Pope rationalizes genocide
May 16th, 2007
The Pope in Brazil implicitly defended the genocide of indigenous peoples as a fulfillment of those peoples “silent longings”:
Outraged Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday they were offended by Pope Benedict’s “arrogant and disrespectful” comments that the Roman Catholic Church had purified them and a revival of their religions would be a backward step.
In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were “silently longing” for Christianity, he said.
Millions of tribal Indians are believed to have died as a result of European colonization backed by the Church since Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, through slaughter, disease or enslavement.
Many Indians today struggle for survival, stripped of their traditional ways of life and excluded from society.
“It’s arrogant and disrespectful to consider our cultural heritage secondary to theirs,” said Jecinaldo Satere Mawe, chief coordinator of the Amazon Indian group Coiab.
Several Indian groups sent a letter to the Pope last week asking for his support in defending their ancestral lands and culture. They said the Indians had suffered a “process of genocide” since the first European colonizers had arrived.
Priests blessed conquistadors as they waged war on the indigenous peoples, although some later defended them and many today are the most vociferous allies of Indians.
“The state used the Church to do the dirty work in colonizing the Indians but they already asked forgiveness for that … so is the Pope taking back the Church’s word?” said Dionito Jose de Souza a leader of the Makuxi tribe in northern Roraima state….
Pope Benedict not only upset many Indians but also Catholic priests who have joined their struggle, said Sandro Tuxa, who heads the movement of northeastern tribes.
“We repudiate the Pope’s comments,” Tuxa said. “To say the cultural decimation of our people represents a purification is offensive, and frankly, frightening.
“I think (the Pope) has been poorly advised.”
Even the Catholic Church’s own Indian advocacy group in Brazil, known as Cimi, distanced itself from the Pope.
“The Pope doesn’t understand the reality of the Indians here, his statement was wrong and indefensible,” Cimi advisor Father Paulo Suess told Reuters. “I too was upset.”
The question I have is is the the Pope “poorly advised” or simply evil, putting the institutional interests of the Catholic Church above all human sentiments? After all, this Pope is known as a historian and scholar. It is virtually impossible to imagine him as ignorant of the precise meaning of his words. He seems to believe that a life lived outside the Church is simply not worth living. If one believes the Church has a pipeline to the TRUTH, such a conclusion is certainly understandable. Of course, its the assumption that needs questioning.
Entry Filed under: Culture, Human Rights, Mortality, Religion
1 Comment Add your own
1. Dan | May 18th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Would you care to cite any evidence that the Catholic Church engaged in forced conversions or had anything whatsoever to do with any alleged “genocide” in Latin America? Lefties make this baseless claim based on this:
http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/analysis/details.php?content=2004-02-26
Insofar as the above link concerns the Church, it has the following:
“There was also a ’subtle kind of cultural genocide’ committed by the Spanish missions which abounded in Mexico, California, Louisiana and elsewhere. Lemkin notes that ‘while most of the Indians may not have been converted by actual force, it may well be assumed that they had little idea of either Christianity or the life and burdens in store for them after baptism’. Once they yielded to the admonitions of the fathers, their fate was sealed, they could no longer escape from the reach of the church, or the mission. The missionaries, for example in a church in San Francisco, gave mass in Latin and Spanish, and made no effort to learn the native tongue.”
Celebrating Mass in Latin and Spanish but not the Indians’ native tongue is “genocide”??? And this is from a far left source and, as such, is I assume the most inculpating evidence that exists against the Church. The brutality of the pre-Christian Indian cultures was, everyone agrees, horrifying — human sacrifices, brutal slavery, mass killings, etc. No wonder the Indians converted so readily when they were told of Christ. Pope Benedict was right.
Where a better case that a serious crime was committed against the native Indians was committed is precisely where the Catholic Church did not predominate: North America. Ever wonder why still today one sees native Americans all over Latin America but not North America? It is because the Americans either killed the Indians or shunted them off to reservations. In Latin America, by contrast, the Church demanded humane treatment of the Indians as She sought to save their precious souls.
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