Lenten campaign 2026
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On February 7, during its 37th general meeting, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) elected Hyderabad archbishop Cardinal Anthony Poola as its new conference president. Cardinal Poola succeeds Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur, a bishop of the Syro-Malabar Church. The election of Cardinal Poola, by secret ballot, is seen as a powerful witness to unity among Indian Catholics at a time when the Church there faces heightened challenges.
Cardinal Poola is a Dalit, a member of the lowest traditional Indian social order. Under the long-outlawed caste system, Dalits (the word means "crushed" or "broken") were outcasts and "untouchables," subject to exploitation and oppression. Cardinal Poola acknowledges that while much progress has been made, Dalits and other marginalized groups continue to face struggles.
As Aleteia noted, Poola is the first "untouchable" cardinal. Crux reports he is also the first cardinal to speak Telugu, the language of nearly a million people in India's India’s Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.
"There is no partiality in God"
Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur, who chairs the CBCI Office of Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes, told Crux: “Bishops have sent a clear and prophetic message to those who still have the tail of casteism with them (both perpetrators and victims), that Dalits and Tribals can be leaders in the Church at all levels.”
“There is no partiality in God,” he said.
In his message upon being elected, Cardinal Poola thanked his brother bishops and all Indian Catholics for their prayers.
“I receive this office with humility,” Poola said, “conscious that leadership in the Church is a service rooted in listening, prayer, and shared discernment.”
Poola also committed himself to work with other newly-elected officials “for the unity of the Churches in India, the unity of Christians, and a deeper unity with the people of our nation.”
“In a time marked by division, violence, and growing social tensions,” Poola said, “the Church is called to be a sign of reconciliation, dialogue, and hope.”
Chicago connections
While he was appointed archbishop and named a cardinal by Pope Francis, Cardinal Poola has something in common with Pope Leo XIV, too. As The Indian Express reports:
From 2001 to 2003, he pursued higher studies in the United States, earning a Master’s degree in pastoral care and attending a theology course at Loyola University, Chicago, while offering pastoral ministry at Saint Genevieve Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Looking to the future
Cardinal Poola assumes the leadership of the CBCI at a charged moment. Not only are there the challenges of serving Indian Catholics of three different rites -- Poola, a Latin Rite cardinal, has representatives of the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankar Churches on his team -- but this is also a precarious time for all Indian Christians. Several Indian states have enacted anti-conversion laws, and attacks on religious freedom, a constant for many decades, are growing.
The election of the first Dalit bishops' conference president raises high hopes even amid the challenges. Nowhere is this more true than among Dalit Catholics, who take a cautiously optimistic view. The Dalit Christian Digest writes:
For Dalit Catholics, his election carries the promise — still fragile, still unfolding — of a Church more willing to confront its own contradictions. For the wider Catholic community, it offers an opportunity to reimagine leadership not as inheritance, but as vocation.
Whether this historic moment leads to deeper transformation within the Indian Church remains to be seen. But for now, Cardinal Poola Anthony’s rise stands as a powerful reminder that voices once pushed to the margins can, at times, find their way to the center—carrying with them the hopes of many who have long waited to be seen.
