| Indian Tribalism, The Communist-Missionary Ideal For Brazil in The Twenty-First Century |
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| Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira |
| Wednesday, 30 November 1977 15:00 |
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Introduction
A Look at a Tribal Future In the cultural wars engulfing the nation, one often wonders what is the final long-term goal of the other side. The liberal attack on Christian civilization is so intense that there must be some kind of goal. And yet, it is very unclear as to what kind of civilization is to replace Christian civilization. Leftist ideologues have long pointed to an ideal stateless society with total freedom and total equality. This anarchical ideal, which forsees no government at all, leads one to ask if it is a simple matter of trading civilizations. Looking at the writings of many postmodern authors, civilization itself seems to be the target. Indeed, civilization is the target. Hierarchical models are being pulled down. Morals, effort and restraint are losing ground. In business, education, culture and so many other fields, the tribal archetype is appearing ever more frequently. Companies encourage workers to work together as a tribe. Youth get together and socialize as tribes. Even some religious worship has taken on tribal overtones. The breakdown of old structures and old morals opens the way for this transformation. "The New Tribal Revolution is an escape route from the prison of our culture," writes Daniel Quinn in his 1999 book, Beyond Civilization, Humanity 's Next Great Adventure. He continues: "The tribal life wasn't something humans sat down and figured out. It was the gift of natural selection, a proven success - not perfection but hard to improve on. Hierarchalism, on the other hand, has proven to be not merely imperfect but ultimately catastrophic for the earth and for us." What is this tribal ideal that goes beyond civilization? What are its characteristics? What is the philosophy behind it? Who supports it? What exactly is the long-term goal? These are the questions answered by this fascinating study, now published online for the first time. Indian Tribalism, the Communist-Missionary Ideal for Brazil in the Twenty-First Century by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira is a study of these trans-civilized goals. Set in the seventies, Prof. de Oliveira took issue with a whole school of missionary ideologues who found the primitive Indian tribalism in Brazil to be a model for all society. This same school vehemently attacked Christian civilization as a source of social evils. "We have only to learn from the Indians," claimed these missionaries as they extolled the nudity, community of goods and mysticism of the primitive tribes. Today, the ideas of these avant-garde missionaries are approaching mainstream and Prof. de Oliveira's study shows his extraordinary foresight and takes on a new timeliness. His masterly defense of Christian civilization is a perfect antidote to those who would impose communal tribal values on what is left of Christian civilization. *** Part I The Traditional Catholic Concept of the Missions The end is to evangelize. If the reader were to scan, even casually, the texts in Part IIII - taken predominantly from "up-to-date" missionary sources - he will note here and there ideas that will shock him. This certainly would not have happened years ago, if he had had some exposure to missionary literature that was not "up-to-date." The contrast illustrates a radical modification in mission doctrine. For some time now, this modification has deeply penetrated Brazilian missionary circles, where it spreads with the discretion and speed of an oil slick. As we shall see, this transformation interests not only specialists, but it profoundly affects the future of the Church and the country, and thus everyone should be alerted to it. This transformation is aimed at producing a dangerous wave in the world of the jungle, a wave which would join a yet greater one to be introduced into the cities and cultivated lands. In this manner, the whole country can be touched in some way. 1. Concept of The Mission In the missiological doctrine of the Catholic Church, nearly twenty centuries old, the concept of the Catholic mission, its aims, and its methods are perfectly defined. Since this doctrine corresponds with the way of understanding and feeling of the average Catholic reader, we can already be certain that the following paragraphs will not shock anyone. On the contrary, they will seem quite normal. Mission comes from the Latin word "missio," from "mitto," that is, "I send." The missionary is thus someone who is sent (bishop, priest and by extension, a religious or a layman). The missionary is one sent by the Church in the name of Jesus Christ, whom he represents, to non-Catholic peoples in order to bring them true Faith.
2. The Highest End of The Mission: Essentially Religious - The Glory of God and Eternal Happiness The Church teaches that the normal way for a man to be saved consists in being baptized, in believing and professing the doctrine and law of Jesus Christ. To draw men to the Church is therefore to open the gates of heaven for them. It is to save them. This is the purpose of the mission.
3. Effects of The Mission in Temporal Life a) Order Indeed, God created the universe in a sublime and immutable order. And since man is the king of this universe, this order is admirable above all in what relates to Him. The precepts of the natural order are expressed in the Ten Commandments (Cf. Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, Ia. Ilac. Q. 100, aa 3 and 11), confirmed by Our Lord Jesus Christ ("I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it." Matt. 5,17). and perfected by Him (Matt. 5, 17-48; John 13,34). Now the observance of order, in any sphere of the universe, is the condition necessary not only for its conservation but also for its progress. This is true above all for living beings and particularly for men. b) The greatness and well-being of nations To christianize and to civilize are thus correlated terms. It is impossible to christianize seriously without civilizing. Likewise and reciprocally, it is impossible to de-christianize without disordering, brutalizing and forcing a return to barbarity.
4. The Mission and The Indians a) Contact with Jesus Christ It is fitting to insist: while it is proper for christianized and civilized man to progress continuously in the upright and free exercise of his intellectual and physical activities, the Indian is a slave of stagnant immobility which, from time immemorial, has hindered all possibilities of true progress for him. Presenting himself to the Indian, the true missionary of Jesus Christ has the right to say, "Cognoscetis veritatem, et veritas liberabit vos" ("You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free") (John 8,32). b) Contact with Modern Neo-Paganism c) A troubling problem
5. An Impossible Solution for The Missionary: To Do Nothing a) The power of Our Lord Jesus Christ over upright souls b) Contact with Western Civilization Hence it should be concluded that it would be thoughtless, simplistic, and even fanatic to claim that, in contact with Western Civilization, the Indians have nothing to gain and everything to lose. c) Influence of the true priest If the Indian sees in the missionary this valiant attitude of discernment and struggle, he will have the grace and the good example to benefit from this civilization without being corrupted by it. d) A futile problem e) The Communist agitator, the Missionary of Satan The example of Africa shows how earnestly international Communism strives to take advantage of aboriginal tribes. Who can guarantee that Communism will not sooner or later try the same with non-civilized Indians, or with those who may become civilized? Moreover - it is painful to say - who can guarantee that Communism, once having infiltrated Catholic circles, will not use bishops, priests, or religious whose sympathy it may have gained to influence the Indians?
