{"id":10922,"date":"2007-05-17T10:43:55","date_gmt":"2007-05-17T17:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/05\/17\/the-new-world.html"},"modified":"2007-05-17T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2007-05-17T17:43:55","slug":"the_new_world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/17\/the_new_world.html","title":{"rendered":"The New World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Benedict may be a learned theologian, but he’s not very good, it seems, at diplomacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were “silently longing” for Christianity, he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I will allow the benefit of the doubt that there may well have been priests and church leaders in the 15th-17th Centuries in the Americas who were sincerely interested in bringing people to the joys of salvation in a positive and constructive fashion.  And there may well have been at least some indigenous peoples or individuals who welcomed conversion to Christianity.<\/p>\n

That said, the role of the church — between the Pope’s demarcation of the New World between Spain and Portugal, the blessing of the conquistadors and enslavement of Indian tribes, and the destruction of various independent civilizations and their cultures through destruction and pillage and forceable conversion — is a shameful one.  Even if you posit it was a positive thing to spread Christianity through the New World, it happened under such violent circumstances in many cases that it is, at the last, impolitic to suggest it was all okay because the locals were “silently longing” for Christianity.<\/p>\n

While Pope John Paul II admitted that there had been mistakes in how the conversion of the New World had occured, the current pontiff has managed to tee off not only Native American peoples, but their supporters within the church.<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n

“We repudiate the Pope’s comments,” Tuxa said. “To say the cultural decimation of our people represents a purification is offensive, and frankly, frightening.<\/p>\n

“I think (the Pope) has been poorly advised.”<\/p>\n

Even the Catholic Church’s own Indian advocacy group in Brazil, known as Cimi, distanced itself from the Pope.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The LA Times has more on the speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[T]he pope said the New World’s indigenous population, “silently longing” for Christianity, had welcomed the teachings that “came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah … too bad it also in many cases destroyed them, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Benedict may be a learned theologian, but he’s not very good, it seems, at diplomacy. Outraged Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday they were offended by Pope Benedict’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128143,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/23\/pope-francis-is-a-catholic-pope-which-is-why-he-makes-american-pols-uncomfortable.html","url_meta":{"origin":10922,"position":0},"title":"Pope Francis is a Catholic Pope. 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