UCAN, January 20, 2010 - Religious priests in India should move from traditional ministries to more “frontier ministries” to help create a new world order, says their leader.

Father Jose Panthaplamthottiyil, president of the priests section of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), wants the Religious to have a new “focus on the poor and the marginalized.”

Missioners in India traditionally served the educational and health needs of India, and built up educational institutions and hospitals.

As business houses have entered these fields, “it is time we moved to specific ministries” that directly help the poor, the homeless and the aged, the CRI official said.

He wants more congregations to start homes and ministries for orphans, destitute, homeless, street children and people with HIV/AIDS.

The priest said he would present this and other proposals at the forum’s executive meeting scheduled for Feb. 24.

Father Panthaplamthottiyil, superior general of the indigenous Carmelite of Mary Immaculate Congregation, said all sections of the Indian Religious should have a new focus on the poor in the country.

He wants Catholic educational institutions in India to set aside 25 present seats for the poor in collaboration with the government.

The Church has the largest private network of educational institutions in the country as it manages some 13,250 schools, 450 colleges and two universities for a total of 6.8 million students. The Religious manage most institutions.

Addressing the CRI’s national assembly last November in New Delhi, federal education minister Kapil Sibal invited India´s more than 125,000 Catholic Religious to help the government reach education to all.

Sibal said the government had passed a law to make education a fundamental right for all Indians. It plans to set up sufficient schools to serve all children in the 6-14 age group.

At present, 88 percent of children who start school do not complete the 12th grade, the minimum qualification required to join university.

The Religious should become more “welcoming” and approachable to people, which Father Panthaplamthottiyil said would help foster inter-religious relation and help their ministry among the poor.

The priest also said he would also ask the CRI apex body to search ways to involve more people in defending the human rights of tribal and dalit people who are exploited across India because of their poverty and social vulnerability.

The priest also wants the Religious to train their younger members stressing the Word of God to help them respond to the “aggressive evangelization” programs of neo-Christian and Pentecostal sects.