JUBILEE YEAR FOR INDIA’S UNDERPRIVILEGED – Recognition of their Human Dignity

For the untouchable caste of southern India, known as Dalits, this Jubilee Year represents renewed hope in the recognition of their human dignity and another attempt to break the spiral of discrimination and exclusion to which they are usually subjected. Perhaps during this Jubilee period, they could try to counter the caste mentality embedded in Indian culture and seize the opportunities that may arise within society and the Church, on an equal footing with other citizens. At least, this is the opinion of Franciscan priest Fr. Nithya Sagayam OFM Cap, secretary of the Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCST) of the Catholic Bishops’ Council of Tamil Nadu.

Meeting the world

Those who see the encounter with the world as one of the means to understand the crisis in the Church would not be wrong. Certainly one cannot understand the Church outside of the context of the world, as it must be right where the message of salvation it bears is most needed. But she must always be vigilant so that, by not conforming to the mentality of the time, she is not a slave to the ways of the world and currents of thought that contradict her saving mission. So, as the healthy tradition teaches, in the world but not of the world.