooded Chicago’s McCormick Place for the four-day-long festival that featured luminous cultural and dramatic performances, engaging talks from well-known Catholic speakers, a congratulatory visit from local archbishop Cardinal Blaise Cupich, and a dizzying array of events designed for everyone in attendance.In some ways, Syro26 was like other Catholic conferences — plenty of clergy and religious in attendance, daily prayer and Holy Qurbana (the Syro-Malabar liturgy), Catholic speakers, ongoing Eucharistic adoration, and confession. But in other ways, it was its own distinct cultural experience, with attendees in vivid sarees and other traditional clothing; as many conversations in Malayalam as in English; and events that included Bollywood dance and traditional music. The Syro-Malabar community gathered July 9–12, 2026, in Chicago for “Syro26,” a jubilee convention to honor its 25th year as an official eparchy in the U.S. Counting some 5 million members worldwide, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is the largest of the 22 Eastern Catholic churches in communion with Rome. | Credit: Jitto Kurian Unity as a church and with RomeCupich, head of the Chicago Archdiocese, attended the inauguration and warmly affirmed the local Roman Catholic Church’s unity and friendship with the eparchy.Addressing those gathered, he said of the eparchy: “Today, this very thriving community is a sign of hope, with its robust youth ministry, catechetical programs, and outreach to immigrant families navigating the cultural differences of life in the United States, while always continuing the Indian traditions.”“We give thanks this evening for the many blessings — among them, the spiritual sustenance and the formation that this eparchy brings to the Syro-Malabar Catholics, the witness it offers to all Catholics in spiritual renewal, and the example that you give to all Americans,” he continued.The “witness to all Catholics” may include in part the church’s recent hard-fought efforts for unity over division. After decades of dispute, the Syro-Malabar Church reached a historic agreement in July 2025 to keep the church united rather than enter into schism.“There will always be issues that come down the line about which we have to be diligent and well-versed, and our leadership has set a good path for us as to how to manage any disagreements,” said Sony Thevalakara, a father of seven who is highly involved in the Chicago eparchy and gave a talk about parenting at Syro26.Events for young and oldWith attendees ranging from newborn babies to the elderly, Syro26 included a vast array of events.Theatrical productions brought to life the Gospel story and how St. Thomas brought the Catholic faith to India, and many attendees mentioned especially enjoying the formal gala and the Chicago River cruise.Catholic speakers like bestselling author Edward Sri, astrophysicist priest Father John Kartje, college chaplain Father Tim Anastos, and others addressed theological and lifestyle topics, while special gatherings brought together groups of catechists, seniors, choir members, nurses, sacristans and altar servers, artists, filmmakers, schoolteachers, youth ministers, and those of other interests.Breakout sessions included topics like college admissions, financial literacy, faith and mental health, skin care, professional networking with a “Syro Shark Tank” business startup summit, a Pietra Fitness workout class, a Bollywood dance workshop, and a saree draping and styling class.Younger participants mentioned enjoying the dodgeball tournament and World Cup Soccer watch party — and especially the 21+ rooftop social and the singles mixer. “I feel like thatʼs kind of half the purpose of the convention,” one young woman joked. Men in biblical garb hold palm branches in a scene from one of the plays about the life of Jesus performed at Syro26, held July 9–12, 2026, in Chicago. | Credit: Jitto Kurian Sister Dr. Jocelyn Edathil of the Bethany Sisters, who spoke on a “Catholic Ask Me Anything” panel, told EWTN News: “Coming here and being able to have a shared lived experience is really a blessing. Thereʼs a lot of love in this room.”Brian Kuncheria, logistics director for Syro26, said he hopes the event will make the Syro-Malabar Church better known, as he sometimes runs into misconceptions about being Eastern Catholic.“Often when I explain our church to someone, they’re not very familiar and they think the Roman Catholic Church is the only Catholic church. Itʼs very cool to explain to them the history of St. Thomas coming to India, spreading the faith to our people in India, and how our church is a direct result of that,” he said. “This convention is a unique opportunity to showcase and explain how our church maintains our heritage and traditions while being fully in communion with Rome.”Several speakers and organizers mentioned their hope for their church to grow in evangelization efforts and a missionary spirit here in the U.S. and how they are looking forward to the next 25 years of growth.But perhaps St. Thomas himself said it best in one of Syro26’s theatrical performances: “This mission did not end with St. Thomas. I planted its seed among your ancestors and they took it. They lived it… And in the fullness of time, from the Indian shores, that faith — in its unique expression — set sail for North America and other distant lands.”“It followed those Indian sons and daughters who ventured from their homes to settle in those places, and where they settled, the faith took root… And even still, the story continues.”

