New World's indigenous groups fault pope's view of colonialism
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

Pope Benedict XVI's declaration in Brazil that colonial-era evangelization in the New World did not represent "the imposition of a foreign culture" has ignited a firestorm of criticism from indigenous representatives and the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia. Indigenous groups from Chile to Mexico have condemned the remarks as a revision of a history marked by massacres, enslavement and destruction of native cultures. For many in Latin America, the incident was reminiscent of provocative comments that the pope made last year about Islam, unleashing a wave of anger across the Muslim world. The response this time has been concentrated in the region, but analysts say the reaction again illustrates the pope's apparent tin ear for the often-provocative content of his discourse.

Despite a keen analytical mind, "Benedict can also be remarkably tone-deaf to how his pronouncements may sound to people who don't share his intellectual and cultural premises," wrote John L. Allen Jr., a Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, following the pope's five-day trip to Brazil in May. Benedict's comments came in a speech in the Brazilian shrine city of Aparecida on the final day of his first visit as pope to the Americas. The pope referred to the arrival of European explorers in the 15th century as an "encounter" between "faith and the indigenous people" of the New World. "The proclamation of Jesus and of His Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," Benedict declared. The people of the Americas, the pope said, had been "silently longing" for Christ "without realizing it," and willingly received a Holy Spirit "who came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them." The pope's analysis didn't mention the widely acknowledged violent side of the conquest, a theme that is at the heart of a resurgent indigenous movement in Latin America. Credible modern accounts of the conquest now include reference to the often barbarous treatment that Spanish and Portuguese overseers inflicted on native populations through colonial times.

"Surely the pope doesn't realize that the representatives of the Catholic Church of that era, with honorable exceptions, were complicit, accessories and beneficiaries of one of the more horrible genocides that humanity has seen," declared an Ecuadorean-based association of Quechua Indians, one of South America's largest indigenous groups. Benedict has in the past also recognized the sins of overzealous colonizers, and his comments in Brazil were apparently intended to celebrate Christianity as a faith for all humanity. But his manner of expressing those sentiments caused considerable consternation. A Peru-based alliance of Andean Indians, in an open letter to Benedict, wrote that the pope must know that "the so-called evangelization was violent," adding: "Any cult that wasn't Catholic was persecuted and cruelly repressed." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called publicly on the pope to apologize. " How can he say that the evangelization wasn't imposed, if they arrived here with arms and entered with blood, lead and fire," Chavez asked a radio and television audience recently. "The bones of the indigenous martyrs of these lands are still burning."

Animating Chavez's ire, many analysts say, is the fact that Benedict also singled out for criticism "authoritarian" tendencies, widely interpreted in Latin America as a broadside at Chavez, a leftist ex-colonel who has clashed frequently with the church hierarchy and labeled Christ "the greatest socialist in history." Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close Chavez ally who is Bolivia's first indigenous president, said it was time for the church to decide "if it was going to pray or make politics." Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera was among many contrasting the words and actions of Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, who made a point of meeting with indigenous representatives during his visits to the region, to the attitude of Benedict. John Paul II also recognized abuses done to indigenous Americans and to African slaves abducted and brought to the New World. " One would like to hear more of the generosity and comprehension of Juan Paul II," said Garcia Linera after Benedict's departure. "But at any rate, we remain with the words of John Paul II asking forgiveness of the indigenous communities."

Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2007

Pope acknowledges colonial abuses; Responding to an uproar in Latin America over earlier comments, he says the good outweighed the sins. By Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer

Confronted with continued anger in Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday acknowledged that the Christian colonization of Indian populations was not as rosy as he portrayed in a major speech earlier this month in Brazil. The pope did not apologize, as some indigenous and Latin American leaders have demanded. However, he said it was impossible to ignore the dark "shadows" and "unjustified crimes" that accompanied the evangelization of the New World by Roman Catholic priests in the 15th and 16th centuries. " It is not possible to forget the sufferings and injustices inflicted by the colonizers on the indigenous population, whose fundamental human rights were often trampled upon," the pope said. "Certainly, the memory of a glorious past cannot ignore the shadows that accompanied the work of evangelizing the Latin American continent." Still, he said, recognizing the sins should not detract from the good achieved by the missionaries: "Mentioning this must not prevent us from acknowledging with gratitude the marvelous work accomplished by the divine grace among these people in the course of these centuries," he said.

Benedict was addressing pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for his weekly public audience. Benedict made his first papal voyage to the Americas this month, visiting Brazil. In his final and most important speech of the five-day visit, he gave what many saw as a revisionist account of history. Indigenous populations, he said at the time, welcomed their European colonizers because they were "secretly longing" for Christ "without realizing it." Conversion to Christianity "did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he said. The pope made no mention of forced conversions, epidemic illnesses, massacres, enslavement and other abuses that most historians agree accompanied colonization.

Indigenous rights groups, plus the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, were incensed. The episode is the latest in which the pope, elucidating a theological point he firmly believes, made statements that appeared to ignore or disregard cultural and historical sensitivities. The most explosive example occurred last year when, during a speech on faith and reason in Germany, he quoted comments by a Byzantine emperor widely seen as insulting to Islam. The speech triggered rage across the Muslim world, prompting the pope to make several subsequent statements, not apologizing for what he said but saying he was sorry for the reaction his words had caused.