Wednesday, May 23, 2007

* The Pope Speaks, of Purification and Injustice

The Pope has spoken:

BRASILIA, May 14 (Reuters) - 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.

The Pope has spoken again:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters [May 23]) - Pope Benedict, under fire in Latin America for saying the Catholic Church had purified Indians, acknowledged on Wednesday that "unjustifiable crimes" were committed during the colonization of the Americas.

But he stopped short of apologizing [. . . .]

These two news items pretty much speak for themselves, given the hypocrisy of the Pope's subsequent (lack of) "apology." For among the "unjustifiable crimes" he admits to, on the part of the conquistadores, etc., the hemispheric deicide performed by Christian proselytizing "purifications" was as great a CRIME as any, and more significant, at last, than the "material" history of such episodes as Sand Creek and Wounded Knee.

1 comment:

mahnu.uterna said...

Good grief...The pope not apologizing for what the Spanish did in Latin America is one thing, but to say that the priests were *welcomed* is revisionist history at its ugliest. Icky!

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