Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8187 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Brazil's Indians Offended by Pope Comments
Quote:
By Raymond Colitt
Reuters
Monday, May 14, 2007; 3:15 PM
BRASILIA - 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.
I don't consider them Indian in Brazil, culturally at least, I do think it shows a great lack of historical understanding and ignorance on the Churches behalf, or maybe there trying to rewrite history verbally because thats all it takes these days.
