The North East Catholic Research Forum extends a hearty congratulations to Rt. Rev. Dr. John Thomas, Bishop Emeritus of Itanagar, on his 50th anniversary of priesthood. **//** Hearty congratulations to Prof. David Syiemlien and Prof. R. Lalrawna on being honoured with the Padmashri Award for their contributions in the field of literature and education.
Opinion | Articles | Cedric Prakash | 06-Feb-2025
On 28 January 2025, the well-known Calcutta daily ‘The Telegraph’ carried an article entitled ‘Rub your eyes: Hindu Rashtra Constitution to be unveiled at Mahakumbh on Basant Panchami’. The seemingly innocuous inside-page article, speaks volumes not only .....
Opinion | Articles | M L Satyan | 04-Feb-2025
I was deeply disturbed when I watched a video in WhatsApp sent to me by a Professor in Kerala. A Plus One student in a government higher secondary school at Anakkara in Palakkad, Kerala, issued a death threat to a teacher. The student's anger was sparked .....
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai | 29-Jan-2025
Ecumenism is non-negotiable When we say that something is non-negotiable, we mean that it cannot be compromised or watered down. Its message and mission must be forthright, sincere and enduring. Ecumenism, commonly understood as Christian Unity, comes .....
Opinion | Articles | James Pochury | 20-Jan-2025
As excavators churn up the sacred soil of our ancestral lands, the stakes grow clearer: this is not just about losing territory but about the erasure of identity, culture, and faith. In the Northeast of India, where the earth carries the stories of our an.....
Opinion | Articles | Cedric Prakash | 19-Jan-2025
It is late evening, the day after Uttarayan (15 January), traditionally called ‘vasi uttarayan’. It has been a dull, cloudy day; the wind has been fairly good though. Since yesterday thousands have been on building –tops, flying their kites and many other.....
Opinion | Articles | M L Satyan | 17-Jan-2025
Today two industrialists have become the talk among the social media, both in India and in abroad. One person is Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys and the other person is Mr. S.N. Subrahmanyan of Larsen & Toubro (L&T). Months after Infosys co-founder N.....
Opinion | Articles | John Dayal | 08-Jan-2025
India’s bishops, as much as its civil society, possibly missed an ominous warning in a report in the Kathmandu-based portal Himal Southasian about the growing support within tribal communities in the northeastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh for .....
Opinion | Articles | M L Satyan | 05-Jan-2025
I had an opportunity to work with Functional Vocational Training and Research Society (FVTRS) from 2008 to 2014. The focus group of FVTRS was always school dropout students. Local NGOs became partners of FVTRS to provide skill training to school dropout s.....
Opinion | Articles | James Pochury | 02-Jan-2025
For five decades, Fr. Niphot Thianwihan of Chiang Mai, Thailand, has walked side by side with the Indigenous Karen people, learning and living their profound wisdom. His journey resonates deeply with the realities of the tribes and Indigenous peoples of N.....
Opinion | Articles | Peter F Borges | 22-Dec-2024
What does Christmas mean to you? Is it the sparkle of lights that adorn every street, the joyful hum of carols in the air, or the warm aroma of freshly baked cakes and sweets wafting through your home? Is it the excitement of unwrapping presents, the laug.....
Opinion | Articles | M L Satyan | 16-Dec-2024
Four months ago, I conducted a few sessions during a retreat held at Christeen Retreat Centre, Kottayam, Kerala. The participants consisted of a bishop, priests, nuns and lay Catholics. The topic that I dealt was: Cross, Death and Resurrection. I presente.....
Opinion | Articles | James Pochury | 14-Dec-2024
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." (Martin Luther King Jr.) When the youth of ICYM Northeast recently walked the hallowed grounds of Old Goa, touching the sacred relics of St. Francis Xavier and .....
Opinion | Articles | John Dayal | 07-Dec-2024
The prophetic Monsignor, Benny D’Aguiar, wrote in The Examiner, India’s oldest newspaper which he edited, of Pope Paul VI’s visit to Mumbai in 1964 to attend the International Eucharistic Congress: “There has never been anything like it within living memo.....
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai | 07-Dec-2024
Where was the Holy Family when Herod ordered the killing of the children in Bethlehem? As we approach Christmas, this question began to haunt me. It forced me to look deeply into the infancy narratives in both Mathew’s and Luke’s gospels. As a layman with.....
According to the media report, the son of a pastor, Ramesh Baghel, has been prevented from burying the dead body of his late father in the village cemetery because some Hindutva activists from his village did not allow the burial to take place. He appeale.....
