Open Letter of Indian Dalit Christians to Pope Benedict XVI
R L Francis
27 December 2011
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you - St Matthew 7.7
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Secretariat of State
00120 Vatican City State - Europe
Wish You a Merry Christmas and New Year
Your Holiness
The
debate related to the status of Christians in India is going on and you
are already aware of it. There are two points to this wide ranging
debate. First, social, economic and political status of converted
Christians; and second, growing tensions in different parts of the
country due to conversion-related activities. The second has more to do
with the way the Catholic Church opts to function in the country.
According
to official estimates of the government, there are 30 million
Christians in the country and 70 percent of this population has directly
come from socially and economically downtrodden community popularly
known as “Dalits”. However, as per unofficial figures, the population of
minority Christians is not less than 60-70 million. Irony is that;
these people have been constantly suppressed and exploited even under
the structure of the Catholic Church being led by you (Pope). They are
ridiculed for their sacrifices made hundreds of years ago for the
church. They don’t command equal status in the existing structure of
church and this has made the sacrifices futile.
Christianity
stresses on the fact that God has created people in his own image and
this has become the founding stone of equality of human values in
Christian society. But, they are continuously meted out differential
treatment in the name of caste and birth. In order to catch your
attention towards these core issues, I am writing this letter to you. I
am going to discuss first core issue.
Ideology of Church
Theoretically,
there is no place for non-equality and racism in Christianity and when
it is attached with identity of the Catholic Church; the concept of
caste automatically vanishes like camphor as the word
‘Catholic-means-Universal’. There is only one head of this universal
community of people and that is none other than representative of Vicar
of Christ which is responsible for recruitment of Bishops in order to
guide their disciples.
In
that way, Holy Father/Pope, ‘you’ are responsible for maintaining the
‘Kingdom of Heaven’ on the earth. Now you should explain to me where is
the place of dirty ideology like casteism and racism in this ‘Kingdom of
Heaven’?
Deprived class in Indian church
Downtrodden
class in India has always been victim of unequal treatment, casteism
and social exploitation. In order to seek solace and relief from their
pathetic condition, they are still coming under the aegis of church for
the last 3 or 4 centuries. But, here, too, they have been exploited in
the name of caste and race. The hope with which they had come to
Christianity seems to have been forfeited. On the contrary, they are now
entangled in even deeper quagmire of inequality.
Church moving opposite to ideology of Christianity
Catholic
Church has completely failed in its duty to provide equality and
justice to that majority of converted people under the structure
controlled by you (Pope). The resources have been captured by
upper-class Christians. After independence of India, the Catholic Church
has immensely progressed which is reflected in the heavy increase in
the number of schools, colleges, social institutions, new diocese,
Fathers, Bishops, nuns and their followers. However, despite this entire
progress, one thing that has not changed - the status of converted
Christians.
Converted
Christians are the backbone of the Catholic Church in India, but their
participation in the structure of Catholic Church is zero. Bishop,
Father and Cardinal from this class are rare to find and those who
somehow managed after hard-fought struggle are standing marginalized in
society. They are being treated differently by their upper-class
brothers (Bishops and Fathers).
Thousands
of organizations related to education, health and non-governmental
organizations are being run by church and right to run these
institutions has been conferred by Indian constitution. The structure of
church being run under Vatican (you) has failed to do justice to
converted Christians. Understanding the gravity of the situation Pope
John Paul-II had severely criticized the attitude of unequal treatment
and discriminatory approach in the church. In 2003, he had said that
Bishops were appointed to look after lambs and it is their duty to
abolish any kind of discrimination prevalent in the Catholic Church.
Betrayal of faith
There
is widespread anger among converted Christians against the policies
adopted by the church. They have started demanding their rights within
the existing structure of church. The response of church has been
abysmal in this regard. The church leadership has termed this anger
unjustified. Instead of addressing the genuine concerns of converted
Christians, they have shied away from their responsibilities and are
trying to shift it on the Government of India. This is being done in
order to fulfill their own ulterior motive. By doing so church is
pushing these people in the same quagmire of caste system.
When
Indian constitution was being framed, constitution makers advocated
reservations for the dalit class who were victims of caste oppression in
the prevalent Hindu system. Majority of Hindu people sacrificed their
right to equality in favour of their dalit brothers as a compensation of
injustice meted out to them.
Your
Holiness, do your representatives have the moral right to betray the
faith of those who had blindly believed in the church and its promises?
They have given their whole life to the church. The story is similar to
the poor widow about whom Jesus had said to their disciples, “Truly
I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the
others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty,
put in everything—all she had to live on.” (Mark 12: 41-44) We Dalit
Catholics had also left the facilities (reservation) given by the Indian
government.
Church should compensate
Church
is now blaming others for its failures. When the Indian constitution
was being framed, these converted Christians remained in the fold of the
church and did not switch their loyalties. Within the framework of the
constitution, minorities were given special rights and privileges that
were unthinkable even in USA and Europe. Taking benefit of these rights,
the church has enlarged its empire but seems to have forgotten
converted Christians. Church leadership is stifling the just demands of
their own people who are the backbone of the Catholic Church in the
country.
Now,
church leadership has no moral right to bring the converted people in
the realm of the same caste system that has oppressed them for
centuries. Had they not gone in the fold of the church and continued
with the Hindu system they, too, would have enjoyed benefits bestowed
upon them by the Constitution of India and progressed like their other
Dalit Hindu brothers in the same fashion.
After
the Government of India, the church is the only organized entity that
can make available jobs, but the participation of converted Christians
is very low and maximum they can get is post of driver, cook, clerk,
peon and gatekeeper. These jobs, too, can be availed on the mercy of
Bishops and their condition is no better than slave laborers. I demand
from the church that they should compensate for the injustice and
exploitation meted out to millions of converted Christians. Vatican had
done this in the past and it can also be done here.