Indian court upholds Hindu prayers in state schools, calls them ‘moral instruction’ – #Catholic – Catholic and other Christian groups have expressed concern after the High Court of Chhattisgarh — a central Indian state governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — declined to set aside a state government order making Hindu prayers mandatory in government schools, dismissing a challenge to it as “premature.”“The government order of June 12 [mandating Hindu prayers in schools at assemblies, meal breaks, and at closing] came as a shock to us,” Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur, the state capital, told EWTN News on July 13.“We were looking forward to the judiciary to uphold the fundamental rights of the religious minorities enshrined under the constitution. But the July 2 verdict of the High Court belies our hope, as it has dismissed the plea against the government order as ‘premature,’” Thakur said.What the circular requiresThe ruling came on a petition filed by former Chhattisgarh Waqf Board chairman Abdul Salam Rizvi and two others challenging the June 12 order. According to The Hindu, which cited a government official, the morning assembly would include the national anthem, national song, Deep Mantra, Saraswati Vandana, Guru Mantra, and excerpts from the biographies of great personalities.During the midday meal, students would recite a food prayer, the Bhojan Mantra, while the closing session at the end of the school day would include the state song, the Gayatri Mantra, and the Shanti Mantra. The order also threatened punitive action “to ensure strict implementation of the order,” with officials inspecting schools to check for violations of the prescribed guidelines.The court’s rulingWhile dismissing the petition against the June 12 order as “premature,” the High Court said the plea was “based on mere apprehension rather than any actual grievance.”The judge, Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad, said the petitioners could approach the court “afresh by way of an appropriate petition, supported by cogent and relevant material, if any exigency arises in the future.”However, Thakur said: “In a secular democratic country, young children or their families should not be forced to wage legal battle against the system to uphold their fundamental rights.”“We urge all concerned to ensure that the schools — temples of learning and harmony — are not reduced to communal battlefields of division and religious dominance,” reiterated Thakur, who heads the Catholic Church in Chhattisgarh, where Christians number less than 2% of the state’s 25 million people and the Catholic Church runs over 250 schools.Article 30 of the Indian Constitution empowers all religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.Protests and ‘deep disappointment’The notification of the order drew protests from Christian and civil rights groups and opposition political parties, which dubbed it a Hindu nationalist “majoritarian show.”Sushil Anand Shukla, spokesperson for the opposition Congress party, said: “Students of all faiths, castes, and communities study in government schools and making the recitation of specific religious mantras compulsory could hurt the sentiments of people belonging to other faiths.”The Progressive Christian Alliance (PCA), in a statement on July 10, expressed “deep disappointment” with the High Court order: “The judgment fails to adequately protect the fundamental rights of students of religious minorities and other faith streams … who now face daily pressure to participate in religious practices that are not their own.”“The dismissal overlooks the real and immediate coercive atmosphere created by a government circular that uses the … school setting where children have little agency to opt out without fear of stigma or exclusion,” said the Rev. Akhilesh Edgar, general secretary of the Evangelical Churches in India, in the statement issued on behalf of the educational wing of the PCA.“We organized protests in several places including Raipur against this move to enforce Hindutva [Hindu nationalist] agenda,” said Pastor Simon Digbal Tandi, coordinator of the PCA.“This court order has come even as we were preparing to move the court,” said Tandi, who heads the PCA’s Chhattisgarh chapter.Tandi also said “the government is hypocritical and playing double talk.” While the government had told the court the order drew no objections, he said, it had already begun allotting 25,000 rupees (about $260) per village school to install sound systems to carry out the prayers.

