Priest arrested for alleged child abuse

Accused priest

KOLKATA, (C.M. Paul) — A priest of the diocese of Krishnagar in Murshidabad district was arrested Monday 16^th July for sexually assaulting a student in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The warden of the diocesan run Don Bosco School Monigram at Sagardighi in West Bengal, about 240 kilometres from state capital Kolkata, has been arrested for allegedly molesting a 10-year-old student.

The accused, Fr James Soren had been missing since Thursday (12 July) when the Class V student complained to his parents.

Don Bosco Diocesan school

The incident happened on Wednesday night (11 July) when Soren called the child and allegedly molested him. The child later told his father about the incident – a resident of Raghunathganj, some 275 kilometres from Kolkata – following which a police complaint was lodged.

“Father James Soren was arrested for sexual assault and charged under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with molestation and carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment,” said Additional Superintendent of Police Mrinal Majumdar.

The school though named Don Bosco, is not managed by the Don Bosco Fathers and Brothers who run three Don Bosco Schools in the district namely at Azimganj, Polsondamore and Berhampore.

Since last 12 years, Don Bosco Monigram school is under the management of the diocesan priests of Krishnagar diocese.

Chinese Students Selected for Overseas Internship

Interns Mr Benjamin Kuo & Miss Joanna Chang

KOLKATA, (C.M. Paul) – In a rare show of talent, one Chinese MBA final year student and another pursuing BSC Media of a leading business school in Kolkata are set to leave next week (15 April) for internship in China and Germany respectively. Both toppers at the Institute of Leadership Entrepreneurship and Development (iLead) along with a third student are handpicked from their batch for the coveted overseas work experience.

Mr Benjamin Kuo who graduated from St Xavier’s College Calcutta with a first division score in his honors degree is awarded a three month internship programme in Guangdong New Economic Zone in MainlandChina.

His colleague at the B-School  Miss Joanna Chang is former student of Loreto College Calcutta and has great passion to travel and explore the world. She will work in Bremen, Germany.

Both are members of Auxilium Parish Kolkata and belong to the Mary Immaculate Chinese Chapel in Dhapa.

“I am looking forward to go toChinaand will make full use of this opportunity, I am confident that this experience will enhance my growth both personally and professionally,” says 24 year old Mr Kuo who belongs to the batch of 2006 from Don Bosco School Park Circus.

“I am grateful to our Director, Mr. Pradip Chopra for believing in my capabilities and giving me this opportunity. I sincerely hope I will live up to his expectation” adds Miss Chang who had her schooling at Grace Ling Liang School Kolkata.

Incidentally, both interns belong to the first batch of students from the i-Lead Institute of Business Management, Kolkata.

“The Chinese community in Kolkata is proud of the achievements of these two enterprising students and wish others too follow their example to venture out into professional and mainstream jobs,” said their former teacher at Scared Heart Chinese School, Weston Street, Kolkata Miss Daisy Mary Kuo.

Today, the Chinese in Kolkata work as tannery-owners, sauce manufacturers, shoe shop owners, beauticians, dry-cleaners and restaurateurs. Among services, teaching and dentistry are traditional occupation.

The first person of Chinese origin to arrive in Calcutta was Yang Tai Chow who arrived in 1778. He worked in a sugar mill with the eventual goal of saving enough monies to start a tea trade.

Many of the earliest immigrants worked on the Kidderpore docks. A police report in 1788 mentions a sizeable Chinese population settled in the vicinity of Bow Bazaar Street.

Kolkata is the only city in India to have a Chinatown, the only other Chinatown to exist in Mumbai has practically disappeared.

It is estimated that the Chinese population in Kolkata number less than 2,000.

Cricket Helps Don Bosco Kolkata Educative Community Bond

20th annual Daddy Cricket winners 2k12

KOLKATA, (C.M. Paul) – Bengal’s popular game cricket was instrumental to bring together some 130 families of children studying in a Kolkata school for a day long tournament and fellowship. Running in its 20^th year, this annual event christened Daddy Cricket was the idea of a cricket lover Principal Fr K.T. Thomas (RIP) of Don Bosco School Park Circus, Kolkata.

The sponsor of the event was Kolkata’s leading Jewelers, P.C. Chandra Group with CEO Mr. Proshanto Chandra himself present all through the day.

“It is in deed a day long picnic with sports and camaraderie for all of us to interact with Don Bosco Fathers, parents and children,” said founder member of the tournament Mr Tapan Das (1968 batch) who coordinated and supervised the entire event.

Lucky mummy winner at Daddy Cricket 2012

“Most of us are new to each other and the day long tournament helps us bond with each other,” he added introducing friends he made through Daddy Cricket over the last 20 years.

Fr Rector reminded all about the tournament being an occasion to help build the educative community consisting of teachers, parents and children bonding together through sports in the educative atmosphere of the playfield.

The day started at 8 am Sunday 5^th February, with registration of daddies of children studying at DBPC. Rector & Principal Fr Siby helped form the teams through lucky draw. After the inaugural session at 9 am, eight teams started off their tournament playing two sets of matches simultaneously, six overs each inning.