PART II The "Aggiornata"* and Progressive Conception of the Missions The end is to retrocede, The missiology that boasts of being "up-to-date" and progressivist is very different from the traditional Catholic conception of the missions. This can be found by analyzing some of its principal aspects, such as those which are inferred from reading the adjoining texts (Part III), collected mainly from episcopal documents and missionary publications.1 * "Aggiornata" ("Aggiornate ") - Italian word meaning 'up-to-date." 1. Main Goal of "Aggiornata" Missiology: A New Order For Temporal Society The "updated" missionary claims as his principal aim to establish a global, just, and functional order of things for society. This order of things has a temporal end: Once it is established, it should shape man's existence so as to prevent disorder and assure complete well-being on this earth. Whoever might want to give this new situation a religious interpretation can view it as the kingdom of God on earth, since the principles enumerated below (whose observance is the substance of the new order) are considered by neo-missiology as the very essence of the Gospel. 2. What is the new order sought by the "Aggiornata" Missiology? An analysis of man's position in face of the situation that "updated" missionaries seek to implant, makes the connection between the future order and the supposed kingdom of God easy to perceive. Such analysis, according to theses contained in the documents presented in Part III - some explicit, others suggested, others logically deductible from the first or the second - presupposes before anything else a criticism of the present-day proprietor. He is denounced as an egoist, as a defender and holder of an unjust privilege, that is, property. In turn, this privilege is the beginning of many injustices. -Inversion of values between the individual and society A) Fruitive, that is, that he may provide pleasures for himself considered individually and not as a member of society. This easily leads man to slight society in favor of himself. B) Appropriative, in as much as the egoist produces more than is necessary for his daily subsistence and, rather than designating the remainder for collective use, accumulates it for his exclusive advantage. That is what makes him more provident and more "assured" than the others. Thus, appropriation is born from egoism and in turn stimulates it. Appropriation is an insult to equality, the supreme form of justice, and it therefore produces a sore that irritates social relations. More particularly: b) Thus the remote seed of capitalism is formed. Man benefits not only through the work of his hands but also through the productivity of the goods of which he egoistically became the owner. This is profit. According to justice, the difference between the value of his work and the value of the produced goods should not accrue to him alone but to all those who work. c) To give value to the goods of which he took possession, the proprietor purchases the labor of someone who does not have goods. He gives this person only what is necessary for him to subsist. This is a salary. A salary is also unjust because it reserves the remaining value of production for the "capitalist" and gives to the salaried worker only what is indispensable for survival if he continues working. The latter never participates in the profit. d) The exclusive power of the proprietor over his property enables him to exclude the salaried worker from any deliberative function. The worker does not participate in management. e) This situation - unjust because it is replete with exclusive privileges for the owner - results naturally from the first injustice, egoistic appropriation (letter "B"): The salaried worker does not share in the ownership of the property with which he works; f) As far as goods are concerned, the name of the injustice is theft, and this theft is called property (letters "a" and "b"); g) Regarding dignity, the name of the injustice is "exploitation" and "alienation." Stolen (letters "b" and "c"), excluded from participation, working for the advantage of another, commanded by another (letters "d" and "e"), the salaried man is a slave, "alienated" (from the Latin alienus - alien, that is someone who does not belong to himself but to another.) C) Competitive. The proprietor moved by egoistical, fruitive, and appropriative impulses is not content to have much; he wants all. Hence comes competition, through which the proprietor strives to make himself owner, by means of production, trade, and money, of what belongs to other "thief-owners" and society. The economic life of our times, with its micro, medium and macro capitalism forms a structure taken to the acme of its complexity and its capacity for harm, because competition tends more and more to concentrate goods into the hands of a few, thus marginalizing multitudes of the alienated. -Egoism Generates an Unjust Society 3. Man and Egoism: a) Man has an immediate end in himself and a transcendent end in God. According to the traditional Catholic conception, man has a tendency towards egoism, but he is not all egoism. Egoism is only a moral deformity in him. The use that man makes of his intelligence, of his will, and of his sensibility to provide for his own individual good, in conformity with the law of God and the natural order, is not condemnable but virtuous. It is a corollary of the fact that man is intelligent and endowed with a will - therefore a person, not a thing - and has a transcendental end. Man is thus the owner of himself. It is true that man has duties towards his neighbor and, consequently, towards his family and country. But he does not live solely or principally for one or the other. Fundamentally, he lives for God and himself. And even if the subject is considered merely from the point of view of the common good, each man provides for the common good first of all by providing directly for his own. b) For neomissiology, man is like a part that lives for the whole. c) People and mass, in the description of Pius XII
4. Egoism and Contemporary Society a) The Great Babels born from modern technology In turn, it also seems undeniable that the formation of these huge urban concentrations resulted, among other factors, from the use, replete with serious lacks of temperance and wisdom, men generally made of the machine and other technological advances that came with the beginning of the 19th Century. In varying degrees, these results became manifest in all societies of the West. Those who have managed political or economic power in a purely egoistical manner, urged on by an unchecked desire for power or profit, have contributed toward these results. The great multitudes have also contributed to this by indiscriminately flocking to crowded urban centers, led by their fascination for the exciting and alluring life. b) False solution of the "Aggiornata" Missiology The solution does not consist, as new missiology wants, in altering sound doctrine in order to whitewash, in the opposite extreme, the madness we will mention later. The solution lies in renouncing all kinds of madness and returning to sound doctrine. 