The National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC) has written a letter to Pope Francis and other authorities of the Vatican about the rampant practice of untouchability and caste discrimination in the Catholic Churches of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and has urged the Pope to pass an order regarding the same.
The letter dated 12th June 2021, a copy which has been accessed by The Commune, details about the different ways in which Dalit Christians are discriminated on a daily basis by the Catholic clergy in Tamil Nadu and other caste Christians.
It states that Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and Council of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) authorities and all the 18 Bishops of the Catholic Dioceses of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are purposefully/wilfully allowing the visible and invisible form of caste discrimination in the Church.
The letter notes that Dalit Christians are forced to bury their dead in separate burial places in burial grounds that are under the Church as well as in those burial grounds that belong to the government but administered by the church.
An annexure attached with the letter gives an exhaustive list of discrimination meted out to Dalit Christians like separate churches, separate cemeteries, separate funeral carts, non-appointment of Dalits as priests, not letting Dalits use the road leading to the Church, Dalits not being allowed to participate in Church affairs, non-appointment of Dalits as teaching/non-teaching staff in schools run by the Archdiocese, Dalits not being allowed in Parish council, etc. This list has been compiled district-wise based on extensive research undertaken by Dalit Christian activists part of the National Council of Dalit Christians.
Dr. G. Mathew of Eraiyur from the Cuddalore- Pondicherry Arch Diocese had put in the effort to collect the details throughout Tamil Nadu and Puducherry concerning the caste discriminatory practice which exists in most of the Roman Catholic Church controlled burial grounds/sepulchres.
The letter also notes that Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council (TNBC) and the 18 Catholic Bishops from Tamil Nadu have not tkaen any useful measures for eradicating the unethical and unconstitutional practices despite the TNBC having an ‘Action Plan for the Integrated Development of Catholic Dalits’ and 10-point programme of the TNBC and
TNCRI published by the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, TNBC, SC/ST Commission, which gives various measures to end discriminatory practices in Church.
Speaking to The Commune, C. Johnbritto, the President of the Dalit Christian Teacher Employee Association said that Dalit Christians are not just discriminated in Church but also in work places like the schools run by the Catholic Church. “First, they don’t appoint any Dalit teacher despite 60-70% of the Roman Catholics being from Dalit community. Even if a Dalit gets appointed as a teacher, the discrimination is blatant. Dalit teacher don’t get promoted or get any incentives for performance.”, Johnbritto said.
A. Ambethkumar, a member of the NCDC told The Commune that dominant castes priests do not offer services to Dalit Christians. He said that they do not come to collective prayers and rituals of Dalit Christians. In some of
the areas, Dalit Catholic Christian community are allotted separate Churches and timing for worshipping. He said that caste discrimination is rampant in the Catholic Church especially among the clergy higher in the hierarchy.
“Almost 70-80% of the Christians in Tamil Nadu are from the Dalit community, yet we have only 1 Bishop who is a Dalit out of the 18 Bishops. These clergy in the TNBC and CBCI do not even consider Dalits for higher posts. Even if a Dalit who is qualified makes it through the process, some baseless allegations get levelled against him and is prevented from getting higher posts.”, Ambethkumar said.
The letter notes that when the bishops’ vacancies arise in Dioceses, the Council of Bishops have the authority to select names and forward the same to the Church hierarchy. Using this as an opportunity all the Catholic Bishops of Tamil Nadu, India allegedly pick up the names on the basis of caste prejudice and send it for getting the approval of Pope through the Apostolic Nuncio, Apostolic Nunciature, New Delhi. Dalit Catholics are purposely neglected, the letter says.
“Though Dalit Christians make 65 per cent of the 10 million Christians in the South, less than 4 per cent of the parishes are entrusted to Dalit priests. There are no Dalits among 13 Catholic bishops of Tamil Nadu or among the Vicars-general and rectors of seminaries and directors of social assistance centres.”, the letter further says.
In light of this, the NCDC has appealed to the Pope to take serious cognizance of the matter and pass an order to put an end to the discriminatory practices of the Catholic Church in India.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.