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Thousands mourn Indian Cardinal Telesphore Toppo at funeral Mass
2023-10-12T12:01:12+08:00Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo blesses refugee Christians at Barakhama in Kandhamal in January 2008. / Credit: Anto Akkara Ranchi, India, Oct 11, 2023 / 15:00 pm (CNA). Tens of thousands of mourners in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state in eastern India, bid farewell to Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo, Asia’s first tribal cardinal, Oct. 11 at a three-hour-long requiem Mass led by 27 bishops and attended by thousands.Toppo, an outspoken advocate for the exploited tribals and the poor, left a lasting legacy as was evidenced by the thousands of people at the funeral and those who lined the 18-mile route holding flowers in his honor the day before, on Oct. 10.At the funeral, Hemant Soren, chief minister of Jharkhand state, along with members of the cabinet and legislators laid white floral wreaths on the coffin, already draped with India’s national flag before a ceremonial gun salute by the police. Coffin of Cardinal Toppo drapped with Indian national flag. Credit: Anto AkkaraArchbishop Felix Toppo of Ranchi presided over the funeral service, which was interrupted by the Jharkhand government’s tribute to Cardinal Toppo, former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).Approximately 30,000 people assembled on the grounds of Loyola College and nearby St. Peter’s Seminary, and nearly 150,000 more watched the livestreamed funeral service across the country, while thousands more viewed the televised broadcast of the ceremony. Thousands attended the funeral of Cardinal Telesphore Toppo in Ranchi, India, on Oct. 11, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of Anto Akkara “The people were touched by our cardinal’s humility, simplicity, and social comment to the poor irrespective of their faith,” said Archbishop Felix Toppo, who had succeeded Cardinal Toppo as archbishop of Ranchi in 2018 after being transferred from Jamshedpur.Those who lined the funeral route came for a final glimpse of the 84-year-old Cardinal Toppo, who died on Oct. 4 at Father Constant Leavan’s Hospital in Mandar. His body was brought to St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ranchi in a solemn procession lasting more than four hours and accompanied by a cavalcade of 500 motorbikes and cars.Many more queued up at the cathedral on Oct. 11 from 3 p.m. until Toppo’s body was taken to the funeral service at the nearby Loyola College grounds where a massive tent with a capacity to seat more than 20,000 had been erected. While 27 bishops attended the funeral, most of the top leadership of the Church in India was missing, including four cardinals from India, due to the ongoing Synod of the Bishops at the Vatican.“Cardinal Toppo’s journey in the service of faith and humanity was one marked by humility, devotion, and unwavering commitment,” the CBCI had said in a press release soon after his passing. Hailing from an Oraon tribal family of eight children, Toppo was ordained as a priest in 1969 and appointed bishop of Dumka Diocese in 1978 after theological studies at Urbania College in Rome. He was elevated as archbishop of Ranchi in 1985.In 2003, Pope John Paul II named him a cardinal. Political commentators at the time remarked that the action was