5. "Abyss calleth on abyss" (Ps. 41,8): From the exacerbation of egoism, contemporary society has reached collectivism. Indeed, there was no lack of persons who sought solutions for the cyclopic crisis with which we are now confronted. They failed, however, because they did not revert to the practice of the principles of eternal wisdom, choosing instead to take the errors being committed to their ultimate consequences. a) Confusion between person and egoism. b) Communist Conception 6. The New Abyss Leads to a Third: From Communism to Anarchy a) Neo-Communism seeks the dismantling of the state Many "new" followers of communism think that the huge structure of the Russian State contains many of the inconveniences of a capitalist society. Thus they vehemently desire the dismantling of the State and all super agencies. The State, as they affirm, should melt into a galaxy of more or less juxtaposed groups or corpuscles as autonomous as possible. Within these corpuscles, the phobia against the individual - always and necessarily presumed egoistical - should logically continue, as well as their earnest desire to restrict as much as possible the natural and legitimate liberties that Catholic doctrine recognizes in the human person. Furthermore, it is foreseeable that the communist ideal, egalitarian and massifying, would subsist in these corpuscles remaining entirely faithful to its most intrinsic principles, with the only difference being that it would be practiced in microscopic rather than macroscopic proportions. b) The "Classical" Communist already foresaw this "Evolution" 7. "Aggiornata" Missiology in The Brazilian Jungle All of the previous considerations were necessary in order to acclimate the reader to the panorama - perplexing for a man of good sense - that will now be presented to him. a) Tribal organization, a masterpiece of anthropological Wisdom b) Tribal life and Communist society It might be said, en passant, that this tribal world is more than archaic; it is categorically pre-historic! It is a world composed of innumerable smaller worlds without personalities and distinction; that is, of tribes which have no authentic flights of spirit, no ascensional elan, no defined ideals. Their invariable and monotonous life fades away in the cadenced rhythm of equal days, sad or agitated music, and uniform rituals. c) Are the Indians Communists? There is nothing communist about the Indian: neither the doctrine, nor the mentality, nor the designs. The state in which he is found presents only traces of analogy with the communist regime. It is one of those happenstances of coincidence that frequently appear when a comparison is made between stages of primitivism and decadence - for example, between infancy and old age. It is not because he is doctrinally opposed to private property that the primitive has (or almost only has) property in common. Likewise, the man of the chipped stone age did not avail himself of polished stone because he had not invented it and in no way because he thought he should not use it. In this perspective, the Indian can not be compared to the "civilized" man who is acquainted with private property the monogamous and indissoluble family and everything that has risen and flowered from these fertile institutions, but who has an aversion to the trunks and fruits of these trees. This "civilized" man wants to take an axe to their roots. To summarize, an Indian people can be compared to a plant that has not grown but which can still grow. Whereas the enemy of the family and of property, homesick for communitarianism or for tribal communism (the reader may characterize it as he sees fit), is a destroyer ... 8. Neo-Tribal Conceptions With Respect to The Family What is the role of the family in the tribal galaxies of the future world that these dreams , or better, these deliriums prepare for us? a) Uninhibited superficiality and enigmatic parsimony Like so many other crucial subjects the new missiology treats this matter with an uninhibited superficiality and an enigmatic laconism, a parsimony of words that clashes with the insistency with which other subjects are broached for example, the supposed disadvantage of private property. b) The Free-Love community, corollary of the community of goods There is nothing surprising in this if one considers that the free-love community is a corollary of the community of goods. 9. To Catechize is Secondary and Even Superfluous "Catechize? Spread the Gospel? What for?," "Aggiornata" missiology asks itself. Neornissiology considers the Gospel to be anti-egoism. Thus - according to the "updated" missionaries - the Gospel already impregnates the tribal sphere so completely that it is not necessary to announce it to these native communities. a) Goals of the "Updated" Missionary": To Free the Indian These missionaries contend that the Indian must suffer, in our century, what their elders suffered when our white ancestors first met them and settled here. b) The "Error" of the Missionaries and the Colonizers Anchieta, for example, was a master at this error (cf. Part III, texts nos. 20, 28,30, and 40). To avoid this error, now the Indians and missionaries should resist the invasion of those colonizers who want to incorporate them into modern Brazil, even though they may have to shout at them like oppressed Brazil shouted at the revolutionary Portuguese Cortes: "Independence or death!" 10. Scope of this Study This, in synthesis, is the picture which takes shape after researching, discerning the logical pattern of, and analyzing the available missionary propaganda: books, magazines, bulletins, pamphlets, news items, interviews, statements, communiqués, etc. a) New Missiology and "Structuralism" This would, however, deviate from the immediate subject of this study, which is not structuralist philosophy; this study merely seeks to examine some aspects of what the new missionaries are thinking and writing. Since missionary literature flows abundantly in our Catholic circles, the object of this study is especially important to anyone interested in our country. The literature of the new missiology pours forth profusely in circles that are culturally unequal - in which a considerable majority does not know how to define structuralism, leftism, or progressivism - and who unsuspectingly welcome whatever missionaries instill in their souls. b) In discussing the Indians, they prepare for the 11. Catechesis and Agitation
a) Should we waste time studying these irrational daydreams? These are objections which could be made to this study. b) Absurdities that wither and absurdities that thrive In reality, however, behind what could be called the neomissionary question, a much greater question emerges. The ideas that the authors of the texts submitted in Part III - Brazilian missionaries and foreigners who work here - raise up as a rule of conduct and life for themselves and the tribes they "evangelize" are doubtlessly absurd. From this, however, one cannot deduce that these ideas are fated to die without a history. The neomissionary absurdity can easily be one of them as it has marked affinities - at least in general lines - with a current of thought, such as structuralism, that has profound socioeconmic repercussions.5 c) A Bishop declares himself Transcommunist * Cf. Our study A 1greja ante a Escalada da Ameaca Comunista? Apelo aos Bispos Silenciosos, Vera Cruz, Sao Paulo, 4th ed., 1977, p. 22. d) How could this philosophy steal into the Church? * Cf. O São Paulo, the semi-official newspaper of the São Paulo Archdiocese, January 10-16, 1976 - See also the same information in the paper Alvorada, of the Prelacy of Sao Felix do Araguaia, November, 1975. This eruption of what may be adequately called Missionary Communo-Structuralism indicates the existence of a considerable infiltration in the Catholic structure of Brazil. How does one explain the existence and the influence of this infiltration in the Church? This is a great and difficult question. e) The Church and the country imperiled It is a matter concerning the Church and Brazil. The question is: To what extreme may both of them be dragged if Communo-structuralist infiltration continues unchecked and highly esteemed in Catholic circles? Indeed, this cancer becoming manifest in the missionary sector of the Church would be sufficient to justify or even oblige another question: will this cancer prove to be nothing less than the transfer of another tumor lodged in more decisive points within the non-missionary organisms of Holy Church? For decades, throughout the whole country, impulses have been observed in different fields of Catholic activity that openly or covertly attempt to lead public opinion to a position increasingly more receptive of communist doctrine. These activities, from this point of view, afford communism inestimable support. Regardless the labels, the leftist "basic reforms," and particularly the socialist and confiscatory agrarian reform, are always advocated by the "Catholic left." Now, the "demented" missionaries which are treated here hold themselves part and parcel of this widespread national agitation *. * Cf. Part III, text nos. 36-38. A study of this parcel constitutes an indispensable aid for another much more important one: a study of this vast agitation itself.
