Dalit Catholics of Tamil Nadu are deeply disappointed and have expressed their strong disapproval over the appointment of a non-Dalit Bishop in a Dalit-majority diocese by the Vatican .

According to the UCA News, on May 31st Pope Francis on appointed Father Arulselvam Rayappan of the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore as the new bishop of Salem.

Rayappan, 60, is currently the professor and director of the Centre for Canon Law Studies at St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute in Bengaluru.

Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, former secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) office of Dalits and backward classes, said that the “People are disappointed by the appointment of a non-Dalit bishop for Salem Diocese because they have been demanding the appointment of a Dalit”.

He further stated, “People are very much sad because their plight is not heard and it may give a wrong message among Dalit Catholics who for years have been neglected in the Church as well as in society.”

M. Mary John, president of the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement, said the organization has been demanding Dalit bishops in the state for the last three decades and the latest development is a big setback.

John said, “We have full proof of writing letters to the nuncio and other bishops urging them to appoint a Dalit bishop whenever a post is vacant, but unfortunately it was not even considered.”

“Our demand is to combat the caste inequality suffered by us within the Church“

He stated that the authorities overlooked their demands despite hearing them, “It is very surprising and dejecting that after hearing and promising [to grant] our request, the higher authorities did not even take note of it.”

John further stated the CBCI had formed a policy of Dalit empowerment in 2016 and the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council had done so several years earlier.

But these policies has not been implemented and the Catholic hierarchy in India takes only a hostile stand when it comes to really doing justice and giving equal rights to Dalit Christians, he claimed.

“Our demand is to combat the caste inequality suffered by us within the Church,” John said.

G. Mathew, convener of the All Dalit Christian Movements Coalition in Tamil Nadu, accused the Church of nepotism over the latest appointment. He said, “It looks like some kind of nepotism is going on because the newly appointed bishop of Salem is the cousin of Bishop Peter Abir Antonysamy of Sultanpet who is also the apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore,” said Mathew.

Mathew wondered whether the Church was degenerating to regressive practices of Medieval period by saying, “They both belong to the same caste, parish and village. It reminds us of the medieval Church. Are we going forward or backward?”

He also pointed out that only one of Tamil Nadu’s 18 archbishops and bishops is of Dalit origin even though Dalits make up about 70 percent of the state’s Catholic population, he said.

Pertinently, about 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians are of Dalit or tribal origin

The Christian missionaries and the evangelists convert people from Hindu Dalit and Tribal background by spreading hatred among Hindu society by over amplifying some cases of caste atrocities and by befooling the poor and disadvantaged sections by promising them money, jobs, free education and an caste-free egalitarian society. But the truth is wholly different where the Dalit converts are not allowed to come or get responsible positions in the Church of anglo-Indians and rice bag opportunistic converts from privileged backgrounds from Hindu society.

Notably, all appointments to the Catholic Church is not made by any Church authority in India, but appointed by the Vatican State head, the ex-officio Pope. This in a way is an outside interference in Indian religious matter and also has many political connotations as the religious heads in Churches ask their followers to vote or note a particular party during the elections. The Church has always asked its faithful to vote against the BJP.

Pertinently, when two Italian marines murdered some Dalit Christian fishermen of Kerala, the Vatican Papacy intervened and asked the Indian Archbishop of Kerala Catholic Church to not book the Italian marines under murder charges and offer some money to the Dalit Christian fishermen victims’ family and buy their silence. The Indian Archbishop slavishly agreed to his Vatican masters and tried his best through the Church to silence the victims’ families’ demand for justice.

The Vatican is yet to see a Black Pope, the present Pope is the first one, though a white, to hail from a non-European community. The Christian community needs reforms to ensure an egalitarian system within their believers without discrimination on the basis of race, colour, gender and birth rather than pump in money illegally and send hordes of evangelists hunting for non-Christian souls to harvest.

News input and image source: UCS News.

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