Pope: Rights and dignity of the indigenous peoples
(L'Osservatore Romano) The Church does not consider any legitimate human aspiration
strange and makes her own the loftiest aspirations of the indigenous peoples who are
all too often marginalized, misunderstood and the victims of various forms of violence.
The Pope writes this in the Message he addressed to Archbishop Rubén Salazare Gómez
of Bogota, on the occasion of the commemoration of the centenary of the Encyclical
Letter Lacrimabili Statu Indorum of St Pius X. The document, Benedict XVI writes,
highlighted the need to dedicate greater care to the evangelization of indigenous
peoples and to the constant promotion of their dignity and progress”. An appeal which
the Pope makes his own and relaunches, urging us, “with profound love for all and
in harmony with the Church's social teaching”, to listen “without prejudices to the
voice of these brothers and sisters of ours, to encourage real knowledge of their
history and their way of life, as well as to strengthen their participation in all
the milieus of society and of the Church”. Lastly, the Pope invokes “the Almighty
so that, in the first place the sacred character of their life may be protected. May
their life not be limited for any reason, because God does not want the death of anyone
and orders us to love each other as brothers and sisters. May their lands be properly
protected. May no one, for any reason, exploit or manipulate these peoples and may
these people not let themselves be coerced by ideologies that dangerously take hold
of them. (