DHAKA, Bangladesh – Catholics in Bangladesh are criticizing the Vatican’s recent Jubilee of Catechists because they feel that lay members were not given importance, and that only priests, sisters, and other religious were highlighted.

Hubert Sony Ratna criticized the September 26-28 event on Facebook, saying that although it was a Jubilee of Catechists, clerics were the only ones visible, so that the majority of catechists, who are laity, was ignored.

“I don’t think a catechist from the Bangladesh church has been selected to participate in this Jubilee, because the catechists are poor and poorly educated. Their contribution to the Bangladesh church will not end even if written in gold letters, but there is no opportunity for them,” Ratna stated on Sep.23.

“There are also priests coming who won’t be able to afford the return plane ticket, maybe they’re using money from the Church…!!! The Catholic Church of Bangladesh is a museum of discrimination,” he wrote in the post.

Around 90 percent of the South Asian nation is Muslim, with 7.95 percent being Hindu, 0.6 percent Buddhist, and just 0.3 percent being Christian – just about 500,000 people in a nation of 170 million.

When contacted by Crux, Ratan said, “Any conscious person will say that the contribution of lay Catechists to the Bangladeshi church is outstanding, but they are deprived of everything.”

He said the Church should have given more to the jubilee for catechists from poor countries such as Bangladesh.

Church sources say Bangladesh has approximately 300 catechists are providing service in eight dioceses, most of them lay Catholics.

They provide a vital role, these sources say, from the hilly area of the country to the plain lands. Among other things, the catechists of Bangladesh conduct various religious activities in the absence of priests in parishes, including leading prayers, providing religious education, and preparing Catholics for sacraments.

Crux has contacted three catechists from three dioceses who said they didn’t receive an offer from the church to join the Jubilee of Catechists. One said he wanted to join the jubilee but was prohibited by travel expenses.

“We are poor and working as catechists with a low wage. So, we had no capacity to join the Jubilee at the Vatican. If the Church had helped us, we could have joined and [it would have been] a lifetime achievement,” he said.

Many Catholics responded to Ratan’s Facebook criticizing the Church.

Ted Setu Ghosh, a Catholic, noted the monthly salary of catechists in the poor country seems to be no more than $67, which, he wrote, is less than the cost of a good bottle of scotch for a local priest in the Diocese of Khulna.

“I know a local priest whose Square Hospital bill is like $82,000 in 2 months. Whose money is this? Why does no one take a catechist to the Square? Why, brother? Catechists can’t drink alcohol, right?” Ghosh wrote.

However, Bishop James Romen Boiragi – Episcopal Commission for Catechetics and Biblical (EC-CBA) chairman – denied the allegations.

“On behalf of the Church, only the Pontifical Mission Societies and the Youth Commission participated in the pilgrimage as a team. The Catholic Priests and Sisters participated in the Jubilee on their own responsibility, the Church did not provide any assistance to anyone,” he said.

The prelate from the Khulna diocese also told Crux the Italian embassy in Dhaka limited the issuance of visas for the jubilee and asked the Vatican not to make additional requests. For that reason, the church did not make any requests to the Italian embassy, which imposed the limits because some Bangladeshis have traveled to Italy on other occasions and never returned.