Temuco, Chile, Jan 17, 2018 / 07:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Tuesday, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Chile’s largely indigenous Araucania region, long divided by violent conflict. He stressed the importance of unity, which he said cannot be achieved through violence or forced uniformity.
Pointing to Jesus’ prayer that “they may all be one” at the end of John’s Gospel, Pope Francis noted that it is at this “crucial moment” before his death that Jesus “stops to plea for unity.”
“In his heart, he knows that one of the greatest threats for his disciples and for all mankind will be division and confrontation, the oppression of some by others,” he said, and urged those present to take Jesus’ words in the prayer to heart.
We must “enter with him into this garden of sorrows with those sorrows of our own, and to ask the Father, with Jesus, that we too may be one,” Francis said, and prayed that “confrontation and division never gain the upper hand among us.”
Pope Francis spoke during his Jan. 17 Mass in Chile’s Araucania region in Temuco, which for years has been torn apart by violent conflict surrounding the plight of the area’s Mapuche people, an indigenous group present largely in south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina.
He traveled to the region as part of his Jan. 15-18 visit to Chile, after which he will make an official visit to Peru from Jan. 18-21.
The largest indigenous group in Chile, the Mapuche resisted Spanish conquest during colonial times by using guerrilla warfare tactics to evade soldiers and maintain control of their land.
They continued to resist after Chilean independence in 1818, however, in the 1860s the military gained control, and the majority of their land was given over to members of the military and incoming immigrants.
Despite the launch of some initiatives aimed at restoring parts of their land and the creation of scholarships for Mapuche students, the Mapuche live in one of the poorest areas of Chile and claim to be mistreated by authorities.
Some of the Mapuche have in recent years adopted violent means of protest, and have bombed trucks and land of non-Mapuche people they say are illegally inhabiting the area.
They have also set fire to churches, burning more than two dozen in 2016 and 2017, according to the Chilean prosecutor’s office. Just last Friday three more churches were firebombed in the Chilean capital Santiago in protest of the Pope’s visit.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and authorities are unsure whether Mapuche activists are to blame, however, leaflets criticizing the upcoming visit of Francis and calling for a “free” Mapuche nation were dropped at the scene.
The field attached to the Maquehue Airport, where Pope Francis landed and celebrated Mass, had once been used as a detention center where many indigenous peoples were tortured during Chile’s military government under Augusto Pinochet.
In the lead up to the Pope’s trip, a number of the Mapuche had protested the use of the airport for the papal Mass given the serious human rights violations that took place there, arguing that the land belongs to them and not the government. Two more attacks on churches took place shortly before the Pope’s arrival to Temuco, however, no one has claimed responsibility for these either.
In his homily, Pope Francis recognized that in the past, the airport had been the site of “grave violations of human rights,” and said he was offering the Mass for “all those who suffered and died, and for those who daily bear the burden of those many injustices.” He paused in a moment of silence for all who died.
“The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross bears all the sin and pain of our peoples, in order to redeem it,” he said, and pointed to the day’s Gospel reading from John, in which Jesus prays for the unity of his disciples.
Unity is a gift which must be “persistently sought” for the good of all, and for future generations, he said, but cautioned against what he named as two temptations that can “poison the roots” of this unity.
First, Francis warned against the temptation to confuse unity with uniformity, saying “Jesus does not ask his Father that all may be equal, identical, for unity is not meant to neutralize or silence differences.”
“Unity can never be a stifling uniformity imposed by the powerful, or a segregation that does not value the goodness of others,” he said. Rather, the unity that Jesus refers to is a “reconciled diversity” which recognizes the value of the individual contribution of each tradition and culture.
This unity “will not allow personal or community wrongs to be perpetrated in its name,” the Pope said, adding that “we need the riches that each people has to offer, and we must abandon the notion that there are higher or lower cultures.”
It also requires both listening to and esteeming one another, which in turn builds solidarity. And solidarity, he said, is the most effective weapon against “the deforestation of hope.”
He also warned against the temptation to obtain unity with the use of violence, and cautioned against two forms of violence which he said stifle the growth of unity and reconciliation rather than encouraging them.
The first, he said, are the “elegant agreements that will never be put into practice.” They consist of nice words and detailed plans, and while these are needed, they end up “erasing with the elbow what was written by the hand” when they go unimplemented, he said, explaining that this is a form of violence “because it frustrates hope.”
Second are the actual acts that take place, he said, insisting that “a culture of mutual esteem may not be based on acts of violence and destruction that end up taking human lives.”
“You cannot assert yourself by destroying others, because this only leads to more violence and division,” he said. “Violence begets violence, destruction increases fragmentation and separation. Violence eventually makes a most just cause into a lie.”
Rather than using these two avenues, which are “the lava of a volcano that wipes out and burns everything in its path,” the Pope urged attendees to pursue a path of “active non-violence” as a political style, and told them to never tire of promoting true and peaceful dialogue for the sake of unity.
After Mass, Pope Francis will head to the mother house for the Sisters of the Holy Cross order, where he will each lunch with around 11 people, eight of whom will be Mapuche.
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Once again the faithful are asked to suffer the cancellation of public demonstration of homage to Our Lady. This recalls last year’s locking of Church doors and dispensations at Mass because of its non-essential nature. Is it any wonder that no faith is fast disappearing under the rod of such activity?
Scripture warns against a fear of material. Scripture and seeks to rather provoke fear of the eternal spiritual. (Matthew 10:28) Perennial Magisterial teaching on virtue speaks to courage and hope; where are these demonstrable in Francis? Francis chooses to travel alone with carriers of uncleanliness banned from his path. Rather should we seek and see Our Lord who sacrificed His Holy Humanity so sinners could be cleansed and made like Him.
