Best for the Least
The Bible, as the history of liberation from repression, crystallizes that the rights of the poor are the rights of God. It has now dawned on the Jesuits the realization that the poor have opted for the Church before the Church ever opted for the poor. In the context of Indian social caste system the Catholic Dalits (those reduced to be “untouchables”) and the rural poor are discriminated against in many ways. Through three millennia of bonded-labor and suppression as outcasts, they are reduced to economically impoverished, socially neglected, religiously disregarded, and politically marginalized. It is in this context that the Jesuits, in the backdrop of the global perception, conviction and option, took their stand for the rural poor and the socially marginalized, namely the Dalits, the Tribal etc in their empowerment mission.
Login to read more
The author is the Founder of Loyola Institute of Frontier Energy (LIFE). He is the Gasson Professor at Boston College, USA, for the academic year 2017-2018. He is the Global Vice President for Academics and Research in Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL) in Geneva.
