Antichurch

The National Catholic Register (May 19, 2026) reports on the 25th-anniversary commemoration held by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Dimapur, India, honoring Father Raphael Paliakara, Father Andreas Kindo, and Brother Shinu Joseph, who were killed by militants at a novitiate in Manipur in 2001. The article describes a memorial Mass presided over by Father Joseph Pamplackal, the Salesian provincial, at the provincial cemetery, attended by relatives of the slain and former novices who were sheltered during the attack. The Salesian provincial declared: “They died for the faith and inspired many to witness to the faith.” A memorial card distributed at the event described the three as “shepherds who did not flee” who “laid down their lives for us … when armed militants stormed the novitiate demanding money and the novices’ lives.” Father Josekutty Madathiparambil, one of the 27 novices sheltered during the attack, testified: “The militants had asked the fathers to bring out the novices, separating them as ‘locals’ [from Manipur] and ‘outsiders.’ That would have been the end of our lives. But they fulfilled what Jesus has said: ‘There is no greater love than laying down one’s life for others.'” The article also notes that two Salesian brothers were kidnapped on May 13, 2001, by Kuki groups in a tit-for-tat ethnic abduction, and were released unharmed the following day. The commemoration occurred against the backdrop of ongoing ethnic violence between Naga and Kuki communities in Manipur, which has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands. The article presents these three deceased Salesians as martyrs who “died for the faith,” yet a rigorous examination of the facts, the conciliar context, and the theological criteria for martyrdom reveals a narrative constructed to serve the neo-church’s agenda of sentimental heroism while obscuring the supernatural reality of martyrdom and the true state of the post-conciliar institution.