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December 2, 2019
Lance Ravella
Vallejo
Confraternity of Christ Brother Paul J. McCarthy,
Napa
Re “Synod looks at indigenous ‘theology of creation,”’ Catholic News Service, Oct. 24:
The author presents the viewpoint of experts who would have us believe that the ceremonies that occurred at the Vatican Gardens, St. Peter’s Basilica and other churches around Rome were misunderstood by critics of the Amazon Synod. Thus, according to these experts, what many regard to be pagan rituals actually express an indigenous theology of creation that is compatible with the Christian faith, a theology that was misinterpreted by the early missionaries in the New World to express itself in the practice idolatry.
Granted that the indigenous people are animists, and in some cases polytheists, they believe material objects have spirits. They revere such objects, honor their images, perform rituals to gain favor with these spirits, invoke their intercession and offer sacrifices. Thus, we can correctly claim that their belief system is incompatible with the Catholic faith.
Pachamama is such a spirit, and is referred to as a fertility goddess in South America. Even if the wooden figure is not to be identified as Pachamama the spirit or goddess itself, any image or material object representing it in which worship or devotion is addressed, in an idol, and such ritual or admiration is rightly called idol worship. This would include both the Pachamama idol as well as the black bowl with plant that appeared during Mass on the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica the day of the synod.
To sum up, the problem with this article’s argument is that it grants the indigenous mindset an ability to make distinctions it culturally cannot make. This mindset has no clear distinction to make between God and nature or the sacred and profane.
What we have here is an attempt to exploit a simple indigenous people by deliberately misrepresenting their religion belief in order to deceive the reader and manipulate his thought so that a synod of the Catholic Church might not be accused of sanctioning pagan idolatry.Letters policy
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