旁觀者 「義憤填膺的巴西印第安人表示：他們被本篤十六世的『驕傲自大及不尊重的』言論激怒了，教酋說羅馬教會潔淨了他們，但這種宗教的反向是一倒退行為。 在訪問巴西後期，教酋在對拉丁美洲及加勒比主教的演說中，胡言教會從?將教會文化強加於美洲土著身上。 他說：美洲土著歡迎歐洲傳教士在征服時期的到來，因為他們『悄悄地渴望』信仰基督教。 其實，自1492年哥倫布登陸美洲以來，由於歐洲殖民主義在教會的支持下，數以百萬計印第安人死於屠殺、疾病及奴役。 許多印第安人傳統的生活方式被剝奪，至今仍掙扎求存，並被排斥於社會之外。」（節譯自路透社2007.5.14巴西利亞訊） http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1428799220070514 參考資料： Brazil's Indians offended by Pope comments Raymond Colitt BRASILIA Mon May 14, 2007 3:15pm EDT RELATED NEWS Pope's stern words fail to persuade all Brazilians Reuters Mon, May 14 2007 BRASILIA (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. World 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." Venezuela’s President Chavez Tells Pope to Apologize to Indigenous Peoples委內瑞拉總統 Hugo Chavez 要求教宗本篤十六世為有關言論向拉丁美洲原住民道歉。 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2392 Published on May 21st 2007, by Chris Carlson - Venezuelanalysis.com Merida, May 21, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez called on Pope Benedict XVI to apologize to the indigenous people of Latin America for his comments on the evangelization of the region. During an official visit to Brazil last week, the Pope defended the evangelization of the indigenous people of Latin America, claiming that Christianity had not been "imposed" upon them. Chavez disputed this in a speech Friday night, calling on his nation to challenge the old capitalist hegemony and create a new society. In a nationally broadcast speech at an event in Caracas, Chavez criticized the Pope's remarks and asked him to "offer an apology to the people of our America." "How can the Pope say that the evangelization was not imposed," said Chavez. "Then why did our indigenous people have to flee to the jungles and the mountains?" he asked. Pope Benedict XVI made the remarks last week during his first visit to Latin America. While in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Pope claimed that Christianity was not "imposed by a foreign culture" on the pre-Columbian cultures, but rather that these populations where "silently yearning" to be converted to Christianity. The pope went on to criticize the resurgence of pre-Columbian religions in the region, calling them "a regression." President Chavez called these statements into question, accusing the Pope of ignoring what he called the holocaust of the colonial era, in which millions of people were killed by war, disease and slavery, with the support of the Catholic Church. "What happened here was much worse than the holocaust in the Second World War, and no one can deny us that reality," said Chavez. "Not even his Holiness can come here to our land and deny the holocaust of the indigenous people." Chavez referred to the work of the Spanish Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas, who denounced the genocide of the indigenous people in the 16th Century. "Christ came to America much later. He didn't arrive with Columbus, the anti-Christ came with Columbus," stated Chavez, who went on to ask the Pope to apologize for his error. "Just like the Catholic Church has recognized errors, as a descendant of those martyr Indians that died by the millions, I ask, with all respect, your Holiness, apologize, because here there was a real genocide," Chavez pleaded. Giving birth to the new, burying the old Chavez went on to emphasize in his speech on Friday the need to replace the old sociopolitical structures that oppose the construction of a new society. Chavez spoke of the double task of the revolution to give birth to a new counter-hegemony, as well as the necessity of burying the old. "Those of us who push for the birth of the new, we have a doubly historic task: we are the creators of the new, but also we must be those who bury the old," said Chavez. Paraphrasing the renowned Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci, Chavez spoke of the imperial hegemony imposed on South American nations, and the need to challenge this hegemony. "Real historic crises happen when there is something that is going to die, but has not quite died, and at the same time there is something new being born, but it hasn't quite been born yet," he said. Chavez referred to the policies of the United States and the use of the School of the Americas to train Latin American armies to torture and kill their own people, using as an example the Caracazo massacre in Venezuela in 1989. "They turned us against our own people, to massacre them, many times, they used us. The Caracazo was the ultimate tragedy of that history," he said. Chavez also responded to recent accusations of "politicizing" the military due to the use of the new slogan "socialism, homeland, or death," among military ranks. "Socialism is a concept that goes much further than a political party, it is a national concept, it is a national project," he said. |