"Aggiornate" Missionary Voices The reader will certainly want to become familiar with texts in which institutions, personalities, and missionary bodies directly express their thoughts about the important subjects set forth in the previous sections. These texts were classified in sections according to the theme which was emphasized in each case. As several texts deal with more than one subject and furthermore, as the missionary authors frequently repeat themselves, the reader will find that themes treated in one section will reappear in following sections. Section I Here are set forth and praised different concepts forming essential elements of communist doctrine: negation of private property, private initiative, profit, charity, etc. 6. If the new missiology praised the community of goods implanted in communist countries, it would doubtless be exposed to embarrassing criticisms and refutations. Therefore, dodging the dangerous subject, neomissiology extols the Indians' way of life. Accordingly, it exalts the community of goods inherent to it and takes advantage of the opportunity to inveigh against private property as it exists in the civilized nations of the West. The fact is, however, that the torrential praise it gives to the collective property among Indian tribes fell far short of stirring up the alarm that a defense of the communist societies behind the Iron Curtain would provoke among us. 1. "The Indians already live the Beatitudes. Conclusions of the First Nation Assembly on Native Ministry:
Commentary But what is human society without private property, without profit, and without competition if it is not a communist society? The bishops, priests, and religious present at the First National Assembly on Native Ministry foresee the victory of this tribalistic lifestyle as a solution for human problems: They affirm that the Indian communities are a "future prophecy for this new lifestyle where man is the most important." Another question, although a little off the subject, nevertheless arises. The Beatitudes were taught by Our Lord Jesus Christ as the quintessence of Christianity. If the Indians already live them, what is the necessity of missionaries among them? 2. Praise For The Tribal System's Community of Goods - Article from the Bulletin of CIMI (Indian Missionary Council) commenting on the VIII Study Group on Native Ministry:
Commentary a) The tribal system is eulogized as ideal, an abstraction excluding any consideration about God (the chief purpose of existence is "man, " states CIMI), and for its communist note which the text points out: in the tribal society goods are distributed and property is common; b) Capitalist society is derided as inhuman, as having profit, the accumulation of goods, and property as the "center of the universe." It consists in the "exploitation of an immense majority by a minority"; c) The inclusion of the Indians in a category of "minors" is in conformity with capitalism's blackest intents. 3. Disparagement of One's Country and Homily of Msgr. Tomas Balduino, Bishop of Goias and
Commentary Tribal property is not individual but collective. For Msgr. Tomas Balduino, the Indians "lead a communitarian life of mutual respect, and have a perfect distribution of goods among themselves, without accumulation." This is exactly the praise that communist propaganda would give to the societies of Russia, Cuba, or any other satellite country. 4. A "New Church" of Communist Inspiration, Here follows the communiqué, Povo de Deus no Sertao (The People of God in the Backlands) distributed on the occasion of the inauguration of the Cathedral of Sao Felix do Araguaia, of which Msgr. Pedro Casaldaliga is the Bishop:
Commentary Left out are the great landowners and those who live - according to the communiqué - by enslaving others, that is, the proprietary class, the "masters of Money, Land, and Politics." To sum up, it is a Church transformed into an instrument of social revolution. For this "new Church," as one can see, private property is heresy and the proprietor is heretic. The text shows that a possible proliferation of the "new Church" is implicitly a proliferation of a pro-communist spirit. The condemnation of large estates as being intrinsically unjust is found in all communist authors. On the contrary, Catholic doctrine considers them as essentially just, and merely unjust per accidens, when the large property becomes harmful to the common good. Pius XII, for example, after praising the class of small landowners in Italy, warned that "This does not amount to denying the utility and frequent necessity of much larger agricultural properties".* *Discourse of July 2, 1951, to the International Congress on the Problems of Rural Life - Discorsi e Radiomessaggi, Vol. XIII, pp. 199-200). The affirmation that the sinner who "does not fulfill the Commandments of Christ" thereby ceases to belong to the Church is against the Faith and Canon Law. Only he who enters into persistent heresy, apostasy, schism, or is struck with the sentence of excommunication leaves the Church. 5. Private Property Presented as The Source of All Evils Here follows an except from the Historia do Trabalbador Brasileiro (History of the Brazilian Worker), printed in the bulletin Grito no Nordeste and prepared by the group "Animacao dos Cristaos no Meio Rural" of the Archdiocese of Recife:
Commentary A communist could not be more radical. The fruits of labor are distributed according to the communist principle, "From each according to his abilities; to each according to his needs" (Marx, Critica del Programa de Gotha, Editorial Progresso, Moscow, 2nd ed., p. 15). The classless society is a characteristically communist ideal and contrary to Catholic doctrine. Leo XIII writes: "Thus, the Church, preaching to men that they are all sons of the same heavenly Father, recognizes the distinction between classes as a providential condition of human society; for this reason, the Church teaches that only reciprocal respect of rights and duties and mutual charity will yield the secret of just equilibrium, of honest wellbeing, of true peace and prosperity for nations"(Leo XIII, Allocution of January 24, 1903, Bonne Presse, Paris, Vol. VII, pp. 169-170). 6. The Communist View of Charity
A little story entitled "Satoko - Maria da Aldeia das Formigas" - published in the missionary magazine Sem Fronteiras:
Commentary Section II As shall be seen, statements of "updated" missionaries about the tribal life of Indians in the Brazilian jungle show striking similarity with what non-missionary "aggiornati" leftist Catholics write about hypothetical tribal life outside the jungles. 7. Longings for The Tribal Primitivism of Our Indians
Commentary Many consequences supposedly resulted from the establishment of agriculture, one of the first being private property. As one reads on, one sees that these consequences become a veritable cascade of misfortunes ... and contemporary society is born. 8. Utopia, Yes; But the ideal towards which one should ever tend. Excerpts from an essay published in the series entitled Studies of the CNBB:
Commentary The Commentary published by the CNBB is marked by an amorality that reveals sympathy. Most notable, however, is the manner in which the author of this study responds to a question that is already doubtlessly formed in the minds of some readers: Isn't all this tribalization nothing more than utopia? A man of good sense will see that there is nothing more dangerous than guiding the state, not towards its natural and true end, but towards a finality that is admittedly utopian and therefore unreal and unattainable. In collectivities, as in individuals, good order can only result from the tendency of all the parts toward the true end. The tendency towards utopia is a ferment of disorder. Whenever this tendency is victorious only disaster can result. Section III 9. Primitive societies are closer to the ideal. From the aforementioned book by Rose Marie Muraro:
