Dalit groups such as the National Council of Dalit Christians have been demanding human dignity and equality within the Church. On March 10, the council urged Pope Francis to create a separate ritual Church for Dalit Catholics to end their centuries-old discrimination.
Council coordinator Franklin Caesar Thomas spoke to Matters India about their new demands. Excerpts
“Thus the human dignity and the wealth of the Dalit Catholic marginalized Christian people were ruined for many centuries by the non-Dalit clergies’ caste hegemony and the caste/untouchability linked prejudice.
If the Holy See approves the Dalit Catholic rite, it has nothing to do with segregation, the recognizing and even creating Dalit institutions, in India especially, is not segregation. Segregation is there when the dominant Caste Catholic people and some dominant caste clergies exclude Dalit Catholics. Indian Dalit Catholics are creating things rite for themselves. It is not segregation.
The Pope ought to approve a new separate Dalit Catholic rite, it is the proof that each people can pray to the God of Jesus Christ from its cultural riches and expressions without altering the unity of the Catholic faith, precisely to propose norms for adaptation to the character and traditions of various Dalit Catholic Christian people.
Surely, Dalit rite could surely resolve and remove the caste discrimination forthwith very speedily. Since the control would be in the hands of the committed independent Dalit Catholic Dalit Bishops and all the devotees would be exclusively from the Dalit community, surely there would not be any problem regarding double Cemetery as per the Caste, double hearse human dead body carrying Vehicle as per the Caste, segregation in the Church festivals and worshipping, and so on, because the Dalit Catholic people only be there as devotees like Syro- Malankara Catholic Church and the Syro- Malabar Catholic Church people, non- Dalit people and Clergies’ aggression would not be there.”
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Indian state seeks tribal religion code in census
Hemant Soren, chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, has urged the prime minister to include a separate Sarna tribal religion code in the forthcoming cen-sus. He reiterated the state government’s demand to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of ongoing protests by tribal groups in Jharkhand.
Speaking at a webinar meeting of government think tank NITI Aayog headed by Modi, Soren said Jharkhand is committed to the resolution that his government passed last November. The meeting on Feb. 20 was attended by chief ministers of states and union territories in the country.
“We sent a proposal related to the demand for a separate Sarna code after we passed the resolution last year and believe that the federal government will consider it sympathetically,” Soren said.
Tribal people in the state have been demanding the Sarna code ever since the state was created in 2000.
“Tribal civilization, culture and systems are completely different. The Sarna code demand has been in existence for years to establish a place for tribal people in the census,” Soren added.
The state government convened a special assembly session and passed a resolution on Nov. 11 to send the federal government a letter recommending it recognize the Sarna religion and include a separate code for it in the 2021 census.
For many years protests and meetings have been held by tribal groups in Jharkhand and elsewhere pushing the same demand.
Italian prelate appointed new nuncio to India
Pope Francis on March 13 appointed Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, an Italian prelate, as the new apostolic nuncio to India.
Archbishop Girelli was the nuncio to Israel and Cyprus and apostolic delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine until now, according to Archbishop Felix Anthony Machado of Vasai, the secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. He succeeds Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, another Italian who was transferred to Brazil, South America, in August 2020.
Archbishop Girelli was born in Predore (Bergamo), Italy, on March 13, 1953. He was ordained a priest on June 17, 1978. He speaks Italian, English and French.
With a doctorate in Theology, he entered the Vatican Diplomatic Service on July 13, 1987. To prepare for the diplomatic service, he completed the course of study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 1984.
He served nunciatures in Cameroon and in New Zealand, in the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, and in the nunciature in the United States of America.
Top court favours Indian nuns’ struggle for tax exemption
India’s Supreme Court has ended the long-running litigation of a congregation of nuns against the Kerala government by ruling that Catholic nuns should not pay tax for their residential buildings. The March 1 ruling that favoured the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (SABS) applies to the convent buildings of more than 35,000 nuns living in Kerala, officials said.
“The order benefits not only us but also other religious congregations in the state,” said Sister Grace Kochupaliyathil, the congregation’s Kothamangalam provincial superior. The dispute began after a revenue officer refused to grant tax exemption to a newly built convent in Thodupuzha town in Idduki district.
Archbishop D’Souza becomes assistant parish priest after retirement
Jesuit Archbishop William D’Souza, who retired recently as the head of Patna archdiocese, on March 1 became an assistant parish priest.
Archbishop D’Souza, who on March 5 turns 75, the mandatory retirement age of bishops, is the new assistant pastor of St Stephen’s church, in Danapur Cantonment area, outside Patna, capital of Bihar state.