Man of the Tournament with Rector and Sponsor

While daddies were busy playing in the main field, children formed teams and kept themselves occupied playing cricket all over the campus.

Mummies who came along sat under umbrellas and in the two pavilions cheering daddies. During the course of the day, mummies had several competitive events with attractive prizes.

The finals were held in the main pitch, with eight overs each inning. The event concluded by 5 pm with the prize distribution ceremony and principal announcing next year’s Daddy Cricket date, 3^rd February 2013.

The school also has Daddy Football tournament, attracting another set of sport lovers.

Indian Salesians Lose Title to Don Bosco Dubious (?) MP Trust*

MUMBAI  - The CSF (Catholic-Christian Secular Forum www.thecsf.org) takes strong exception to a non-Church and non Salesian group, Don Bosco Educational Trust registered in New Delhi, having its office in Chindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, registering the title of ‘Don Bosco’ as its intellectual property with rights under the trade marks act 1999, Number 1407313 in journal 1389 in class 41. The CSF learned of it through a public notice that appeared in the Times of India dated 9th March, 2011 and took the initiative to raise an alarm on this & related issues. Do let The CSF know of other such cases, in order to be taken up, lest there be no distinction between Church or Christian institutions and others for reasons below.

Times of India, 9 March 2011

Now, the use of the title DON BOSCO without the permission of the trust would be punishable by law. The trust runs the Don Bosco Public School chain specializing in residential schools which are co-educational and residential. Its website http://donboscopublicschool.com/ says it is purely a vegetarian school run by professionals. Worse, the trust website also has a certificate of blessing by Pope Pius XI, from 1934. According to The CSF, this does not constitute any permission to use the name, nor does it denote any association with the Catholic Church or the Salesians, founded by Don Bosco. The Salesians have been in India for over a century and work largely with poor and needy children, unlike the said CBSE schools run by the dubious trust. The values and culture associated with the trust, comes nowhere to the Salesian ideals and goals. The Salesian run hundreds of institution throughout the country and have educated lakhs of students over the last 10 decades.

Fraud & Misappropriation
The CSF is of the opinion that this is nothing short of misrepresentation and it is effectively committing fraud on gullible parents, who are bound to be misled. Even more mercenary is the fact that it amounts to exploiting the saint for commercial and advertising purposes by a private enterprise. Surely, the trust could have checked with the Church or Salesians, before registering the title Don Bosco, which displays it malicious and fraudulent intent. This is akin to cyber squatters, who register websites of prominent names and then blackmail those concerned to surrender their claim.  The Church, Salesians and the community need to safeguard against such rampant misuse of Christian names by scrupulous elements and have a duty to see that the public is not deceived by such abuse. In a legal notice, The CSF calls upon the trust to immediately remove all material like the certificate of the Pope and surrender its claim of the words ‘Don Bosco’ being its own, which belongs to the Salesians and the Catholic Church, and has been misappropriated by the said trust. The CSF, failing which, will also file criminal charges against the trust for fraud and cheating. Surely, the trust concerned would know of the existence of the Salesians and Don Bosco institutions, which makes it all the more culpable.

Many instances for the Church to act
The CSF has in the past pointed out several instances of Christian names being used by non-Christian entities, which are misleading such as a St. Joseph Convent being run by one Sumerchand Agarwal, through a private trust called Bhayaram Sisram Shikshan Sanshtha and which has nothing to do with the community. Similarly throughout the country, several non-Church or even non-Christian educational institutions are using Christian names, to mislead parents. Hence, The CSF has in a memorandum to the union education minister, Kapil Sibal, called for checks and suitable guidlines to be issued to the concerned government to be cautious when registering educational institutions. Church or Christian institutions speak of a certain quality standard and this is why non Church or non Christian institutions attempt to use Christian names or words like convent. Recently, the government of Karnataka issued a circular asking English-medium schools to use the word ‘convent’ discretely.

Salesians in the service of the Indian Church
Of the 119 Salesian bishops in the world, five are cardinals. In the last 104 years of Salesian presence in India, 22 Salesians served the Indian church hierarchy. Eight of them were archbishops. Archbishop Eugene Mederlet of Madras was the first Salesian bishop in India (1928-1934) while Bishop Paul Mariaselvam of Vellore (1953-54) was the first Indian Salesian to become a bishop. The first five of them were missionaries from abroad while the remaining 17 are native sons of the Church. Currently there are 10 Salesian prelates in India – five in the northeast India, three in Tamil Nadu and two in West Bengal. Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong, Retired Bishop Robert Kerketta of Tezpur, Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh and Bishop George Paliparambil of Miao serve  northeast India. While Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Kolkata and Bishop Joseph Gomes of Krishnagar serve the Church in West Bengal, Archbishop Chinnappa of Madras-Mylapore, Bishop Soundaraj of Vellore and Bishop Joseph Antony of Dharmapuri serve Tamil Nadu Church.
*Joseph Dias, General Secretary, The CSF