Church should change its policy
Church
has always preferred safe trade. It has established thousands of
schools, colleges and other institutions. This has benefited a lot to
the church leadership, but the majority of converted Christians have
been largely deprived. Even in the field of education where church has
practically monopoly, it has failed to benefit converted Christians. We
will not stop just after getting few benefits, but Dalit Christians want
their due share in the existing structure.
Hindu
society is changing very fast. Doors of temples are being opened for
Dalit Hindus and many programmes are being run to abolish ignominious
caste system, whereas Christianity has not been able to do minor changes
in its structure. Hindu dalits are constantly moving on, but this is
not the case with converted Christian society. Church administration
being led by you is pushing them back. Perhaps their thinking is to
assimilate converted Christians among 300 million Hindus. They believe
that this will make the task of church leadership easier. Why it is that
church leadership always seeks solution in putting converted Christians
in the list of Hindu dalits?
It
is the duty of church leadership that process of development should be
smooth. It is good to have institutions/policy made for the welfare of
people. However, it is even more important who are implementing them.
Converted Christians should get share proportionate to their population.
Unless and until this happens, their position in the society will
remain the same and their problems will persist.
Your Holiness, in
the first point I have tried to elaborate the first point related to
the problems faced by converted Christians. In India, the relationship
between Catholic Church and its followers is not based on democratic
set-up. Inside the church, upper-caste Christians have more opportunity
to progress than converted Christians. Considering the status of these
people, some fundamental structural changes are needed. At present,
Bishops are the “key power” and they are appointed by the Vatican and
that is why they feel themselves more responsible towards Vatican and
less towards Kalisia. Most of the Catholics are of the view that Bishop
should be elected by Kalisia and not by the Vatican so that they could
be made more responsible towards their people.
Evangelization and escalating tension
Recently,
for the sake of safety and security of Christian society, you have
appealed to Hindu society that they should stand-up against condemnable
hate propaganda against Christians and should pave the way for religious
freedom. Your concerns are genuine as tension between Christians and
people from other faiths has escalated over the years and at some places
it has even taken violent turn. Be it ignominious incident of burning
of Graham Staines with his two children in 1999 or Kandhamal riots or
violence at some other place. Indian society has always opposed violence
on the name of caste or religion. Indian government has acted swiftly
whenever such incidents have taken place. Perpetrators of crime have
been punished. Government has also constituted various commissions in
this regard and their reports have been startling.
India
has always been a glorious symbol of tolerance and has shown respect
for all religions and faiths with the feeling of amicable co-existence.
There is no place for non-tolerant faith among majority of Hindu
community. Every citizen respects fundamental right of religious freedom
of other people.
Many
commissions constituted by government in the wake of violent instances
against Christians have also indicated towards imperialistic nature of
church. There is an urgent need for introspection on the method of
propagation of Christian faith as they have become instruments of
growing tension with people of other faiths. We can stop this by
changing the current practices by the church and help create amicable
atmosphere.
Freedom of church in India
Indian
church and Christians have rights that are not even available to
European church. In matters related to Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other
religions there is some government intervention. For example, properties
of religious institutions of Muslims are looked after by Waqf board.
Similarly, religious properties in Sikhs are also managed according to
Indian law. Government has direct control over the income of big temples
and this money is spent on upliftment of deprived class.
But,
government has no intervention in matters pertaining to Christians.
Bishops are appointed by you and Vatican and Fathers/Bishops has
ownership over huge assets and resources of church. Even in Europe many
countries have control over the properties of church. India is one
country where church enjoys immense religious freedom.
Introspection of evangelization policy is necessary
Recently,
Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue has raised few
questions about status of religious freedom in India. The indication was
towards anti-conversion law made by few states in India. Church is
facing difficulty after enactment of this law. They should understand
that Indian constitution allows anybody to follow faith of his/her
choice and even allows propagation of religion. But nobody can justify
conversion of scheduled caste and tribes under the garb of social
service.
There
is a thin line between propagation of one’s faith and conversion. If
state gives absolute freedom to those who have sole motive of
conversion, then it is the duty of the state to intervene in the matter.
This becomes all the more important considering wherever conversion has
taken place in large number social tension has increased.
This
year Vatican had convened a meeting of various heads of faiths in
Assisi of Italy on October 27. In this meeting, Indian representation
had tried to attract the attention of Vatican towards conversion. As a
matter of fact, if Vatican really wants amicable solution to various
problems faced by Christianity then it is the church that will have to
play larger role in the process.
Development of converted Christians should be goal of church
Your Holiness,
theoretically Christianity advocates equality but in practice reality
is starkly different. Discriminatory caste policies of the Catholic
Church fail the basic motive of Christianity. In reality, condition of
converted Christians worsens after conversion. Church should bring a
White Paper on the matter of how much church has progressed after
independence and how much progress converted Christians have made during
the same period.
Church receives huge
donations in the name of social service and development of disciples of
the faith, but hardly anything has changed on the ground. This is
certainly a food for thought that where this money goes?
Poor Christian
Liberation Movement (PCLM), an umbrella organization of Dalit
Christians, is of the view that church officials don’t want to leave any
benefit currently enjoyed by them at any cost. They are not at all
concerned with the betterment of converted Christians. This is why there
is no hint of betterment of the status of this community even in the
distant future. The current system harbours inequality. That is why it
will be wrong to expect that things will change in the near future.
Converted Christians
are looking towards you with a lot of hope and we request you to take
concrete steps for change in the fundamental structure of church.
Yours in Christ
R L Francis
