The future of the Church depends on “tribals and those who are working among them in northeast and central India,” said  a senior Church official yesterday.

Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, was speaking at a mission congress in Shillong, capital of the north eastern state of Meghalaya.

The three-day event, which concluded yesterday, aimed at training laity in evangelization.

More that 1,500 delegates from 15 dioceses took part in the program. They included academics, businessmen, social and health workers.

Cardinal Toppo exhorted the participants to be “authentic Catholics.”

“Be what you are wherever you are. That is the way to evangelize. Jesus must be able to live in us. Non-Christian brethren ought to see Jesus in us,” he added.