If avoiding Covid is the reason, why didn’t he cancel the Pachamama worship in St. Peter’s?
The Pope did not have to do what you suggest here because there was the Pachamama icon was never worshipped at the Vatican. It is a lie that is still being spread by those who hate our Pope.
He had his MC place the ceremonial bowl of dirt, which specifically symbolizes Pachamama, an Idol, on St. Peter’s altar at the offertory, where it remained throughout the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And shortly after that, public Mass was canceled throughout the world and most all the Catholic churches in the whole world shut down for months, unprecedented in the history of the Church. Also it was most assuredly worshipped in the Vatican gardens, by a large circle of individuals including two Franciscans bowed their foreheads down to the ground before the idol.
People in different parts of the world show their respect in different ways. Why should everything be done in the western way, Europeans way that we are so used to. Pagan Romans used to genuflect and Catholics adopted that pagan custom. We place wedding rings on the altar.
It was clearly declared by the Pope that there was no worship. I believe him.
It is extremely curious how hypocritical and contradictory some people can be!
I know a person who tends to idolize Francis as a pope beyond criticism. Yet that same person finds a problem with Eastern Catholic Churches, in communion with the pope and with the Universal Church, simply because those Eastern Churches do not hang upon Francis’ every last word and remain aloof from embroiling RCC controversies.
Now that same person sees no problem with inculturating pagan customs and idols to Roman Catholicism simply because the pope has done so.
I leave you now to go get a grip. Good night and good day.
Mal, I am from Africa and I attend Mass with African Catholics every Sunday. I can tell you with certainty that the worship of a Demon Fertility Idol would never be allowed here. Inculturation here means, at most, using traditional African musical instruments and dress (the laity, not the Priest); it does not involve any change in worship or the sacraments.
What Francis did in 2019 is despicable, and the Covid epidemic is the Divine Punishment for it. Francis needs to atone for his violation of the 1st Commandment in sackcloth and ashes.
Interestingly, Covid spread to Italy AFTER the Pachamamas were honored, blessed, and brought into Vatican cathedrals. One could say the Pachamama idol worship led to God’s allowing Covid.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ewtns-fr-mitch-pacwa-condemns-pachamama-worship-at-amazon-synod/
meiron, many years ago I walked into a classroom and on a wall I saw a picture placed quite prominently. The students told me that that was a picture of Jesus. However, I knew that it was not. It was a photograph of Jeffrey Hunter, the actor who had played Jesus. I wonder how many people prayed to pictures like that? And many more? All pictures, paintings of human beings and sold to us as Jesus.
I often wonder how our practices would have been if the Church had remained in Israel instead of moving to Greece and Rome which had icons of Gods.
What is your point?
Such comments seem to some as coming from the dark side of the moon. Catholics do not pray to pictures.
(Although, there’s the tale of a Protestant minister complaining to a priest that such is so; and the post Vatican II priest retorted that, no, we do not pray to statutes or pictures, we pray to banners!)
As for St. Paul and the Church crossing over to Macedonia and then to Athens, this is the Providential reason that truths of the self-revealing God can be expressed, however finitely, in the conceptual language of “reason” and “persons” and the “one and the many.” Part of the early Councils dealing with the Trinity, the three Persons of the Trinity in One God, and the two natures of Christ in one Person.
The revealed Faith–more than a religion–went the direction of analogous human reason (analogous to the interior mystery of God), rather than in the other direction of symbols which account for the many mystery religions that flourished in the late Roman Empire. Even the Jews did not remain in Israel, but dispersed into the Diaspora following the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.
In short, the Catholic Church is in history, but not of history, founded by Christ and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, it is true that we Catholics do not worship pictures and icons, however, they are blessed and considered holy. So, why would you still persist in Protestant style accusing the Pope of worshipping an icon which represents the motherness of earth to the Amazonian Catholics? And still deliberately confusing it with the Andean (not Amazonian) pagan goddess which looks completely different. The icon was erroneously called Pachamama but this is not what the Amazonian Catholics call it.
Pope Francis, a very faithful Catholic, who is devoted to our Lady knows very well the difference between worshipping God and venerating our Lady and the saints. The so-called Pachamama in question, represents the life-sustaining gifts from God that are made available to us in and through the earth. They show their gratitude in this way because, unlike us “civilized” people, they live off the earth. We have our cars, wedding rings, and houses blessed. Just different.
Wikipedia seems to know more than some Catholics about what the Pachamamma idol represents. It has nothing to offer Catholicism. It contradicts Catholicism. There is a diabolical disorientation within those who cannot see.
“Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. In Inca mythology she is an “Earth Mother” type goddess,[1] and a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own creative power to sustain life on this earth.”
There is a presentation on Pachamama by Fr. Mitch Pawca on YouTube titled “Fr. Mitch Pawca on Pachamama idol worship”:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHCxjaWUZTg
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He said that the people of the Andes place Pachamama above Jesus and Mary.
S meiron, why did the other countries – India, Indonesia etc – get Covid. They did not have anything to do with the icons. Faulty reasoning from a website that does spread such falsehood.
“The pope will ask the Virgin Mary in prayer “to protect the Romans, the city in which they live, and the sick who need Her maternal protection everywhere in the world,” the statement said.”
This is the beautiful message that should warm our hearts. Pope Francis has always been devoted to our Lady, who would appreciate the continuation of this devotion in a manner that accommodates the sacredness of the occasion and the physical wellbeing of the people. Mary, who was concerned about the lack of wine at a wedding, will be equally concerned about the devastating effects of the virus. Well, that’s the Mother that I know.