Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Jan 19 (EFE).- Pope Francis in Latin America is not only a pontiff but also a Jesuit of the kind that committed themselves to defending the native peoples when colonization was fully underway.
Other pontiffs had already begged pardon for the “sins” of the church during the conquest and colonization of Latin America, but Francis, the first Latin American pope, has become the Vatican’s spokesman, above all on his trips to Latin America, in defense of indigenous peoples and of righting the wrongs done to them.
On Friday Francis echoed all the threats targeting native communities and strongly denounced the exploitation of their lands and the contamination of their environments.
The majority of Jesuits, from their arrival in 1549 to the coast of Brazil to their subsequent missions to Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Mexico and Central America, always vowed their commitment to the oppressed, who in the New World were Indians.
Like a good Jesuit, Jorge Bergoglio, on his first papal trip to Latin America in 2015, with visits to Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay, made it clear that one priority of his pontificate is the defense of native communities.
Upon witnessing the popular indigenous movements in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, the Argentine pope “humbly begged pardon…not only for the offenses of the church itself, but for the crimes perpetrated against the natives during the so-called conquest of the Americas.
In his travels he has always visited and paid homage to the priests, Jesuits or not, who protected the Indians even with their own lives, like Fray Bartolome de las Casas.
In Paraguay, where he took a trip that was often a tribute to the Guarani culture, Francis praised the Jesuits’ Guarani missions, which he considered one of the “most interesting evangelization and social organization experiences in history.”
But it was in Chiapas, on his trip to Mexico in 2015, where Francis heartily asked for pardon in the name of all who had “mistreated and excluded” those indigenous peoples.
He condemned how, “in such a systematic and structural way, its people had been alienated and excluded from society.”
And now, Pope Francis wishes to organize a Synod of the Amazon, where 2,779,478 aborigines live belonging to 390 indigenous cultures, and where 137 peoples have “never been contacted.”
El Papa celebrará una misa en Trujillo y visitará el barrio de Buenos Aires en Perú
Lima, 19 ene (EFE).- El Papa Francisco viaja mañana a Trujillo, donde celebrará su primera misa en tierras peruanas en la explanada de Huanchaco y después visitará el barrio de Buenos Aires, uno de los más afectados por las inundaciones provocadas por el fenómeno del Niño.
Tras haber hoy visitado al pueblo indígena en Puerto Maldonado y ofrecido un discurso a las autoridades, el papa dedicará el resto del viaje en Perú a actividades exclusivamente vinculadas a la ferviente catolicidad.
La turística Huanchaco espera recibir a cerca de medio millón de personas para la misa campal de Francisco, que estará dedicada a María Puerta del Cielo.
Tras la ceremonia recorrerá durante unos 20 minutos el barrio de Buenos Aires, afectado por las inundaciones que causaron importantes daños durante el año pasado y atribuidas al fenómeno del Niño Costero, un momento que servirá para reflexionar sobre los peligros del cambio climático.
Almorzará en el arzobispado de Trujillo y después se trasladará a la catedral de esta localidad. donde no están previstos discursos y el pontífice argentino solo depositará unas flores ante la imagen de la Virgen.
En el seminario Carlos Marcelo encontrará a los religiosos y religiosas del país, en total reunirá a un millar de ellos, y luego circulará en papamóvil por la característica Plaza de Armas de Trujillo.
Cerrará la jornada dedicada los fieles católicos con una celebración mariana en la plaza de Armas, en la que tienen cabida unas 35.000 personas.