India’s Catholics and Protestants jointly observed on November 11 as Dalit Liberation Sunday with liturgy and activities urging an end to discrimination suffered by people of lower-caste origins within the church and society.
Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak, chairman of the Indian bishops’ office for people of socially poor castes and tribes, asked people to remember the 100 poor Christians killed in anti-Christian violence in Odisha State’s Kandhamal 10 years ago. The observation is a “call to the whole Christian community to renew our faith, to awaken our consciousness to be the voice of the voiceless and to stand with vulnerable Dalits in society,” he said in his message.