Dealing with the differences between the laity and clergy, the two pillars of the church, is a perpetual problem for the Catholic Church. Though the problem is real and sometimes threatens to tear apart the cohesiveness of the synodal church, it has alway.....
The recent statement from the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, proposing a regulatory body to oversee church properties akin to temple boards and waqf boards for Hindus and Muslims, undoubtedly raises concerns. However, given the number of controve.....
Pope Francis has already announced the names of 21 new Cardinals who will officially assume the new role on December 8th, 2024. Following their appointment as cardinal-elects, the Holy Father wrote a short but powerful letter to all these men, who would s.....
The All India Catholic Union, which is the apex body of lay Catholics in India, was born well ahead of India's independence. It is a union with inclusive representation, upholding the Catholic faithful's mandate from all three rites of the Catholic family.....
Wayanad in Kerala is considered to be one of the rural districts in the state that has many attractions: a wildlife sanctuary, lush green forest cover, high altitude comfort, home to animals including Asian elephants, tigers, and leopards, and mesmerizing.....
The Parliamentary Elections 2024 have been one hell of an epic exercise, not because they were conducted in a country known as the world’s largest democracy, but simply because of the manner in which the entire exercise was carried out. Between the first.....
As India engages herself in a general election since April 19th and braces for results on June 4, 2024, the air is thick with anxiety. The potential return of the Modi-led BJP, with its fascist undertones and anti-minority stance, threatens the very fabri.....
Provoked by series of wild allegations on Christian institutes converting students from other religions, the NECARF Review ran an editorial as early as October 2022 under the caption “Forced Conversions: Christian Response to the Allegations." The editori.....
The year 2023 ended somewhat on an unpleasant note for the Catholic Church, as there was a huge controversy over Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops attending a Christmas gathering on an invitation extended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Ch.....
Since 1997, the Catholic Church has commemorated World Day for Consecrated Life on every 2nd of February, an observation instituted by Saint Paul John II. On this day, the Church prays and encourages the world’s religious men and women to always be open t.....
The question today is, ‘How can we strategically leverage community engagement, media partnerships, and national and international solidarities and alliances to elevate the visibility of the Supreme Court directive on SC and ST representation in the North.....
Opinion | Articles | Joseph M Thohrii
The 21st century is an era of digital transformation, a change that would remain in our activities of learning and pursuit of knowledge. The digital transformation brings unparallel change to the growth of communication and development. It is believed tha.....
Opinion | Articles | Joseph M Thohrii
For a year and six months the global pandemic COVID-19 has wreak havoc causing systemic tsunami in every phase of our life. Each time we hope for a better day the situation seems to tell otherwise. Have we counted the chicks too early before they were hat.....
Opinion | Articles | Chitra Ahanthem
It begins at a very young age: ‘sit properly, don’t spread your legs’ they tell us when we are small girls. ‘Girls do not laugh loudly’ they tell you. Then it goes to ‘pull in your chest’. It never stops. Rather, more restrictions get added, there are mor.....
Opinion | Articles | Thomas Menamparampil
The Mongolian Contribution to Our Civilization The Mongolian Contribution Calls for Recognition It is generally recognised that in ancient days, Bihar and further east was inhabited by Mongolian and Austro-Asiatic tribes. Possibly, some of the weste.....
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai
Fortunately I belong to a small parish where just a handful of people come for the Sunday evening Mass. It is therefore a time of quiet reflection for me. These reflections then are based on the first two readings of the first Sunday of Lent. The first.....
Opinion | Articles | M L Satyan
Today’s socio-economic, religious and political scenario in the country frightens me. The ushering-in of Rama Rajya by constructing Ram temple at Ayodhya, pro-corporate policies of the federal government, using Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcem.....
Opinion | Articles | Luke Sangkima
Introduction During December 10 – 12, 2021 the Diocese of Aizawl celebrated its Silver Jubilee. It should have been held exactly on February 7, 2021 but because of the Covid pandemic, the celebration was held on the dates noted above. The story goes lik.....
Opinion | Articles | M L Satyan
“In our country every woman has to struggle to survive”, said a woman at Jantar Mantar. She further said to a press reporter, “Today women in our country are not safe. If the medal winning women wrestlers are sexually abused, then, what about other common.....
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai
The Synod on Synodality was kick-started in October 2021.The first phase, the national level, was to conclude by 15th August 2022 and the National Syntheses (NS) were to be sent to the Synod Secretariat at the Vatican. A communiqué from Rene Reid, Direct.....