Vatican to probe allegations against Mysore bishop
Catholic laity groups in India have welcomed the news that the Vatican has initiated a probe into allegations against Bishop Kannikadass Antony William of Mysore. The Vatican has finally set up an enquiry commission to look into all the allegations against Bishop William, says a press note from the Association of Concerned Catholics, a pan-Indian group that raised the allegations initially.
Dalits want the new Archbishop of Pondicherry-Cuddalore to be one of their own
Dalit Catholics in the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore, southern India, and Catholics in the dioceses of Tamil Nadu are calling for the appointment of a Dalit bishop.
Dalit Catholics raised the issue of caste discrimination in a protest on 29 December 2020. Last Saturday they organised another protest in Villupuram, Tamil Nadu, calling for the appointment of a Dalit archbishop to the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore.
Priest who assaulted bishop suspended
A Catholic priest, who recently assaulted his bishop, has been sus-pended, according to a letter from the victim prelate. In a letter to Father Varghese Palappallil, Bishop Pius Thomas D’Souza of Ajmer cited the second section of Canon law 1370 to inform his priest assaulter that his action has incurred “Latae Sententiae Interdict and suspension” from all priestly duties and priestly ministry.
Father Varghese Peter Palappallil has denied that he has assaulted his superior, Bishop Pius Thomas D’Souza of Ajmer, and accused the vicar general of spreading “baseless and motivated lies” and “imaginary stories.”
Dalit Christians demand separate Catholic rite
The demand for a separate Rite for Dalit Catholics is gaining momentum with many supporting it as a solution to caste-based discrimination in the Indian Church.
“If this can bring about much needed respect for the Dalit Catholics and wipe out that invisible line of casteism, I am for it. In fact, I will join the movement wholeheartedly and help in attaining the status being demanded,” says AC Michael, a former member of the Delhi Minorities Commission.
Michael shared his thoughts with Matters India March 11, a day after the National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC) urged Pope Francis to create a Catholic Rite like the Kerala-based Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches.
A press release from NCDC coordinator Franklin Caesar Thomas says, “We urge the Pope to recognize the Dalit Catholic Rite like Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Rites with all divine rights and property. According to Thomas, who is also a Supreme Court lawyer, the Rites in the Catholic Church are based on orientation and rituals.
Thomas also points out that Christianity does not have one cultural expression. “It also reflects different faces of the cultures and peoples that received the faith and allowed to take roots “with unwavering fidelity to the Gospel and the Church’s tradition.” If the Pope approves a new separate Dalit Catholic rite, he says it would show to the world that each group of people can pray to the God of Jesus Christ from their cultural riches and expressions without altering the unity of the Catholic faith.”
The new rite will adopt the character and traditions of various Dalit Catholic communities, the NCDC leader asserted.
Dalit Catholics in India are currently spread over Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches in the Catholic fold.
The Catholic Church is comprised of six different liturgical rites, and within them exist 24 particular Churches. These sui iuris (autonomous or self-governing) Churches are all in communion with one another in the Catholic Church and recognize the primacy of the pope.
Indian Government Regulation Squeezes Christian Charities
For Christians trying to care for the poor in India, there is always a need for more prayer, more hands, and more money. Much of that money comes from donors in other countries. Recently, though, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has tightened regulations on foreign funding to nonprofits, including Christian groups that feed or-phans, run hospitals, and educate children.
Since Modi took office in 2014, the Indian government has revoked permission for more than 16,000 nongovernmental organizations to receive foreign funding, using the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
“It is deliberately an assault against the nonprofit sector,” said Vijayesh Lal, the general secretary of the Evangelical Fellow-ship of India, “and that includes the churches.”
In one recent round of revocations, six nonprofits lost the license allowing them to receive money from abroad. Four of those were Christ-ian organizations. A search of the FCRA website reveals more than 450 revocations from 2011-2019 of groups with the word church in their name alone.
While the FCRA is not designed specifically to target Christian groups, experts say its cumbersome regulations have been used by the ruling parties in India to stifle political and religious dissidents since the law’s adoption in 1976.
“It has always been used as a tool,” Lal said. “The thought behind it is very clear. They don’t want to encourage dissent. They don’t want to encourage empowerment.”
The law was first passed in a period of Indian history called “the Emergency.”
“It’s going to be very difficult,” said David Babu, the founder of Sunshine Ministries in Hyderabad. “What can you do with 20 percent?”
Sunshine provides schooling and housing to about 240 students. Eighty percent go on to receive more education after graduating, many of them becoming teachers, police officers, and health care workers.
“These are the kids that are the leaders of tomorrow,” Babu said, “and we believe that when they plant the seed of equality and oneness, things will change.”
Sunshine has 20 staff members, and its main expenditures are salaries and the costs of maintaining buildings and property. The ministry has not yet deter-mined how it can cut administrative costs to maintain its FCRA license.