Consecrated last Sunday to coincide with the canonisation ceremony presided over in Rome by Leo XIV, the new church is located less than a kilometre from a large amusement park popular with young people. For Archbishop Kalathiparambil, it will be a “church for the new generation”.

St. Andrew's School in Mumbai - where teachers of different religions work side by side - has promoted a trip in the name of the historic document signed in 2019 by Pope Francis and Imam al Tayyeb. Headmaster Fr. Magi Murzello: ‘A common religious response to the challenge of pluralism and the promotion of diversity as a value rooted in religious freedom.’

The Indian prime minister is expected to visit the northeastern state next week, after more than two years of communal violence. Meanwhile, militant Kuki groups signed a reconciliation agreement with the central and state governments, but many issues remain unresolved, such as the displacement of some 60,000 people and internal divisions within the BJP, the prime minister’s own party, which controlled Manipur when violence erupted in 2023.

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, China refers to the general as the “acting president of Myanmar”, enhancing the military junta’s credentials. For its part, India plans to send a delegation to monitor Myanmar’s December elections, after signing several new economic agreements with its neighbour. Xi Jinping promised to admit Myanmar as a full SCO member, consolidating Myanmar's integration into Chinese-led regional platforms.

Presented at the Northeast India Regional Pastoral Conference currently underway in Guwahati, the Assamese Missal is the brainchild of Bishop Albert Hermon of Dibrugarh. Assamese is the mother tongue of some 15 million people. This is a fundamental step in the process of inculturation to reach the faithful more effectively.

The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation condemns last April’s attack in Kashmir that sparked border fighting between India and Pakistan, but also terrorist attacks in Balochistan, which Islamabad blames on New Delhi. Modi, unlike his Pakistani counterpart Shahbaz Sharif, avoided expressing support for the Belt and Road Initiative. For China, despite tensions in South Asia, multilateralism remains the best option for building an anti-US bloc.