Church in India Urges Catholics to Become Fully Indian and Fully Christian

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, urged Catholics to live their faith deeply within the nation’s culture, calling on the faithful “to be fully Indian and fully Christian”

BENGALURU, Karnataka  (Indian Catholic News) — The Latin rite Catholic bishops in India is calling on Catholics to live their faith deeply within the nation’s culture and values, with Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay urging the faithful “to become fully Indian and fully Christian.”

Inaugurating the 30th Plenary Assembly of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) of the Latin Church in Bengaluru on 4 February 2018, Cardinal Gracias, President of the CCBI emphasised that faith and national identity must go hand in hand. “The Catholic Church needs our nation and India needs the Church,” he said. “We will be discussing our role as Indian Christians and asking our people also to become better Indian Christians. This is the call of today to be fully Indian fully Christian,” he said in a CCBI press release issued February 5.

Cardinal Gracias highlighted that the Church’s mission is deeply intertwined with the moral and social development of the country. “Our responsibility is to make the gospel values present in society and make people not only think about but also discuss gospel values as an element of evangelization, be it eradication of corruption, spreading of gospel values, truth, justice, selflessness, removal of prejudices, exploitation of tribals and oppression of Dalits,” he said.

Emphasising the pastoral role of Church leaders, he added, “Pastors should smell the sheep and at the same time they should smell God.”

Cardinal Gracias, who also serves as President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and is a member of Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinals, was the principal celebrant at the inaugural Mass of the assembly. The celebration included the welcoming of newly ordained bishops into the conference, along with the felicitation of Silver and Golden Jubilarians marking priestly and episcopal anniversaries.

“The deceased members of the Conference were remembered with gratitude,” the official statement noted, adding that “a few moments of silence was maintained in their memory.”

The one-day meeting discussed pastoral, liturgical and social issues affecting the Latin Catholic Church in India, which comprises 132 dioceses and 183 bishops. The CCBI, recognised as the Canonical National Episcopal Conference, is “the largest in Asia and the fourth largest in the world.”

During the meeting, the “Rituals for Confirmation and Marriage were also released,” reflecting ongoing liturgical renewal efforts within the Indian Church.

Cardinal Gracias’s call to live faith in harmony with Indian identity encapsulated the assembly’s message. By urging the faithful “to be fully Indian fully Christian,” he underscored the Church’s enduring commitment to building a society rooted in justice, peace and Gospel values.