Papal nuncio to Great Britain: A visit from Pope Leo is ‘likely’ – #Catholic – The pope’s representative in Great Britain is hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will visit England and “awaken the conscience of the West.”A papal visit to England is “likely, desirable, and I would even say unavoidable,” Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, apostolic nuncio to Great Britain since 2023, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.A visit to Great Britain is “likely, because King Charles III paid a state visit to the Vatican last year, and it is logical that the United Kingdom would now invite Pope Leo XIV to return the visit,” he added.The last pope to make an official visit to the United Kingdom was Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.Maury said that, as the first English-speaking pope in more than eight centuries, the welcome for Pope Leo would be “extraordinary and his message amplified throughout the English-speaking world.”“The bishops of England and Scotland also hope that a papal visit will reinvigorate the proclamation of the faith in one of Europe’s most secularized societies — one which, I would say, is currently experiencing a time of grace,” the papal representative said.“The spiritual vacuum of recent decades is giving way to a quiet Christian revival among younger generations,” the archbishop continued. “Religious practice is increasing among Catholics, thanks in part to the thousands of immigrants and children of immigrants who are revitalizing parish life and contributing to the growth of Catholic communities.”“Everything suggests that the pontificate of Leo XIV is called to awaken the conscience of the West just as that of St. John Paul II once stirred the conscience of the East, so that the Church may once again breathe fully with both of its lungs,” he said.Born in 1955 in Spain, Maury was ordained a priest in 1980. He never imagined he would become an apostolic nuncio. Nevertheless, in obedience to one of his superiors, he entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service in 1987, beginning a career that would lead him to represent the pope in various countries around the world for more than 39 years.The book “Faith, Life, Diplomacy,” published in Spanish and Italian, reflects on Maury’s nearly four decades of diplomatic service in countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Romania, and Moldova.The following is an edited version of the nuncio’s full interview with ACI Prensa:ACI Prensa: You have published “Faith, Life, Diplomacy,” a book about your service in countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, where Catholics are a minority. What did you learn there, and what left a lasting mark on you?Maury: I discovered the great humanity of those peoples and the devastating effects on their souls of 70 years of communist and atheist rule. The Muslim majority and millions of Russian Orthodox believers abandoned their faith, while the Catholic minority preserved it — despite being deprived of priests for at least 20 years — thanks to the daily family rosary.Another thing that impressed me positively was the desire of the younger generations to learn and to serve society, now free from the terror under which their parents lived. This contrasts sharply with the apathy and selfishness present among much of Western youth.When Pope Benedict XVI sent me as his representative to those countries, I asked him for advice. “Go,” he told me, “to the remote places where none of your predecessors has gone, and bring them the pope’s blessing.”I did so, just as I have continued to do in the countries to which Pope Francis later sent me.Beyond the joy such — sometimes uncomfortable and risky — journeys bring to people, they provide an unfiltered view of realities on the ground, free from assumptions and prejudices, that can help enlighten officials in the Roman Curia.You began your diplomatic service in Rwanda. You arrived at a difficult time, amid the massacres in Burundi, and remained there when the genocide erupted. What do you remember most? Were you afraid of dying?I began my diplomatic service in Kigali at age 31, and I truly feared that a stray bullet might hit me. In fact, I still have one that came through my bedroom in the middle of the night.Certainly, no one intended to kill us, but the combatants’ lack of training was evident. As far as I know, apart from a few Europeans who had married Tutsi women and were specifically sought out during the genocide, only one elderly French religious sister and an Italian volunteer fell victim to stray bullets.We should not forget that most of the victims on both sides were killed with machetes. In other words, people knew exactly whom they were eliminating.Civil wars are the most horrific because they are driven by hatred, even though they are often provoked and fueled by outside interests.A nuncio’s mission is not the same as that of a typical ambassador. What are the methods and goals of the pope’s diplomacy?I never tire of repeating that the Holy See has no oranges to sell and no oil to buy.The very purpose of Vatican City State is different from that of other states, whose primary responsibility is to ensure the well-being of their citizens. The Vatican exists to guarantee the pope’s independence. He is the only global religious leader who is not subject to any political authority and is therefore free to proclaim the Gospel.The Holy See’s diplomacy gives priority to the spiritual dimension of the human person, raising awareness among the various actors in the international community of the need and benefit of respecting and promoting human rights at both the individual and social level.Every country’s embassies and consulates seek to protect the rights of their citizens abroad. The Holy See’s situation is different because Catholics living in different countries are generally citizens of those same states, so there is, at least in theory, a convergence of interests.The pope has just traveled to Spain. I believe you worked on preparations for Pope Francis’ visit to Romania. How are these visits prepared so that the pope’s message has a lasting impact?I followed the trip on Spanish television and saw that the enthusiasm of the Spanish people for the pope remains undiminished despite social changes.I had the honor of helping prepare five apostolic journeys of St. John Paul II — to Rwanda, Uganda, Nicaragua, Egypt, and Slovenia — and I did indeed welcome Pope Francis to Romania.When preparing papal trips, one must distinguish among different levels: program, logistics, message, and so on.Lately, excessive emphasis on security concerns has unfortunately had the effect of distancing the pontiff from the faithful.As for the lasting impact of his message, much depends on whether it responds to the expectations and historical circumstances of the countries he visits. Normally, it is the local Church that proposes the motto and themes of the trip, although the pope naturally has the final word.This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

unitedyam July 13, 2026July 13, 2026

The apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Miguel Maury, has been in the Vatican’s diplomatic service for nearly four decades.

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