BANGALORE, India (UCAN) -- Christians have democratized education in India, which, in turn, has helped expose social evils in the country, a Church leader says.

"The Church used education to open the horizon of knowledge for all," Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi declared at the opening session of the 27th biennial plenary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI). Education was "a guarded preserve of a few elite" up to the 19th century, the cardinal noted in his remarks on Feb. 8.

"Catholic education and the Church's concern for the marginalized" is the theme of the eight-day meeting of some 160 bishops, representing India's 157 dioceses, and 45 other Church officials. The conference has 210 members. Its plenary is being held in Bangalore, 2,060 kilometers south of New Delhi.

Cardinal Toppo, leader of India's 17 million Catholics, said the Church's contribution to education has had "a direct impact" on aspects of the country's society and culture.

According to him, these efforts to provide education to all, "irrespective of caste, color or creed," have done much to democratize education and create awareness of certain social evils, such as the centuries-old practice of discriminating among people on the basis of their caste.

The prelate, the first tribal cardinal from Asia, said the Church's involvement in education has helped tribal and low-caste people to compete with members of higher castes on more equal terms, political participation included. He noted that he is a product of a college Jesuit missioners set up in 1944 in Ranchi, the nerve center of the tribal Church in eastern India.

The Church has not only brought modern education to India but also introduced technical and vocation education, the cardinal pointed out. He said early European missioners were aware of the limitations of "purely academic education," and they searched for opportunities to "vocationalize" education in order to equip students with skills that would bring them jobs.

The Church also introduced women's education in India, which triggered social transformation in the country, Cardinal Toppo said. "The importance attached by the Church to women's education," he continued, "has been one of the major elements (supporting) the enlightenment of Indian women of all religions, castes and regions in modern times."

The cardinal saluted the pioneering missioners in tribal areas for opening schools in villages before putting up churches for converts. "Due to this policy, a fine network of Christian schools came up all over the mission of Chotanagpur," he said. Chotanagpur is the old name for the tribal region in eastern India that is now divided among the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

Another region where Christian education has brought revolutionary changes is in northeastern India, where education of women was "practically unknown" when missioners arrived there in the late 19th century, Cardinal Toppo said. Now female literacy there "compares favorably" with the rest of India.

The cardinal added that Christian education has transformed tribal societies, and helped widen their outlook and change their behavioral patterns. This new identity for tribal people has helped them adjust to "rapid social, economic and political changes" in modern life, he declared.

Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore, host of the plenary, reminded the participants that Catholic education would have no meaning if it did not help students imbibe Christian values.

He recalled that the bishops in India formed their conference in Bangalore, capital of Karnataka state, in 1944, some years before the Vatican decreed that local Churches should set up national episcopal conferences. The Indian bishops held their first plenary in 1950, also in Bangalore, which has been tagged the "Rome of the East" in Indian Church circles for having the largest number of Catholic religious and educational institutions in the country.

Archbishop Moras, who helped formulate a pastoral plan for the Church in Karnataka, urged fellow prelates to admit all the poor into their educational institutions. He underscored education as the key for individual and societal development.

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