Prevalence of Caste Based Discrimination in the Catholic Church; Dalit Christian People Federation filed a write petition in the Honourable High Court of Madras

• Separate Church, Separate Festivals, Separate Cemeteries for the Dalits, double dead body carriers
• Dalit Christians are not allowed to become members in the Parish Councils of the Catholic Church. 
• Christian youth are not allowed to join in the choir & alter services and appointment of Bishops from Dalit community,
• G.Mathew of Tamil Nadu Dalit Christian Coalition filed a write petition in the Honourable High Court of Madras.

Chennai, June 29th, 2021: Dr.G.Mathew, Convenor, Tamil Nadu Dalit Coalition along with P.Felix, Jt. Convenor today met Journalist and spoke on the Prevalence of Caste Based Discrimination in the Catholic Church. 

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The Catholic Church has millions of followers all over the world having the Pope as its chief at the Vatican. Hundreds of Cardinals, bishops and Priests administer the Church as emissaries of the pope. In India, the Catholic Bishops' Council of India and nuncio (Papal ambassador to India) take control of the operations of the Church. All over India, there are 174 Dioceses and 18 such Dioceses are in Tamil Nadu. Each Diocese is headed by a Bishop and the Bishops of select Arch Dioceses are called Archbishops. 

(L to R) Sujatha Mary; P.Felix, Jt. Convenor, Tamil Nadu Dalit Coalition, Dr.G.Mathew, Convenor, Tamil Nadu Dalit Coalition; Amudha

The caste-based discrimination in the appointments of Bishops has become a matter of concem in recent times. There are 180 bishops among them only 10 are from the Dalit community. But 80% of the Catholic population in India are Dalits. Among the 18 Bishops in Tamil Nadu, only 1 is from the Dalit community and none of them is an Archbishop. In India, there are 31 Archbishops. Among them, only 2 are from the Dalit Community. There are 4 cardinals from India and none belong to the Dalit Community.

In Tamil Nadu, in the past 14 years, 10 Bishops have been appointed and no Dalit Priest has been considered for this post. This clearly illustrates that the Church is biased and caste- based. The non-Dalit population of the Catholic Church is around 30% but, the majority of Church administrative positions are occupied by them. The Church that preaches justice and liberation to the downtrodden has been oppressing them for decades. Several times in the past the Dalits have managed to apprise the pope of this ground reality.

Late Pope John Paul II was the first pope to address this issue. In his address to the clergy, he pointed out that the issue of caste-based discrimination in the Church is detrimental to the values of Christ. The present Pope of the Catholic Church His Holiness Pope Francis has called for the immediate removal of all forms of oppression in the Church and invited the faithful to embrace the legacy of the culture that a faithful hail from and imbibe the values of Christ to respect one another.

In India, it is not that the Caste minded Hindus alone oppress Dalits in the name of caste; it is all the more common in the Catholic Church too. As far as Caste-based discrimination is concerned religion has made no difference. The best way to address caste bias in the Catholic Church is to get involved more and more Dalits in the Church administration. One such progressive step would be appointing Dalits as Bishops. This was the statement of the nuncio in 2008. The same has been reiterated by Cardinal Filoni on 10.02.2003. These statements of the emissaries of the pope formed the basis for the declaration of the draft policy released by the Catholic Bishops' Council of India on 13.12.2016.

The 10-point policy document proposed by the Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council in 1990 and 8 point action plan proposed in 2004 echoed the same thought process. In the past 30 years, on many occasions. The Tamil Nadu and India Bishops Council has acknowledged the fact that the caste-based discrimination in the Church is true and expressed its dismay over the negligence and failure on the part of the Church and even proposed several measures to alleviate this inhuman practice. But, keeping all these promises in abeyance, the Church has betrayed the Dalits one more time and appointed a Non-Dalit Priest as Bishop of Salem on 31.05.2021. It is high time that the TNBC understands the gravity of the situation and honours its promises and appoints Dalit Bishops to all existing Bishop Vacancies in Tamil Nadu and restore the faith of the Dalit Christians.

In the light of these recent developments in the Tamil Nadu Catholic Church, Dr. G. Mathew has filed a writ petition (W. P. No. 13220/2021) in the Honourable High Court of Madras. In his petition, he details the different forms and practices of Caste-based discrimination which are common among Catholic Christians in 151 villages in Tamil Nadu. In these villages, it is common to see Dalit Christians having separate Churches, separate cemeteries, separate festivals, separate funeral cart and denial of participating in the church councils and denial of participating the choir and alter services. According to the petitioner, these misdeeds qualify to be considered as an intentional act of oppression as per the Constitution of the country and the UN Declaration on Human Rights. On 25.06.2021 the Honourable High Court admitted the petition and issued notice against the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCT). Council of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), all the 18 Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops, various Ministries of the Union of India, State Government of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and sought the response on or before 08.07.2021.

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