Encouraging unity and diversity

Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo [CAFOD]

Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo explains how India's unity and diversity is a lesson for the world, and expresses gratitude for the international support following the tsunami

Born in Chaipur, India in 1939, Cardinal Toppo became the first tribal cardinal in Asia in 2003.

“Tribals are the aboriginals of India that were living there even before other people came to India…They do not belong to the Hindu fold, which has a caste system and then outcastes. We don’t belong to any of these groups we have our own system of administration…” he explains.

The church was established in the north east of India just 130 years ago. “At that time the tribals were poor and neglected but thanks to the work of the church, the missionaries from Europe, we received an education,” he adds.

His parents were both illiterate. He was one of ten children, whose father died when he was eleven.

His mother died aged 101, just one month after he was made cardinal.

Becoming a bishop

After his father died, to continue his education, he worked in the school where he was studying. The headmaster, a Jesuit father, asked him to dig a well. When the school re-opened and he went to collect his wages, the headmaster told him he would make a good priest. “That was a surprise to me because I thought that priests came from heaven,” he remembers.

After graduating in philosophy in Ranchi, India, he studied theology in Rome for four years. He was ordained in Switzerland during a two-month sabbatical to learn German.

Back in India he was appointed assistant teacher in a Catholic school where he taught for nine years. During this time he started a vocation centre in an old convent. Then he was transferred to the Bishop’s house as secretary to the Archbishop and within 15 days was made Bishop of one of the biggest group of tribals in the Calcutta and Ranchi area. To take on this role he had to learn Santali, a tribal Indian language.

The education and advancement of tribals has brought with it its own problems. “If we are given a chance of a proper education we can fit in anywhere and in fact that has become a social problem for us now, a pastoral problem ” he explains “many of our Catholic girls are rich people so we are losing our good Catholic girls. So we need to work for the upliftment of the tribal boys so that they are also qualified for good jobs.”

Involving the whole community

He is working to ensure the whole community becomes more involved in schooling and encouraging young educated people to remain in the community. “ It’s a new approach to education that means that while earlier the sisters and fathers were running the schools, the new way is the involvement of the community.

“Parents cannot just deposit their children and forget about it. They should be involved and the children should be accountable to the community. They should be grateful otherwise there will be a “brain drain”, they will grow up and leave for other communities, other societies.

“Equality and dignity of persons is a real challenge. The church must contribute its share in the whole development of the nation, the national integration and evolving of a new vision, new philosophy, new culture, in a way that will be somehow based on Gospel values.

“It’s a real challenge of evangelisation – a word which some may misunderstand – building of a better future, of a just society, of one world is essentially evangelisation, a sustainable, just society for the whole of Asia and India.

“The tribals and marginalised need special attention. The missionaries left their families and homes and everything and made our people their kith and kin so to speak. Maybe they didn’t speak our language but our people understood the language of love and that way it was a real evangelisation, a real witness of love, a proclamation of the gospel by their lives.”

Just one world

To help just one section of society leads to problems, he says. It prevents a true sense of solidarity.

“Earlier we were talking of “third world” and “second world” and so on. We are living just in one world and this one world has to be owned by all of us. This is the gift of god and should be cherished therefore with varieties of people, culture and languages.

"India is a complex country. It’s a small world in itself with different states, different languages and culture. So every state is like a country, a sub-country. And therefore we have to have that global vision. India has been fortunate in a way because it is still hanging together. Unity and diversity is to be seen in India and it is a real blessing. We hear about fundamentalists and some fanatics and so on, that is understandable. But that is not the real India.

"The unity and diversity, which we experience in India, should be lived in the whole world. So a new society, a just society, where people of every race, every creed, can live in human dignity should be created and sustained. And in this I believe CAFOD is part of God’s venture, of God’s initiative, as part of the church’s initiative all over the world. Therefore our partners, our brothers and sisters in CAFOD should not feel that they are alone. The whole Catholic Church is with them.

"And although in Asia and India maybe we are not that well off materially, we appreciate what is being done. We will make our own contribution and if we can help you in any way, we’ll not hesitate. We are grateful for all you have done and all that you have been for us, and especially last year after the tsunami.

"That was a real disaster but I believe that God who writes straight even with crooked lines united all us believers and non-believers, especially those who suffered. In the name of our people in India, especially those that suffered, I would like to express our deep felt gratitude.

"His time spent in the affected areas also motivates his work:

“Families are disrupted, villages are no more, so the survivors have to be like a jigsaw puzzle. We have to put the pieces together and rebuild their lives, rebuild their new families, their new villages. A new society must emerge from the debris.”

This calls for education and training as well as psychological support.

“They cannot be fisher-folk for generation after generation. Among the fisher-folk there should also become doctors and engineers and so on. Building houses is not enough, that’s the minimum but lots more has to be done it is a kind of ongoing work and this is where the Catholic church becomes very handy. Other NGOs came and went away, they made news, they must have collected monies… but where are they? But the church stays with the people and is still serving them through the diocesan local infrastructure.”

Today he is President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI).

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