Red-Hat Burned. Twice.

As if the recent news from India's southwest wasn't harrowing enough, diagonally across the country, its first indigenous red-hat's taking some misplaced heat of his own:

A group of tribal people have burned effigies of Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi in eastern India, holding him responsible for a Protestant Bible they say insults their indigenous tribal religion.

Protesters on Sept. 22 shouted slogans against the prelate, the first Asian tribal cardinal. They blamed him for publication of the "anti-tribal Bible" and burned effigies of the Catholic leader in front of the Bishop's House in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand state, 1,160 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

They also threatened to burn copies of Nemha (holy) Bible. The Bible Society of India, a Protestant organization, published the Bible translation into the Oraon tribe's Kurukh dialect in 2000.

Manoj Lakra, a journalist, explained to UCA News that the protesters hold Cardinal Toppo, an Oraon himself, responsible for the Protestant translation because they do not understand denominational differences and consider the cardinal head of all tribal Christians in the state. The Catholic Church is by far the largest Christian group in the region, popular for its education and health services.

On Sept. 21, the protesting members of Kendriya Sarna Samiti (KSS, central Sarna committee), told members of the press in Ranchi they objected to the translation's rendering of "tree" as "sarna" in the Book of Deuteronomy. The passage they cited reads: "You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess have served their gods, on high mountains, on hills, under any spreading tree; you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their sacred poles, hack to bits the statues of their gods and obliterate their name from that place."

Sarna denotes the tribal worship place normally set under a tree. The word is also used to describe the community of non-Christian tribal people who follow the Sarna worship system.

KSS president Ajay Tirkey told reporters the translation was "derogatory" because "sarna is our holy place" and is an "unbearable offense for the entire tribal community." The KSS is considered to have the backing of pro-Hindu groups in the area.

Tirkey charged the translation was a "wrongful" attempt by Christian missioners "to put our religion in a bad light" in order to "facilitate conversions."

The group did not explain why they waited eight years since the translation was published to air their objections.

Cardinal Toppo told UCA News on Sept. 21 that the translated word "was wrong," but also that the Catholic Church does not belong to the Bible Society. The society's officials in the state, he added, have acknowledged the mistake and announced they will withdraw the bible. "Therefore this should not be made an issue," he added.

Soma Bhatkar, Bible Society secretary in Ranchi, told UCA News on Sept. 21 that they have "tendered unconditional apologies" to the tribal community and recalled copies from bookstores. She admitted the "mistake" but also said her society only helped print the Bible edition, not translate it.

Soon to turn 69, Toppo was elevated to the College in the consistory of 2003. A former president of the Indian bishops, the cardinal made the news earlier this year for throwing his support to the long-contested proposal for the Pope to solemnly define Mary as "spiritual mother of all humanity" and "co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all grace."

PHOTO: CAFOD

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Levada Speaks

In his first interview since arriving in Rome to take the reins of the CDF, Archbishop William Levada gave an extended encounter to Vatican Radio.

"It's a big change," the doctrinal enforcer said of his new responsibilities.

Levada was asked about his "read" of the reasons which led Benedict XVI to name him the highest-ranking American in the history of the Holy See. The interviewer said many people "were surprised" by his appointment to head the former Holy Office.

Many were surprised. I wasn't one of them. But here's what the man of the hour had to say.

"From my ten years as archbishop of a major metropolitan center, of commerce and of media in the United States, San Francisco, [I bring] a sense of the complex pastoral realities that a bishop faces.... The Pope wanted to get someone quickly into this office as his successor, because he knew that if this Congregation were left headless, you could say, for a long period of time, the work would not effectively go forward.... I think he found me because he had known me, I was a member of the Congregation, I had worked here, I think that he felt experience at this point was something that counted a lot for him."

On being informed of his appointment in an audience with the Pope on 3 May -- the same day this appeared -- Levada said he "gasped, and said, 'Holy Father, I'm not the person for that.' He said 'Yes you are,' and gave me his reasons."

Alongside Levada's experience factor (he spent six years as an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1976 until his 1982 ordination as an auxiliary bishop of his native Los Angeles), he offered that the Pope was also thinking of "The fact that the Congregation now has responsibility... for dealing with issues of sexual abuse of minors by priests, by clergy. That given the experience of that, the explosion of that, on the American scene over the past few years, my experience with that both as a local bishop and as a member of the mixed commission that was sent over here by our [US] Conference [of Catholic Bishops] to iron out some differences in our approach here with the Vatican; those things i think probably also may have said to him maybe it wouldn't be bad to have someone also who has this experience.

You know, somebody else said the same thing back in May, two days before the CDF appointment was announced....

Palmo noted that Levada has extensive experience dealing with the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. church.

"He has on-the-ground experience in the United States," Palmo said. "That is priceless."

Who has known the mind of Papa Ratzi, again?

Beyond his own duties, the Grand Inquisitor did offer up a pointed critique of a central element of the recently-concluded Synod of Bishops, saying that the 50 propositions presented for a vote on the floor of the Aula "didn't capture the very beautiful and inspiring interventions that many bishops gave from their experience around the world." Citing as an example the intervention of president-delegate Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi, India, the soon-to-be Cardinal-Prefect mentioned "The love for the Eucharist that missionaries would bring to that low-caste tribe: the idea that Christ would come to abide with [the people], to be with them and to give himself to them. What that did for their own sense of self-worth it gave them, how it transformed their culture.

"There's nothing of that in the propositions," he said.

Levada announced that, indeed, Benedict XVI will release a Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "over the next year," and expressed his hope that the Pope will "put something of those beautiful interventions into the work product that goes into [the final document]."

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