10. Eulogy of Indian Nudity, "Global and Natural" From the same book by Rose Marie Muraro:
Commentary What becomes of the passage in the Scripture that considers the shame of nudity to be a consequence of original sin? "And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed" (Gen. 2,25) - before the sin. Immediately afterward, they were ashamed to see themselves naked. And God approved of this shame, making clothes for them (Gen. 3,21). Section IV The idyllic description of native societies made by the "aggiornati" missionaries, although they defend themselves against this, brings to mind the myth of the "noble savage" with which Rousseau charmed, excited, and inflamed France near the end of the XVIII Century. In the swell of dithyrambic praise for the tribal life, these texts show a glimpse of the propensity towards communism, as well as the desire for a new world inspired in the primitive societies. 11. A Tribal Paradise, Where Ownership of The Means of Production is Collective and Authority Does Not Exist. The document Y-Juca-Pirama-O Indio: Aquele Que Deve Morrer, "Documento de Urgencia" signed by the Bishops of Caceres (MT), Msgr. Maximo Biennes; Viana (MA), Msgr. Helio Campos; Maraba (PA), Msgr. Estevao Cardoso de Avellar; Sao Felix (MT), Msgr. Pedro Casaldaliga; Goias Velho, Msgr. Tomas Balduino, and Palmas (PR), Msgr. Agostinho Jose Sartori, and six other missionares states:
Commentary 12. "Without Losing Their Communitarian, Religious, and Tribal Values"
Interview Bishop Tomas Balduino, President of CIMI, gave to the newspaper Panorama of Londrina:
13. "We Have Only to Learn From The Indians" Statements of Fr. Egydio Schwade, counselor to the Indian Missionary Council: " 'It is our civilization that is barren and condemned, and not that of the Indian.'
Commentary After the eulogy of such primitive societies and the disdain for contemporary civilization, the affirmation that "history is irreversible" is laughable. The affirmation that the history of the Indians is "as worthy and sacred as the holy history of the people of God" leads to the following questions: How do the Indians profit by being evangelized? What are the missionaries for? 14. Indians are models for our society. Statements of Msgr. Fernando Gomes, Archbishop of Goiania:
Commentary This must be so if one admits as true the image of the native societies presented by "updated" missiology. 15. The "Aggiornata" Missiology inspires a From the document Y - Juca - Pirama - O Indio: Aquele que deve morrer, [The Indian: He Who Must Die], signed by bishops and missionaries:
Commentary 16. Mission of the Indian: Article by Fr. Antonio Iasi, S.J., Executive-Secretary of CIMI:
Section V
Evangelization is Not Necessary For "updated" catechists, tribal life is so meritorious that the Gospel - and the Christian Civilization derived from it - are relegated to a second level 8. Symptoms of this have already appeared in texts numbered 11-16. Concerning this subject it would be possible to cite many other missionary pronouncements equally or even more significant. 17. Living in a communitarian regime, Interview of Msgr. Tomas Balduino, Bishop of Goias and President of CIMI, with the weekly Opiniao:
Commentary If one admits that things are as Bishop Balduino describes, it would be appropriate to ask what is catechesis good for? Perhaps for this reason, catechesis is presented as merely concerned with an earthly duty, which is to preserve the tribal state, as seen in the following text. 18. The Main purpose of the Church is not to convert the Indians to the Religion of Jesus Christ but to preserve their tribal state. Pastoral plan of the Amazonian Bishops:
19. The Updated Catechesis: to Bring to The Surface The Interview with Msgr. Tomas Balduino, Bishop of Goias and President of CIMI, for the newspaper Voz do Parana:
Commentary 20. Evangelization is secondary for missionaries who Report on the CIMI's Second Regional Meeting of North Mato Grosso:
Commentary 21. The Indian peoples are the true evangelizers of the world. Statement by Msgr, Tomas Balduino, Bishop of Goias and President of CIMI:
Section VI 22. The Indian cannot be considered as having From the "Diretorio Indigena" (Indian Directory) developed by the Mission Anchieta, of Mato Grosso, as approved by the CNBB (according to a summary by Jornal do Brasil):
Commentary The text insinuates that they are not when, referring to those aberrations, it qualifies them as "traits we claim are offensive to human nature." "We claim" leads to a doubt: are they really offensive to human nature? 23. A Surprising "Scientific" Catechesis Report of O Globo on the Mission Anchieta working in the Prelacy of Diamantino under the guidance of Bishop Henrique Froelich, S.J.:
Commentary 24. Catechesis, What for? From another report of O Globo on the Mission Anchieta in the Prelacy of Diamantino.
Commentary According to the text, all these treasures "profit nothing" since they constitute a "civilized form of loving God." The religion of the Indians "which is natural" is also "purer". And this is all they need. Belittling thus the supernatural in relation to the natural, and the religion of Jesus Christ in relation to Indian paganism, evidently amounts to heresy and blasphemy. 25. Almost Hopeless Catechesis Lecture of Fr. Tomas de Aquino Lisboa, Vice President of CIMI in the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, according to the Bulletin of CIMI:
Commentary The Catholic Church teaches that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary. The above text's last paragraph appears to reduce it to the "expression" of a "religious impulse." In this sense, "it is good for us." That is, it expresses our impulses. But it can be perfectly substituted among the Indians by other ceremonies, since the "same religious impulse" that we express in the Mass, they express "dancing with a maraca painted with urucum." One could hardly be more offensive to the Holy Mass. Furthermore, if the "Munku liturgy" is equivalent to the Mass, what is the religious purpose of a Catholic mission? 26. "Without Any Intention of Catechizing" Interview with Msgr, Tomas Balduino, Bishop of Goias and President of CIMI:
Commentary 27. Errors of The Missionaries: Teaching Shame For Nudity, The Use of Clothes, and The Rejection of Collective Life in The Village Sharing the views of neomissiology, Fray Betto, the Dominican sadly known for his part in the Marighela [Carlos Marigbela, a former communist Congressman in Brazil, was considered by some to be the "father of international terrorism." ( "Subversion to the South Threatening the U.S.," Crusade for a Christian Civilization, no. 3,1980, pp. 13-14)] case and later sentenced to two years in prison by the Federal Supreme Court, wrote in his book Cartas da Prisao (Letters from Prison):
Commentary A significant reciprocity... Hostility for the missionaries of the past is flagrant in Fray Betto's text. 28. The Traditional and Progressivist Catechist Faced With The Abominations and Crimes of The Savage From a book published under the guidance of Fr. Eduardo Hoornaert, professor of the Recife Theological Institute: "What did this catechesis really mean? What was its true sense? There is an interesting fact that happened in the village of Espirito Santo, in Reconcavo Baiano, in 1650, which sheds some light on the matter. In that year, Fr. Luiz da Gra convoked a meeting of the native chiefs and made them swear to four Christian pledges: To have only one wife.
