Catholics in India seem euphoric after Pope Francis named a Dalit from the country among the 21 new cardinals.
Pope Francis will create 21 new cardinals in the next consistory on Aug. 27, including five archbishops and one bishop from Asia. Sixteen of the new cardinals are under the age of 80, who are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect the successor of Pope Francis, and for five others the title is mostly honorary. Five Asian prelates are – Archbishop Felipe Nerri Ferrao of Goa and Daman (India), Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad (India), Archbishop William Goh of Singapore, Archbishop Virgilio Do Carmo Da Silva, SDB of Dili (East Timor), Arch-bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy (South Korea), Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad, who was born in a Dalit Catholic family in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is among the two new cardinals from India. The other Indian is Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao of Goa and Daman. The Pope will create the cardinals at a consistory on Aug. 27.
Archbishop Poola’s elevation comes amid talks about an Indian Dalit Rite in the Catholic Church and protests by Dalit groups for bishops from their community.
A Dalit cardinal was also their demand for decades and they stepped it up after Pope John Paul II on October 21, 2003, made Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, the then archbishop of Ranchi, a prince of the Church. Cardinal Toppo claimed that the new title recognized India’s tribal Church.
Such recognition for the Dalits took 19 years more years, but it has made Jesuit Father Irudhaya Jothi, “extremely happy.” The grassroots activist now working in northeastern India says it is “a proud moment for the Dalit community in the world.”
Father Jothi and Ravi Kumar, a Dalit leader from Vijayawada diocese in Andhra Pradesh, say Archbishop Poola’s appoint-ment shows that Pope Francis continues to give recognition and representation to the Churches at the periphery and the marginalized communities.
Father Jothi said he prays that the Church gives “an emphatic hearing” to the standing demands of the Dalits, “the most exploited community.”