Telesphore Toppo

Telesphore Placidus Toppo (15 October 1939 – 4 October 2023) was an Indian prelate of the Catholic Church and a member of the aboriginal tribal community who was archbishop of the Archdiocese of Ranchi from 1985 to 2018, after serving as coadjutor there for a year. He was bishop of Dumka from 1978 to 1984. He was made a cardinal in 2003, the first from India's tribal population.

A polyglot, Toppo spoke Sadri, Oraon (mother tongues), Hindi (official language), English and Italian.

Biography
Telesphore Placidus Toppo was born in Chainpur, in the state of Bihar and now in Jharkhand, India, on 15 October 1939, the eighth of ten children. He and his family belonged to Adivasi (indigenous tribal) community.

Toppo studied at St. Xavier's College, Ranchi, and theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. He was ordained priest on 3 May 1969 by Bishop Franz von Streng.

After a stint at Torpa (Jharkhand), as Headmaster of St Joseph's School and Director of the Lievens Vocational Center, Toppo was named Bishop of Dumka and received his episcopal consecration on 7 October 1978 from Archbishop Pius Kerketta SJ. He was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Ranchi, capital of the Jharkhand state, on 8 November 1984. He became Archbishop there on 7 August 1985.

Toppo was made cardinal-priest by Pope John Paul II on 21 October 2003, given the titular church of Sacro Cuore di Gesù agonizzante a Vitinia. He was the third cardinal from India, the first Adivasi and the first tribal Indian. He said the title of cardinal was a "mark of distinction for the tribal Church in India and recognition of its growth".

Toppo was elector at the 2005 papal conclave that elected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.

Toppo was elected to serve a two-year term president of Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on two occasions, in 2004 and 2006. He also served as president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, made up of Latin Rite bishops only, from 2001 to 2004 and from 2011 to 2013.

At the Synod of Bishops in 2008, he endorsed ecumenical efforts but warned against "dilution of the Truth" and called for agreement on a common date for the celebration of Easter. At the Synod on the New Evangelization in 2012, he called on religious orders to commit themselves anew to missionary work.

Toppo was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that selected Pope Francis.

On 11 February 2008, he called for the proclamation of a new Marian dogma on Mary, Mediatrix of graces, Co-Redemptrix of humanity, with Jesus as sole and unique mediator.

Toppo sat on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute.

Pope Francis accepted Toppo's resignation as Archbishop of Ranchi on 24 June 2018, announcing as his successor Felix Toppo, Bishop of Jamshedpur.

Telesphore Toppo died at the Constant Lievens Hospital & Research Center in Ranchi, on 4 October 2023, at the age of 83.