Commentary According to what has been done in the Church since apostolic times, the missionary must teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles: "Going, therefore, teach ye all nations ... teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." (Matt. 28, 18-19) The zealous missionary must adapt the form of this instruction as much as possible to the psychology of the one being catechized and to the various peculiarities of the environment in which he lives. But the substance of the teaching is immutable. It was given by Jesus Christ, and no one will be able to alter it even until the end of time. Doubtless, the reactions of those being catechized can vary from instant, profound, and heroic conversion all the way to aggression and even assassination of the catechist. Nevertheless, the substance of the teaching cannot be altered, and alteration means not only the introduction of elements foreign to it but the omission of aspects essential to the doctrine as well. Concerning this point, the catechist serving as a spokesman for Jesus Christ, officially or not, is immovable together with the Divine Master, and he works to attract those catechized to Him. Such a task might seem impossible, and really would be without the help of grace. But the grace is never lacking. It is up to man to accept it or reject it. The catechetical methods of Anchieta and Fr. Luis da Gra are the conversion of these principles into act. Confronted with the abominations and aberrations of the unfortunate savages, they did not conceal what is contrary to Catholic morality, and they formally asked the Indians to abandon their vices. It is clear that such coherence and firmness of principles cannot coexist with the progressivist mentality. Thus it is not surprising that Fr. Hoornaert and his crew made the objections cited above.
29. The Church: Accomplice of Colonialism Until John XXIII Statements of Msgr. Tomas Balduino Bishop of Goias and President of CIMI:
Commentary From the outset, Bishop Balduino's criticism is limited to the action of the Church in Brazil, from the discovery "at [least] until John XXIII." But he cannot ignore the fact that the Church used the same missionary methods throughout the world. His criticism cannot fail to wound the Catholic Church deeply, the Church which it is incumbent upon him to defend. It is difficult to comprehend how such criticism does not touch upon the doctrinal authority and sanctity of the Church seen as a whole. Section VII It is understandable that, deviating so profoundly from Catholic missionary tradition, the "updated" missiologists might formulate serious objections against it, as well as against its glorious corollary, the Church's civilizing action. 30. The methods of Anchieta and Nobrega allegedly caused the dissolution and death of the Indians. From the document Y - Juca - Pirama - O Indio: Aquele Que Deve Morrer, signed by bishops and missionaries:
Commentary Compare the somber surrealism of this text with the rosy unrealism of the description of tribal life. 31. Understanding medicine is no more valuable than From the book Cartas da Prisao by Fray Betto;
Commentary Fray Betto, on the contrary, deals with general situations. That is, an average doctor as he customarily is and an ordinary savage as he usually is. In the above text, he clearly denies the cultural superiority of the doctor over the savage. And he states uninhibitedly that the knowledge of medicine is in itself no more than "making dye from genipap, recognizing the cry of the copybara, preparing meat without salt" and the like. Now, in this, whether or not based on what he calls "the monumental work of Levi-Strauss, " he completely lacks the most elementary common sense. The subversive friar takes this position invoking another absurd principle, that "parallel cultures" are not susceptible of being compared with one another, and that the statement that some men are more cultured than others rings false. In the final analysis, Fray Betto denies the possibility of any social hierarchy. Nature admits horizontal structures, just as communism denies any vertical structure in society. Naturally, it is easy for one based on this principle to attack the meritorious civilizing action inherent to traditional Catholic missiology. But what glory for it to receive such an attack ... 32. The price of each step of our progress From Fray Betto's Cartas da Prisao:
Commentary The question: "Whom do the 'savages' harm?" is astonishing. What about polygamy? And infanticide, which text number 22 admits as existing among them? Are these not harmful, especially for their weakest? Concerning the specifically Christian benefits of the missionary's civilizing work and the defense that these benefits provide against the neo-pagan influence of our civilization, see Part 1, numbers 4 and 5. 33. "See how they are: they are ashamed of their own bodies and cover their skin." From Fray Betto's Cartas da Prisao:
Commentary In this text, with disconcerting one-sidedness, the "Pale-faces" - the civilized - are seen exclusively as malefactors. Who can deny that there were some malefactors among the civilizers? But who can affirm that all civilizers were this way? Although the text refers specifically to a Japanese group that "just settled in Brazil in order to export Indian artifacts," several of its criticisms are allusive in fact to all the settlers that have worked here. Therefore, allusive also to the great civilizing missionaries that are one of the glories of our history. If they did not use firearms or commit injustices, they nevertheless taught modesty, agriculture, etc. Section VIII Contrary to the hostile position it takes towards private property in contemporary society, updated missiology is extremely covetous of the collective property of the Indian tribes. The native, even when settled in one place, does not develop the land such as to guarantee its satisfactory utilization for the common good of the country. Nevertheless, neomissiology most energetically upholds the Indians' ownership over vast tracts of land. And in the following texts, it goes so far as to insinuate that the white man who came here began to steal from the Indian as soon as he arrived. This contradiction between "aggiornata" missiology's position regarding the Indians' right of property and the right of property that exists in our society seems utterly unexplainable. It is easily explained, though, if one considers that the white man's property is private and, therefore, looked down upon, when not formally condemned, by leftism. But the Indians' property is communitarian, the new missionaries assert, and therefore compatible with leftist standards.
