Sr. Francesca, AC hitting a century

Kundapur, January 15: Sister Francesca, Apostolic Carmel serving Kundapur St. Joseph Convent since 36 years.  Now she is ready to celebrate her Century Birthday and her 80 years of religious life.  She has been serving in the fields of education and health.  Mangalore Lady Hill Convent, St. Ann's Convent, Kemman St. Mary Goretti Convent, Kerala St. Theresa Convent are the various places where she served.

She is the member of Apostolic Carmel Sisters, who born in the year 1903 at Bajpe, Permude to Late Ignatius Immanuel D'Souza and Magdalene D'Souza as their eldest daughter.  To serve the poor and less fortunate, she joined Carmelite convent in 1926 when she was 23 years old.  She has been working hard in the field of education to provide rich knowledge to growing minds. 

Her entire life she was working towards building a peaceful, faithful communities with harmony and love; Sr. Francesca says that now the whole world is going away from these family values, our communities become very sick with anger, jealousy, crime; I am very sad to say this she said.  If all nations in the world work towards peace, world peace is possible added Sr. Francesca.

 

3 held for attacking US missionary
 

Thiruvananthapuram, January 15: The police have arrested three RSS activists in connection with the attack on American missionary Joseph Cooper and a local preacher and his family on Monday night at a Dalit colony near Kilimanoor, about 35 kilometres from here, where they had gone to conduct a gospel meeting. At least ten other RSS activists on whom the crime has been alleged are absconding, according to Thiruvananthapuram rural police.

The condition of the 67-year-old American who suffered a cut in his right palm and was beaten up with sticks and knives was stated to be stable this morning though he was yet to be discharged from the intensive care unit of a private hospital in the city where he was admitted. The police have taken a statement from him this morning. The US Consulate in Chennai has inquired about the condition of Cooper who belongs to the Protestant Church and has been addressing gospel meetings in several States for the past 11 years independently. 

Br Benson, the preacher at whose instance Cooper came to address the meeting, was also beaten up by the "RSS men'' and is admitted to the hospital with bruises and cuts in his body. He told media at the hospital that he himself had been conducting gospel meetings for the past three years under the auspices of his Friends Bible Centre at the Harijan colony at Puliyam, a neglected area about 4 kms away from Kilimanoor. He had faced no opposition from the RSS activists there until Monday "though the incidence of harassment of missionaries by RSS men had been rampant in the region.'' 

Br Benson said he invited Cooper to address the Dalits when the American missionary was in Changanassery in Kottayam district last week. "The members of the colony claimed they were already Christians belonging to the Lutheran Church and Cooper was called in to 'attract' them,'' he admitted, when asked why he wanted a foreigner to address the gospel meeting. "Cooper did not say anything provocative at the meeting, which was attended by about 60 members, including children. 
He spoke for 20 minutes mainly on his past and said a healing prayer for a couple of those ill. We were returning with my wife and children when the attackers threw some crackers at us, and beat us up with sticks, crowbars and knives. Cooper has marks all over his body apart from the deep cut in his right palm. I recognised some of them since they were there at the venue of the meeting waiting to hear Cooper speak. They had planned everything and wanted to kill us,'' Br Benson said. 

Meanwhile, Chief Minister A. K. Antony while condemning the attack on the missionary felt that the incident was an isolated one in the State. He said at the post-Cabinet media briefing that three people had been arrested and more arrests would follow soon. However, the Chief Minister claimed that the identity of the assailants were yet to be known. Instead, Mr. Antony remarked that the law and order of the State was much better than much other State