Aparecida 530-531: Solidarity With Native Americans

Three areas of solidarity with native Americans:

530. As disciples and missionaries in the service of life, we accompany the indigenous and native peoples in strengthening their identities and their own organizations, the defense of their territory, bilingual intercultural education, and the defense of their rights.

Also, assisting in the widening of perspectives in secular society, if not the Church itself:

We also pledge to create awareness in society about the situation of the indigenous and their values, through the media and other areas of opinion. On the basis of the gospel principles we support the denunciation of attitudes contrary to full life for our native peoples, and we commit ourselves to pursue the work of evangelization of the indigenous people, and to strive for educational and work-related learning with the cultural transformations entailed in it.

531. The Church will remain vigilant in the face of efforts to uproot the Catholic faith from indigenous communities, whereby they would be left defenseless and confused in facing the assaults of the ideologies of some alienating groups, which would undermine the well-being of those very communities.

I would assume #531 refers to inroads from evangelical Christians, or other religious groups.

For deeper examination, check an English translation of the 2007 document from the Aparecida Conference.

About catholicsensibility

Todd lives in Minnesota, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.
This entry was posted in 2007 Aparecida document, bishops, evangelization and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

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