34. The American Indian is the only true lord of the land. Declaration of CIMI:
Commentary 35. "The Indians are the first owners of Brazilian land." Statement of the Commissao Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Commission on the Land) about the events in Meruri:
Commentary Besides, accuse what? The current socio-economic structure? Mysterious capitalist groups? The vague nature of an accusation is always a serious lacuna, and the more serious the accusation, the graver the lacuna. According to the praxes of demagoguery, the proofs are lacking ... Any commentary concerning the exclusivism with which the property rights of the Indian over the vastness through which they roamed are affirmed can be dispensed with since it has already been done previously. Section IX The multiplicity of pronouncements favoring agrarian reform, sparked by the Indian question, is frightening. It has gone so far as to make one wonder if the desire of stimulating socialist and confiscatory agrarian reform might not be the cause for such ado about the Indian problem these days. Following are some characteristic examples of the kind of statements we refer to. 36. Indians and small land-holders should endeavor Statement of the Pastoral Commission on the Land about the events in Meruri, State of Mato Grosso:
Commentary And this "right" is the starting point for the country's agrarian malady, a crisis in which the small landowners and Indians should become involved. 37. Using The Case Of Meruri To Ask From the same aforementioned statement of the Pastoral Commission on the Land:
Commentary It states that "those who are left without land [What is it to be "left without land?" Not to be a landowner?] In Brazil are condemned to a slow death." This is a most serious affirmation for which the document gives less than rudimentary proof: the "living and working conditions of the laborers and the already integrated Indians." There is no statistical demonstration capable of convincing serious minds. The only effect of this demagoguery is to stir up class struggle. And this is where the document heads when it fancifully affirms that the "people are resisting and are disposed to die in order to obtain their right to the land" and so on.
38. The Solution of the Indian Problem Requires "a radical and profound transformation of the Brazilian agrarian structure." Statement of CIMI:
Section X Rural agitation - real class struggle - is not all that is threatening to arise from the Indian question manipulated by missionary agitators. Behold, the latter also create strife between the Indians and the whites by presenting the whites - with unjust and wrong generalization - as plunderers, guilty of genocide, etc. 39. Christian Whites Came Eucharistic celebration (Mass) of the 3rd day of the 9th National Eucharistic Congress (in Manaus):
40. Anchieta, A Colonialist Agent? Interview of Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga with the paper De Fato -
Commentary 41. Our Lady Of Victories, No; Our Lady Of Misfortune From the same interview with Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga:
42. The Indian: A Living Contestation Of From the document Y - Juca - Pirama - O Indio: Aquele Que Deve Morrer, signed by bishops and missionaries:
43. The missionaries see in the Indians a prophetic sign Communiqué of the Southern Region of CIMI:
Commentary What is this analogy? For someone who puts himself in the perspective of neomissiology - someone enthusiastic about the horizontal structure of the rudimentary Indian settlements without hierarchy, the answer is easy. What CIMI's Southern Region wants to put into question is the hierarchical character of both the ecclesiastical structure and the current socio-economic structure, based on private property. The conclusion is not surprising. Progressivism and leftism are ferments working in the depths of the current missiology. And a characteristic common to both ferments - there are others - is egalitarianism. It is not surprising, therefore, that their action is expressed in a simultaneous "questioning" of spiritual and temporal hierarchy. This is why one can say that "Catholic leftism" is the sociology of the progressivists. And progressivism is the theology of the "leftist Catholics." Section XI Opposed to tradition, the new missionaries could not fail to mention the pioneers with brutal one-sidedness. 44. Pioneers, the Greatest Predators and Indian Killers From the bulletin CIC - Catholic Information Center - commenting on the 5th meeting of the Southern Region of CIMI:
45. Discoverers and Pioneers: Malefactors From the autobiography of Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga:
Commentary Nevertheless, it is absurd to affirm that colonization is intrinsically evil, and moreover, to hold that the discoveries are evil. It is contrary to historical fact to maintain that there was nothing but crime in the colonization of the Americas, and that no considerable advantages for humanity derived from it. The unilaterality of Bishop Casaldaliga's assessments becomes especially clear in the last two phrases of the text which designates the "discoverers" and "pioneers" as nothing more than malefactors. Section XII Agitators among the clergy want to transform the historical cry of "Independence or Death" into a cry of revolt and separation of the Indians from the white landowners in order to later make it a motto of social revolution for workers against employers. All this appears in a climate where the concept of the Brazilian nation, united and thriving, is apparently fading (Cf. text no. 3). It is not clear how this Indian movement can reach its goals, exposing even the lives of its constituents, and at the same time refrain from using arms. Will it seek to bring about a peaceful insurrection in the style of Ghandi? 46. Indian Declaration of Independence From Brazil? Composition attributed to the Indian Txibae Ewororo and widely published in missionary magazines and Catholic publications in general:
Commentary This document is subversive in the sense that it is separatist. Furthermore, for some time now, the Indian separatist movements have figured among the objectives of the international communist revolution, as one sees from the following document: 47. The Indian, Raw Material for Communist Agitation? Walter Kolarz of the BBC of London, a well-known specialist in communist matters stated:
Section XIII The Church could normally heal these evils, but to what extent are they finding a remedy in Her? It is not credible that evils such as these can find a remedy without the intervention of Paul VI. Now, one does not see that he has made up his mind to intervene. This is what one concludes in believing the following information published in the bulletin Alvorada, in the Prelacy of Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, and by the semi-official organ of the Archdiocese of São Paulo (Cf. O São Paulo, 1/10/1976). 48. Craters in the Jungles, Sparks in the Cities
