By Matters India Reporter
Pondicherry: More than one thousand Dalit Christians took out a rally in Pondicherry to demand the appointment of a member from their community as the next archbishop of Pondicherry-Cuddalore archdiocese.
The rally was organized by the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM) and culminated at the Pondicherry Archbishop’s House.
The rally began after listening to Dalit Christian leaders on the caste discrimination in the Catholic Church. The rally was part of an ongoing struggle by Dalit Christians in various places of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry states.
At the end of the rally, a DCLM delegation led by its president Mary John met Archbishop Antony Anandarayar of Pondicherry –Cuddalore and submitted a memorandum of demands.
The Dalit Christian leaders reiterated the demand for the appointment of a Dalit archbishop in place of Archbishop Anandarayar, who has already completed 75, the mandatory year of retirement for a Catholic prelate. The appointment would end the century long discrimination against Dalit Catholics, they asserted.
So far only non-Dalit archbishops have been appointed even though Dalits comprise about 75 percent of Catholics in the archdiocese, the DCLM leaders pointed out.
“In the past, people were disappointed as they felt were taken for granted. So they have come out openly and vigorously to show their strong resentment and assert their just demand,” explained John.
He said his movement has decided to sustain the struggle until the Church authorities meet their demand to appoint Dalit bishops in the five vacant dioceses in Tamil Nadu.
Other demands include equitable opportunity to Dalit Christians in education and employment in the Catholic institutions. The rallyists have also decide to take up widespread struggle in various dioceses if the Dalit policies of the Tamil Nadu Bishop’s Council and the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India are not implemented.
John recalled that some 40 Dalit priests of the Pondicherry archdiocese staged a sit-in from November 29 to December 4.
On December 20, the Dalit Christians protested in front of about 45 parish churches and submitted memorandum to the their pastors to pass on to the apostolic nuncio.
John said his people are seriously and vociferously demanding equitable number of Dalit bishops and archbishops, besides appointment of priests from their community to top administrative positions in all the dioceses.
This will help eradicate the untouchability practices, the caste domination and discrimination against Dalits that are rampant at all levels in the Catholic Church, he added.
The hour-long rally expressed doubts that the Catholic hierarchy in India has not bothered to take their demands the Vatican. The Indian bishops “only cover up the struggle by the victim Dalit Christians,” John alleged.
He said the Dalit Christians and the DCLM have taken up their demands at the Vatican in the past three decades. The rallyists expressed anguish at the lack of action and intervention by the Vatican dicasteries to end “the blatant discrimination,:
After receiving the memorandum, Archbishop Anthony Anandarayar acknowledged the need to do justice by appointing a Dalit archbishop in the archdiocese. He also said that he has “strongly recommended” the matter to the nuncio and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples(Propaganda Fide) in the Vatican.
On October 6, the DCLM and other Dalit Christian leaders had a virtual meeting with Archbishop Antony Pappusamy of Madurai, the president of the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council.