By Matters India Reporter
Jalandhar: Native Catholics of the northern Indian state of Punjab have demanded a Dalit as their next bishop.
“We demand a spiritual, well educated, cooperative and energetic Dalit bishop installed in Jalandhar diocese,” Roshan Joseph, the spokesperson of the Catholics of Punjab, told Matters India on September 25.
The Jalandhar diocese covers Punjab and four districts of neighboring Himachal Pradesh.
On September 24, several lay leaders met with the native priests to discuss the diocese’s future in the wake of a sexual abuse case against their bishop. They expressed distress after Bishop Franco Mulakkal, earlier in the day, was remanded to 14 days of police custody by a court in Kerala, southern India.
The Kerala police arrested the 54-year-old prelate on September 21 for allegedly raping a nun in a convent in Kerala.
The Vatican on September 20 temporarily removed the 54-prelate from the post of Jalandhar bishop and appointed Retired Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias as the diocesan administrator.
“The diocese has suffered too much insult because of the rape case in Kerala,” Joseph explained the reason for the meeting called by Punjabi priest Father Martin Sadiq. All Punjabi priests and lay leaders of the diocese attended the meeting at the Pastoral Council Center in Jalandhar.
He said the coverage of the case by the national media showing the bishop as a rapist has severely damaged the diocese’s reputation.
The lay leader, who was the secretary of the diocesan commission for Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes, alleged that the Bishop Mulakkal and the diocesan public relations officer Father Peter Kavumpuram have made “wrong statements” in the church. According to him, more priests in the diocese who know the truth about the case, to have misled the faithful.
“Even if the court exonerates him, people will not accept him as their bishop,” Joseph added.
He regretted that Punjab has had no prelate from the Dalit Latin rite Catholics even after its creation 55 years ago. “Punjab wants its own bishop,” he asserted.
Bishop Mulakkal belongs to the Syro-Malabar Church, a sub group within the Catholic Church in India, so also was his predecessor late Capuchin Bishop Symphorian Keeprath. Most priests and nuns working in the diocese are also natives of Kerala.
Joseph said the diocese has some 200,000 native Catholics, among them 95 percent are poor Dalit. He said only a few people support Bishop Mulakkal believing him to be innocent.
However, Jalandhar is reportedly one of the richest dioceses in India, mainly because of its prosperous educational institutions.
The lay leader also alleged Bishop Mulakkal had called his “paid workers” when a police team from Kerala visited Jalandhar to question the prelate in the second week of August. Hundreds who had assembled in front of the bishop’s residence had attacked media persons.
Joseph denied the claim of Bishop Mulakkal’s supporters that he had worked hard for the all-round development of the diocese and its faithful. “He worked only for his own safety and security,” he added.
However, the diocese is “very much stronger” because of its people’s strong faith in God and the Church. He bemoaned that the diocesan authorities have taken the poor and innocent people for granted. “Although the diocese has more than 50 high schools and colleges, it could not produce a single IAS or IPS officer. What more to say, it could not ordain 50 priests in 55 years,” he added.
Jalandhar was part of Lahore diocese until the partition of India in 1947, which was looked after by the Capuchin missionaries of Belgian province.
In 1952, Rome created the apostolic prefecture of Jullundur (old name of Jalandhar) and entrusted it with the British province of the Capuchins. Monsignor Francis Alban Swarbrick was appointed its prefect.
It became a diocese in 1971 with Keeprath as the bishop. On his retirement in 2007, Auxiliary Bishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi was appointed its second bishop. In 2013, he was promoted as the archbishop of Delhi and Mulakkal, who was then the auxiliary in Delhi, was sent to Jalandhar as its third bishop.