By Robancy A Helen
Bengaluru, Feb 18, 2024: A national conference on synod has called for restoring the space denied to Dalit Christians in the Church and society.
The February 16-17 conference on “Synodal Church: Voice of the Marginalized in India,” studied the Dalit Empowerment Policy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, 2016, that mandates an end to caste practices and promotes inclusive communities. The policy also focuses on the denied space of Dalit Christians in the Church and society.
“The very focus of the Synodal Church is mission, communion, and participation,” asserted Cardinal Anthony Poola, archbishop of Hyderabad, who presided over the conference held at the Indian Social Institute in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
The first cardinal from the Dalit community said everyone should be included in the mission of the Catholic Church so that no one feels left behind. “The marginalized should participate in the Church where their voice should be heard,” he asserted.
The program was organized by the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in collaboration with the Office for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
The participants were Dalit Catholics from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
The conference prepared a memorandum that reiterated the need to give to the Dalit Christians in India their denied space and taking steps to empower them.
The conference has decided to submit the memorandum to the Vatican, the CBCI and the Conference of Catholic Bishops in India.
Among those present were Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur, the chairperson of the CBCI Office, and his predecessor Bishop Neethinathan Anthonisamy of Chingelpet.
Maintaining that synodality involves “sharing, dialogue, communication, communion, respecting each other, and giving dignity to all humans,” Bishop Nayak said it was high time the Church discussed the Dalit Empowerment Policy in the background of Synodality.
The program was held as a follow-up of the Synod on “Synodality” convened by Pope Francis during 2021-2023. It has awakened all Catholics to deepen communion, enhance participation, and commit ourselves to the mission, Bishop Nayak said.
The participants asserted that synodality should be based on the trinitarian communion, Eucharistic participation, and baptismal commitment. As the Body of Christ, Catholics are challenged to walk together with the entire world of creation and the people of goodwill, the conference acknowledged.
At the same time, the participants regretted that the voice of the marginalized goes unheard. “Often, their voices are crushed to the core, giving them marginal representation on many fronts in the Catholic Church,” the meeting said.
In the process, the Dalit Christians are denied companionship, care, and meekness from their leaders and others, who at times dehumanize them and refuse them dignity and respect.
The conference has urged everyone in the Church to engage in an open and transparent dialogue to help remove “the sinful structure of casteism and the evil practice of untouchability.”
Such constructive and proactive dialogue will help Catholics become part of the transformative agenda of journeying together from the fragmentation of casteism to the communion of egalitarianism.
A keynote address on the Synod Church by Father Cosmon Arockiaraj, a Dalit theologian focused on the current status of Dalit empowerment in the Indian Church.
He said it was the Catholic Church’s responsibility to encourage the Dalit Christian community to partake in its mission and communion. Such participation should begin from the parish to the top levels of the Church decision-making.
Jesuit theologian Father Maria Arul Raja, another speaker, said one cannot remain gender-blind, caste-blind, race-blind, or class-blind while seeking to build synodality.
Sister Sujata Jena, an advocate and social activist from Odisha, pointed out that caste discrimination is practiced in the Church although it is “blatantly against Jesus Christ and the Christian principles of brotherhood, sisterhood, and equality.”
The report (Herald 23-29 February 2024) captioned: Restore Space Denied to Christian Dalits, Demands National Conference is quite alarming in view of Sister Sujata Jena’s (advocate and social activist from Odisha) and others’ assertion that the Catholic Church has been practising Caste Discrimination and that this discrimination is “blatantly against Jesus Christ and the Christian principles of brotherhood, sisterhood, and equality.”
Similarly Jesuit theologian Father Maria Arul Raja’s observation that one cannot remain gender-blind, caste-blind, race-blind, or class-blind is totally in sync with the inclusive spirit of the Catholic Church.
It is alarming that such discrimination is taking place in the Catholic Church where through one Baptism in Christ we all are equal members of the Church – No one is high, no one is low and there cannot be any stratification of Catholics as Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras (Dalits). It is very sad and shocking to learn there are separate queues for Brahmins, Dalits, etc for the Holy Communion and even separate burial grounds for Dalits in South India as mentioned by Chhotebhai, Convenor of Indian Catholic Forum and corroborated by others. One indicator of this malpractice in the South is that most of the participants were from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Participants from Maharashtra (most probably from Karnataka border) and Odisha were also there. In 2016 there was an allegation of victimization and kidnap of former prelate Gallela Prasad by three high-caste Reddy priests. Link: https://mattersindia.com/2016/05/dalit-leader-questions-church-silence-over-bishops-kidnap/
The starting point to ensure equality among all Catholics across India would be to desist from highlighting cardinals, bishops and priests as DALITS or the first Dalit cardinal or a Dalit theologian. This branding itself acts as a barrier to Equality and Oneness. If the Catholic Church is thus divided, then how can it seek unity with its sister churches while propagating `Unity Octave’?
It is worth remembering that as per 2001 and 2011 censuses, Christians form a meagre 2.3% per cent of India’s total population, currently 140+ crore. If we sub-divide ourselves into different strata, we will be having stunted growth of the Catholic Church. Growth in only one part of the body does not mean growth.
In the interest of `Common Good’ the Catholic Think-tank must focus on empowerment of all Indian Catholics instead of focusing on the growth / empowerment of a particular section of the faithful. One way to do this is to embark on diocese-wise mapping of the economically and socially backward/vulnerable sections.
Evangelization and conversion are ongoing and never-ending opportunities. The Church and her institutions are made up of fellow mortals whose hunger and thirst for being re-evangelized cannot and should not be ignored.
We become one family through baptism, is it not? Then, why does “caste system” exist in the Catholic Church? In the first place, why a person is branded after a particular caste? Why is the Catholic Church divided? Where are the values that Jesus preached? Time for a sincere introspection.