AILANKANNI, India (UCAN) – The education policy of the Catholic Church in India is aimed not to convert people, but to liberate them from ignorance and oppression, Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi declared at a major church meeting.

Opening the biennial general assembly of the Catholic Council of India, the cardinal said the only aim of the church's work in education is to form better people who can live with dignity and freedom. As president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, Cardinal Toppo also serves as president of the council, a representative body of clergy and laity in the country.

"Catholic Education and the Church's Concern for the Marginalized" was the theme of the Jan. 6-8 meeting at Vailankanni, a major Marian pilgrimage center in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Some 160 delegates including seven bishops attended the meeting, which was aimed at formulating "a human approach to education" that focuses more on empowering the poor.

Recalling that the church pioneered education in India, Cardinal Toppo said the country's development depends much on education. Noting that European missioners set up the first Catholic school in India as early as 1540, in Goa, he added that the church has kept education as one of its top priorities.

"Now there are over 20,275 Catholic educational institutions, serving over 10 million students in the country," the prelate continued, pointing out that 59 percent of those students are poor, marginalized rural residents.

The first tribal Asian to become a cardinal pointed to himself as "a living example" of the "empowering role of Catholic education in India." 

Speaking with UCA News later, Cardinal Toppo reiterated that he would not have become the head of the Indian Catholic Church if the church had not opened a school in his interior tribal village.

"Education is not a Christian charity, but a call and responsibility given by Jesus Christ," he insisted, explaining that Catholic education must promote peace and justice, liberate people from oppression and ignorance, and nurture Christian values. The church has to take its liberating mission more vigorously to villages, he said.

Citing a recent study on the impact of Catholic education in India, the cardinal noted that the poor form nearly 75 percent of the beneficiaries of Catholic educational institutions. Among them 46 percent are boys and 54 percent girls.

The Indian bishops' commission for education carried out the survey among 150 dioceses and 522 religious congregations that run educational institutions. According to the survey, only 23 percent of students studying in Catholic institutions are Catholics. 

Jesuit Father Savarimuthu Ignacimuthu, who gave the keynote address at the meeting, shared the cardinal's view. The priest, former vice chancellor for two universities in Tamil Nadu, said people "misunderstood" the church's education policy because of its stress on "academic excellence" and its apparent "pro-rich attitudes."

Though nearly 60 percent of church schools are in rural areas and serve the poor, the other institutions in cities and towns have created a negative image, he observed. Some Catholic institutions have become "money-making businesses" focusing only on academic excellence, and do not address the needs of nearly 350 million Indians who remain illiterate and for whom educational opportunities are closed.

Education should aim to make people civilized human beings, "conscious of moral and social responsibilities," possessing "right thinking," compassion, universal love and brotherhood, the priest said. He asserted that anything less is not Catholic education, so schools that do not foster Christian values and promote holistic formation cannot be called Catholic institutions.

Father Ignacimuthu asked Catholic educational institutions to come up with a vision statement based on Christian values. He urged the next plenary of the Indian bishops to pass a resolution instructing all Catholic educational institutions not to demand or accept money to admit students or to fill vacancies, a proposal that drew applause from the gathering.

Archbishop Malayappan Chinnappa of Madras-Mylapore told delegates the church in India has done much in the education field but still has to do more for the poor and marginalized, its target group. It is not enough to speak highly of "excellent alumni," the archbishop said. "We should also feel sorry for not creating such excellence from among the weakest."

Several delegates told UCA News they regret that the church keeps laypeople out of its education policy. 

"No church management dares to involve any laypeople in its policy matters," said Michael Castellino, who observed that the first people to criticize Church institutions often are Christians. The lay leader said Christians turn against their own institutions because they are treated as "recipients" of church services "instead of participants" in those services. 

The only way to improve the system, he maintained, is to involve the laity – especially parents of students and those working in the institutions – as collaborators in the church's mission. He said Catholic staff should not be seen as "mere paid workers."

Arumairaj, who teaches in the Jesuit college where Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam studied, said church institutions educated the smart and the rich with the hope they would serve society in return. But that does not happen in reality and many former students have become corrupt and selfish, he added.

Denzil B. Aikinson, a former member of parliament, said he wants the bishops' conference to form separate regional committees, with laypeople among the members, to screen candidates for education in the institutions.

Catholics should get top priority in admission to Catholic institutions, he proposed. Next should come the poor and socially disadvantaged, especially people of low-caste descent and tribal people, he added.