St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ranchi

RANCHI, India (UCAN) — Tribal Christians, including Protestants, credit a Catholic cathedral for fostering their faith for a century in the eastern Chotanagpur region.

Even Hindus respect St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ranchi, says Father Lucas Tirkey, the cathedral’s former parish priest. Many come to pray in the church regularly, while others stand outside, or on the road, joining their hands and bowing their heads, he added.

Various Church figures shared their views on the cathedral in the wake of its centennial celebrations held last month.

The cathedral “has become a shrine for the tribal church,” said Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi, who celebrated the special jubilee Mass on Oct. 4.

The Church in the region, which comprises largely tribal people, has grown “enormously” and 11 dioceses in the region now trace their roots to the cathedral, Cardinal Toppo told UCA News.

Tribal Catholics from Chotanagpur now play “a key role in the Church in India,” he said. Cardinal Toppo, Asia’s first tribal cardinal, said the Chotanagpur Church had produced thousands of priests and nuns who now work in various parts of the world.

Jesuit missioners from Belgium built the cathedral in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand state, as the region’s first Catholic church. It was consecrated in 1909. Cultural programs were also held to mark the occasion.

Tribal people perform a traditional dance at the start of the special jubilee Mass

Bishop Nelson Lakra, the chief executive of the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church, also paid tribute to the cathedral’s position in the community.

“St. Mary’s Cathedral is not simply a structure of bricks and sand but a milestone of Christian faith journey,” he told UCA News, adding that it “is a door of salvation for many.”

Auxiliary Bishop Binay Kandulna of Ranchi says the cathedral has become “the symbol of our faith, evangelization and identity of the Catholic Church in the region.” The church has played “a very important role” not only in the local Catholics’ spiritual growth but also in the socioeconomic and intellectual advancement of the region, he said.

The cathedral holds the remains of Belgian Father Constant Lievens (1856-1893), a Jesuit missioner whom the tribal Church reveres as the “apostle of Chotanagpur.”

Father Lievens worked more than seven years in Chotanagpur and left India for his homeland in 1893. When he left, the region had 36,000 Catholics. During his stay in India he visited hundreds of villages around Ranchi and evangelized thousands of tribal people.

The first Christian group to arrive in the region, however, were Lutheran missioners in the 1840s. The region now has 10 major Christian denominations with more than 1.2 million Catholics and 300,000 Protestants.