“We have faced discrimination and marginalization within the Church as well as in civil society for the past several decades,” said Father Z. Devasagaya Raj, former secretary of the Indian bishops’ office for Dalits (once more commonly known as “untouchables”).

The demand for a separate rite, similar to the rites of the existing Eastern Catholic churches, was made in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu (map), the site of summer protests over the failure to appoint Dalit bishops.