Current Updates | NE Brief | NECARF Rep
The month of December 2020 turned out to be a month of bumper reaps for the Archdiocese of Imphal, when nine Deacons hailing from different parishes were ordained as Priests. While seven of them were ordained together by Archbishop Most Rev. Dominic Lumon.....
Opinion | Articles | Victor Ferrao
Coronavirus has put us all into catastrophic and heart-rending conditions. People are dying gasping for breath. But we witnessed in explicable unpreparedness and appalling insensitive on the part of the government, giving priorities to winning elections .....
Editorial Pick | Editorial team | 06-Jun-2024
On Thursday 4 April 2024, Pope Francis in a very incisive message to the participants in the First Colloquium between the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, held in the Vatican said, “We n.....
Editorial Pick | Editorial team | 16-Jan-2024
In an interview on an Italian TV program, Pope Francis laments the risk of escalation in war, says he has no plans to resign, announces Apostolic Journeys to Polynesia and to Argentina, and reflects on ‘Fiducia supplicans’, saying “the Lord blesses everyo.....
Editorial Pick | Editorial team | 08-Jan-2024
During his Sunday Angelus on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Pope Francis reminds faithful that the day they were baptized, we became children of God forever, and this date of great grace must be remembered and celebrated. At our Baptism, we became.....
NE Brief | NECARF Rep | 15-Dec-2023
Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, whose name is synonymous with a crusader of ‘Peace and Reconciliation’, has been awarded the prestigious Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam World Peace Award 2023 on the occasion of the United Nations International H.....
Editorial Pick | Editorial team | 24-Nov-2023
Recent statements by prominent ecclesiastics raise important questions about certain assumptions that isolate synodality from theological, ecclesiological, canonical, and practical realities.(The Catholic World Report) This essay is occasioned by (1) the.....
Editorial Pick | Editorial team | 09-Nov-2023
A one-day meeting was organised by the Indian Catholic Forum in Bengaluru on October 28, 2023. It was held at Nava Spoorthi Kendra. The theme of the meeting was Synodal Church and Secular Society. This was a follow up of the national meeting held in V.....
College | NECARF Rep | 26-Mar-2024
For those who aspire for the world of Mass media.....
College | NECARF Rep | 10-Jul-2022
NISCORT, one of the Premier Media Colleges in the National Capital area, announces admission for several graduate and post-graduate level courses in Media studies. Interested students may visit www.niscort.com for details......
College | NECARF Rep | 05-Jun-2021
For those Interested in Journalism studies, the above affordable courses comes as a boon.....
College | NECARF Rep | 28-Feb-2021
NICORT Media College Announces Short Courses in Media fields.....
College | NECARF Rep | 05-Oct-2020
NISCORT opens Admissions for Course in Mass Media and Journalism.....
College | NECARF Rep | 15-Sep-2020
NISCORT is conducting an Online Certificate Course in Media for Grauates. Those interested to join may contact the Institute.....
Articles | Cedric Prakash | 06-Feb-2025
On 28 January 2025, the well-known Calcutta daily ‘The Telegraph’ carried an article entitled ‘Rub your eyes: Hindu Rashtra Constitution to be unveiled at Mahakumbh on Basant Panchami’. The seemingly innocuous inside-page article, speaks volumes not only .....
Articles | M L Satyan | 04-Feb-2025
I was deeply disturbed when I watched a video in WhatsApp sent to me by a Professor in Kerala. A Plus One student in a government higher secondary school at Anakkara in Palakkad, Kerala, issued a death threat to a teacher. The student's anger was sparked .....
Articles | Chhotebhai | 29-Jan-2025
Ecumenism is non-negotiable When we say that something is non-negotiable, we mean that it cannot be compromised or watered down. Its message and mission must be forthright, sincere and enduring. Ecumenism, commonly understood as Christian Unity, comes .....
Editorial | John S. Shilshi | 21-Jan-2025
According to the media report, the son of a pastor, Ramesh Baghel, has been prevented from burying the dead body of his late father in the village cemetery because some Hindutva activists from his village did not allow the burial to take place. He appeale.....
Articles | James Pochury | 20-Jan-2025
As excavators churn up the sacred soil of our ancestral lands, the stakes grow clearer: this is not just about losing territory but about the erasure of identity, culture, and faith. In the Northeast of India, where the earth carries the stories of our an.....
Articles | Cedric Prakash | 19-Jan-2025
It is late evening, the day after Uttarayan (15 January), traditionally called ‘vasi uttarayan’. It has been a dull, cloudy day; the wind has been fairly good though. Since yesterday thousands have been on building –tops, flying their kites and many other.....