GET THE INFORMATION AND FACTS FROM INTERNATIONAL SOURCES:

Brazil's Indians offended by Pope comments

By Raymond Colitt

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.

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 John Paul spoke in 1992 of mistakes in the evangelization of native peoples of the Americas.

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."

Pope Called Insensitive and Arrogant for Remarks on Brazilian Indians

Written by Newsroom   

Tuesday, 15 May 2007

Brazil's National Indian Foundation (Funai),Brazilian historians and the Indians themselves challenged pope Benedict XVI's declarations on the Christianization of the Brazil's natives. The pope talked about the subject at the opening of the 5th General Conference of the Latin-American and Caribbean Episcopate (CELAM), in Brazil.

"The preaching about Jesus and his Gospel didn't imply, in any moment, an alienation of the pre-Colombian cultures, nor was it an imposition of a foreign culture," Benedict XVI declared.

For the acting president of Funai (National Indian Foundation),  Aloysio Antonio Castelo Guapindaia, the pontiff's positions don't correspond to the reality of what occurred in Brazil. "Certainly there was an imposition of religion in order to subjugate the local populations," Guapindaia said.

Waldir Rampinelli, an expert in Latin America history, who is a professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), the pope's statement ignores history: "Of course his declaration makes no sense. To deny this is to deny the obvious. The pope should read Bartolomé de Las Casas."

De Las Casas, who lived from 1472 to 1566, was a friar who defended the Indians and chronicled America's conquest by the European. He's believed to be the first European to concede that Indians were human. According to Rampinelli, the pope's declaration shows that the Church hasn't evolved in its knowledge of and respect for other cultures.

Brazilian Indians, on the other hand, have reacted with anger to Pope Benedict XVI's claim that their ancestors had been "silently longing" to become Christians when Brazil was colonized 500 years ago.

Jecinaldo Sateré Mawé of the Amazonian Sateré Mawé tribe called the Pope's remarks "arrogant and disrespectful."

Today, the indigenous population of Brazil is less than 7% of what it was in 1500. Of a thousand distinct tribes, only about 220 remain.

The Catholic Church's Indian advocacy group in Brazil has called the Pope's statement, 'wrong and indefensible'. Before the Pope made his comments, Indian leaders had written to him about the threats they continue to face, and expressed their gratitude for the support of missionaries and the church in Brazil in fighting for their rights.

Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, "It is tragic that unlike previous popes who have visited Brazil, His Holiness did not meet with Indian leaders, and made no public reference to the genocide visited upon the indigenous peoples of Brazil over the past 500 years."