Dalit Christians from the South of India were disappointed and disheartened after they met with the papal representative (nuncio), demanding an end to caste discrimination within the Church. The Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM) met with Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the Apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal, on February 2nd in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
“He listened to our plight and demands very attentively but he did not commit anything. He was evasive on the question of ending caste discrimination against Dalits in the Catholic Church of India,” said Mary John, president of the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM).
They had appealed to the nuncio to appoint a Dalit Christian for the posting of head of the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore, a posting that is still vacant. However, Mary John said that his response for the appeal was evasive and non-committal.
She then went onto say, “The delegation felt instead of accepting the grievances and sufferings of Dalit Christians and the truth of caste discrimination and assuring of some concrete intervention with the Indian Catholic hierarchy, the papal nuncio refused to commit himself on any issue. The delegates were left highly disappointed with the nuncio’s responses, which showed a lack of understanding and grasp of the situation in India.”
She also added that the appointments were influenced by “nepotism and discrimination,” especially in the southern Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry region “with only non-Dalits being considered for the posts of bishops and archbishops.”
The DCLM has been consistently raising this issue of caste discrimination within the Church, for the past three decades with numerous letters and appeals to the Vatican and India’s Catholic hierarchy. 60 percent of India’s 25 million Christians are believed to be of Dalit and tribal origin.
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