Commentary This leads us to believe that without a filial but general clamor of the Brazilian people to Paul VI it will not be possible to restrict the nucleus, or better, the smoking crater of missionary agitation that seems to be swallowing up our jungles as a vehicle to fill our cities with sparks.10 What are the probabilities that this clamor will be heard? They are not great, if one takes into account a significant precedent. In 1968, the TFP collected 1,600,368 signatures for a petition to Paul VI asking for measures repressing communist infiltration in the Church. This petition - the largest in the history of our nation - was delivered by a trusted representative in the Vatican. And it has remained without an answer ... Concomitantly, analogous petitions to Paul VI from the Argentine, Chilean, and Uruguayan TFPs totaling four hundred thousand signatures, are unanswered. Since then, communist influence in Catholic circles has continued to grow. And in Chile it was the decisive factor in Marxist Allende's ascension to the Presidency. Not even this should diminish our hopes for a solution. It is necessary for Brazilians to oppose "Catholic leftism" and progressivist and leftist neomissiology with all the licit means within their reach. Once this is done, Providence will do the rest. It is not in vain that Our Lady of Aparecida was crowned Queen of Brazil in 1931 by the National Episcopate. It is possible that, for superficial souls, this coronation may have seemed an empty and meaningless ceremony. However, Our Lady does not consider empty and meaningless Her sons' homage of love! On Her they may rely, provided that they do not become discouraged in battle and move towards victory with their best efforts and all their ardor. Documents: Doc. I "Ia. Assembleia Nacional de Pastoral Indigenista: ern debate - a situacao indigena em nivel nacional," in Bulletin of CIMI, year 4, no. 22, July-August 1975. Footnotes1. Concerning "aggiornata" missiology, see the essay "El Marxismo en la teologia de Missiones" in the book El Marxismo En La Teologia (Speiro, Madrid, 1976) by Fr. Miguel Poradowski, Prof. of the Catholic University of Valparaiso (Chile), well known by the Brazilian public for the memorable conferences that he gave here about communist infiltration in the Church. [back]2. The socialist doctrine set forth in this manner is diametrically opposed to the Manchesterian liberal school. Pius XI defines the Catholic position in view of both errors, liberal and socialist, with admirable wisdom: "Capital, however, was long able to appropriate to itself excessive advantages; it claimed all the products and profits and left to the laborer the barest minimum necessary to repair his strength and to ensure the continuation of his class. For by an inexorable economic law, it was held, all accumulations of riches must fall to the share of the wealthy, while the workingman must remain perpetually in indigence or reduced to the minimum needed for existence. It is true that the actual state of things was not always and everywhere as deplorable as the Liberalistic tenets of the so-called Manchester School might lead us to conclude; but it cannot be denied that a steady drift of economic and social tendencies was in this direction. These false opinions and specious axioms were vehemently attacked, as was to be expected, and by others also than merely those whom such principles deprived of their innate right to better their condition. The cause of the harassed workingman was espoused by the "intellectuals, " as they are called, who set up in opposition to this fictitious law another equally false moral principle: that all products and profits, excepting those required to repair and replace invested capital belong by every right to the workingman. This error, more subtle than that of the Socialists who hold that all means of production should be transferred to the State (or, as they term it, socialized), is for that reason more dangerous and apt to deceive the unwary. It is an alluring poison, consumed with avidity by many not deceived by open Socialism" (encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931, National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington, D.C., pgs. 19-20). [back] 3. Cf., For example, Engels, in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (Civilizacao Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, 3rd. ed., 1977, pp. 195-6): "Therefore, the State has not existed eternally. There were societies that were organized without it, they had not the slightest notion of the State or its Power. Upon reaching a certain phase of economic development, that was necessarily tied to the division of society into classes, this division made the State a necessity. We are now rapidly approaching a problem of development of production in which the existence of these classes is not only no longer necessary but has even become an obstacle to production itself. Classes are going to disappear and in a way as inevitably, as they arose in the past. With the disappearance of classes, the State will inevitably disappear. Society, reorganizing production in a new form, on the basis of free association of equal producers, will ordain all the machinery of the State to the place which it necessarily corresponds: the museum of antiquities, next to the spinning wheel and the bronze axe." [back] 4. Concerning the first Pan-Amazonian meeting on Indigenous Pastoral Policy convoked by CELAM'S (Latin America's Conference of Bishops) Department of Missions and by the CNBB (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops), held in Manaus from June 20-25, 1977, Fr. Cesareo de Armellada, Capuchin and delegate to the above mentioned meeting, expressed himself as follows: "In the reports of certain missionaries, some native peoples appear adorned with all kinds of virtue and capable of provoking the envy of the angels. It is clear that, with this presupposition, we cannot carry out any other role than that of serpents in paradise. One of the bishops said to me: 'I would like to be chosen as a Visitor in their paradise, which unfortunately I found nowhere else, though I have been in many places'" (La Religion, Caracas, 7-7-77). [back] 5. For a more profound comparison of this study with structuralist thinking - which today embraces ethnologists, psychoanalysts, Marxologists, semiologists, philosophers, linguists, epistemologists, etc. - the works of Levi-Strauss are especially interesting. Levi-Strauss is considered the founder of "structural anthropology" which distinguishes itself from the ethnology taught until recently by minimizing and even denying evolution. Levi-Strauss was in Brazil in 1935, where he was the first Regent of the Chair of Sociology of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters o the University of São Paulo. He directed several scientific expeditions in Mato Grosso and the Southern Amazon. He taught in New York; he was cultural advisor to the French embassy in the United States, a duty from which he resigned in 1957 in order to dedicate himself to scientific studies in the "Museum of Man" and in the "School of Advanced Studies." His main works are: La Pensée Sauvage: Les Structures Elementaires de la Parenti; Le Totemisme Aujourdhui; Le Cru et le Cruit; Antbropologie Structural. Other structuralist authors and their respective works: Michel Foucault, Les Mots et les Choses; Histoire de la Folie à L'Age Classique; L'Archeologie du Savoir; Algirdas Julien Greimas, Du Sens - Essaies Simiotiques; Semantique Structurale; Louis Hjelmsler, Prolegomenes a une Tbeorie du Language; Louis Althusser, Du Capital a la Philosophie de Marx; L'Object du Capital; Jacques Derrida, Nature, Culture, Ecriture, Julia Kristeva, La Semiologie - Theorie d'ensemble; Bernard Pottier, Presentation de la Linguistique; Jacques Lacan, Ecrits. [back] 6. The emphasis in bold is ours. [back] 7. The concept of class in current usage does not seem to coincide precisely with that of communist language. Thus, the struggle white man vs. Indian is a struggle of classes for the communists. In current language, such struggle would assume this character accidentally but it would essentially be a racist struggle. [back] 8. Vicente Cardinal Scherer, Archbishop of Porto Alegre, showed his disagreement with this position of neomissiology. His Eminence said: "One notices a tendency to restrict the action of missionaries to the defense of the Indians ... putting aside with some disdain the primary essential goal of illuminating their intelligence with the light of the Gospel and leading them to integrate themselves with the community of Faith? (Cf. Correio do Povo, 10/25177). [back] 9. The unjust position taken by Fr. Hoornaert against the traditional missionaries was also censured by Fr. Sellitti. (Cf. O Lutador, Belo Horizonte, 9/4/1977). [back] 10. The subversive character of neomissiology was denounced by Fr. Jose Vicente Cesar, President of the Institute "Anthropos do Brasil" who declared that it disagreed with the new orientation of CIMI "aimed at using the Indian to dispute the political and socio-economic system of Brazil." (Cf. O Globo, 1/25/77). [back] |