Catholics Hail Election Of First Dalit To Head Indian Bishops’ Body
By Michael Gonsalves
(UCA News) -- Church leaders in India have hailed the election of a cardinal from the socially poor Dalit community to head the Catholic bishops’ national body, calling it a historic move.
Cardinal Poola Anthony, the archbishop of Hyderabad, was elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at its 37th General Body Meeting on Feb. 7 in southern Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) city.
Poola, 64, becomes the first Dalit prelate to head the conference comprising bishops from India’s three rites – Latin, Syro-Malabar, and Syro-Malankara. He succeeds Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, who held the post for the past four years.
The election of Poola “is a big step forward” in dealing with the continuing “discrimination and inequality within the Catholic Church,” said Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Daltonganj after Anthony’s election.
He told UCA News on Feb. 8 that a Dalit leading the bishops’ conference “will send a strong message to Christians of Dalit origin that the Church upholds the dignity of everyone.”
John Dayal, spokesperson for the All India Catholic Union, said Poola’s leadership is “an opportunity” for the Church to align its actions with the Church’s 2016 Dalit empowerment policy, which recognized caste discrimination as a “grave social sin.”
“Out of roughly 180 bishops nationwide across all rites, only about 12 are Dalit, a stark 6.7 percent,” Dayal told UCA News. However, Dalit and tribal people constitute more than 60 percent of the Indian Catholics, he said.
The only tribal bishop to head the bishops’ conference was Cardinal Telesphore P Toppo (1939-2023), the archbishop of Ranchi. He headed the national body for two consecutive terms from 2004 to 2008
Priests and nuns from Dalit backgrounds also represent only a small fraction of the clergy and religious sisters, Dayal added
Father Francis P. Xavier, rector of Loyola Institutions in Chennai, southern India, said, “Catholics of Dalit origin, who converted from Hinduism, hoped for justice and equality.
“But they continue to endure caste-based discrimination, including social exclusion and segregated places within the Church.
“For example, there are separate cemeteries for Dalits, and even the hearses used to transport the dead are different,” Xavier noted.
Dalit Catholics are also excluded from decision-making bodies. In this context, Poola’s election as CBCI president “affirms that Dalits are equally capable and deserving leaders,” Xavier added.
Jesuit Father Prakash Louis, former director of the New Delhi-based Indian Social Institute, said Poola’s election “is an effort to rectify the historical wrong of caste discrimination.”
Jesuit rights activist Father Cedric Prakash, based in Gujarat, said Poola’s is an “historic election” and he should “reach out to Dalit Christians and other Catholics, who have been at the receiving end both internally within the Church and outside.”
Poola was born on Nov. 15, 1961, became a priest at the age of 30, and became bishop of Kurnool diocese in 2008. He was named the archbishop of Hyderabad in 2020. Pope Francis named him a cardinal in 2022.
He studied theology at Loyola University Chicago, USA, and worked at St. Genevieve Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago.