The Catholic Church in India has admitted for the first time that Dalit Christians in the country face discrimination from the caste system and that "their participation in the level of leadership... at the higher levels is almost nil".
These admissions come in a policy document released this week by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), titled 'Policy of Dalit Empowerment in the Catholic Church in India', the Indian Express reported.
The paper asks the 171 Catholic dioceses in India to submit long and short-term plans within a year to end all kinds of discrimination against Dalit Christians.
"If there are dual practices based on caste discrimination, such practices should be stopped forthwith," it says. "In case of failure to do so, stringent measures should be taken by the Church authority concerned."
The president of the CBCI, Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos, told the Indian Express that discrimination of this sort is a "sin". The cardinal said: "It's a revolutionary step. We are admitting that it's a grave social sin, an issue and a problem. It's a sin, if you are going by the Christian spirit. This is a step to end the practice of discrimination within the church. It's a message as well as an introspection."
Some 12 million out of 19 million members of the Catholic Church in India are Dalit Christians, yet the document notes that "their participation in the level of leadership in the diocesan administration as well as in religious orders is minimum and at the higher levels, it is almost nil".
Currently, only 12 out of the more than 5,000 bishops in the Catholic Church in India are Dalit Christians.
"There is wider acceptance that the practice of untouchability and discrimination against Dalits exist in the Church and there is need to address these issues urgently," the document says.
However, it adds that there have been some positive changes and "more acceptance of the rights and dignity of Dalits at least at the ideological and theoretical level".
It goes on: "Since there is inadequate representation in seminaries in appointments to key positions and sharing of common resources in the religious orders and in the Church in general, efforts need to be made to remedy the situation given the importance of good priests... for the mission of the Church."
Dalits are being deprived of competitive jobs and courses, the paper says.
"Despite possessing commendable credentials, the fact of being a Dalit — Dalitness — is considered as inferior. This mindset is against the core belief of Christianity, that every human person is created in the image of God. While the term caste Hindu may be justified, caste Christian is simply self contradictory, to say the least."
The Church adds that a "traditional casteist approach is adopted to divide the faithful by some vested interest groups".
The document states that Dalit Christians are "sandwiched between the State and the Church".
The CBCI asks all dioceses to abolish "any practices of untouchability, discrimination and exclusion, especially in places of worship and burial grounds".
