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. (