The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas: In Between Reconciliation and Decolonization

The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas

In Between Reconciliation and Decolonization

edited by

Michel Andraos

foreword by

William T. Cavanaugh

contributors

The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas

In Between Reconciliation and Decolonization

Studies in World Catholicism 7

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-3111-5

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-3113-9

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-3112-2

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Andraos, Michel, editor. | Cavanaugh, William T., 1962–, foreword.

Title: The church and indigenous peoples in the Americas : in between reconciliation and decolonization / edited by Michel Andraos ; foreword by William T. Cavanaugh.

Description: Eugene, OR : Cascade Books, 2019 | Series: Studies in World Catholicism 7 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-3111-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-3113-9 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-3112-2 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Catholic Church—Missions. | Americas. | Indigenous peoples—Religion. | Christianity and culture.

Classification: bv2180 .c56 2019 (print) | bv2180 .c56 (ebook)

English translation of Accompaniment in the Process of Dialogue-Encounter with the Indigenous Peoples from the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico: 1969–2019 © 2017 by Michel Andraos. Used with permission.

English translation of Mayan Indian Theology: A Journey of Decolonizing the Heart © 2017 by Michel Andraos and Karen M. Kraft. Used with permission.

English translation of Towards a Church with an Indigenous Face: Some Premises and Urgent Challenges © 2016 by Michel Andraos and Paloma Cabetas. Used with permission.

Scripture texts marked (NAB) are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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Scripture quotations marked (NABRE) are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Contributors

Foreword

Introduction

Part One: Regional Indigenous Theological Voices and Responses

A: Bolivia

Chapter 1: Toward a Church with an Indigenous Face: Some Premises and Urgent Challenges

Chapter 2: Beyond the Colonial Wound: The Emergence of the Indigenous Theological Movement in Latin America

B: Canada

Chapter 3: My Experience Working as an Indigenous Person with Indigenous People

Chapter 4: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Chapter 5: Walking a New Path: A Harvest of Reconciliation—Forging a Renewed Relationship between the Church and the Indigenous Peoples

C: Chile

Chapter 6: My Experience as a Mapuche Christian

Chapter 7: Christian and Mapuche Dialogue: A Theological Reflection Toward Mutual Understanding

D: Mexico

Chapter 8: Mayan Indian Theology: A Journey of Decolonizing the Heart

Chapter 9: Accompaniment in the Process of Dialogue-Encounter with the Indigenous Peoples from the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico: 1969–2019

E: The United States of America

Chapter 10: Lakota-Christian Dialogue

Chapter 11: Steps Toward Reconciliation: The CTU-Lakota Relationship

Part Two: Reflections and Future Perspectives

Chapter 12: Reconciling Truths and Decolonizing Practices for the Head, Heart, and Hands

Chapter 13: Witness and Practice of Living Memory

Chapter 14: Horizons of Memory and Hope: Some Concluding Reflections

Bibliography

T

Studies in World Catholicism

Michael L. Budde and William T. Cavanaugh, Series Editors

Karen M. Kraft, Managing Editor

Other Titles in This Series

Beyond the Borders of Baptism: Catholicity, Allegiances, and Lived Identities. Edited by Michael L. Budde. Vol. 1, 2016. ISBN 9781498204736.

New World Pope: Pope Francis and the Future of the Church. Edited by Michael L. Budde. Vol. 2, 2017. ISBN 9781498283717.

Scattered and Gathered: Catholics in Diaspora. Edited by Michael L. Budde. Vol. 3, 2017. ISBN 9781532607097.

Fragile World: Ecology and the Church. Edited by William T. Cavanaugh. Vol. 4, 2018. ISBN 9781498283403.

A Living Tradition: The Holy See, Catholic Social Doctrine, and Global Politics 1965–2000. By A. Alexander Stummvoll. Vol. 5, 2018. ISBN 9781532605116.

Love, Joy, and Sex: African Conversation on Pope Francis’s Amoris Laetitia and the Gospel of Family in a Divided World. Edited by Stan Ilo. Vol. 6, 2018. ISBN 9781532618956.

To the Pueblo Creyente of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, in honor of its twenty-fifth anniversary, and in solidarity with its long resistance and journey of hope for otra iglesia y otro mundo posibles: another possible church and world.

Contributors

Jaime C. Bascuñán is assistant professor in the Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Temuco in Chile’s southern Araucanía Region. In his work, he has also coordinated a project of intercultural-interreligious, Christian-Mapuche dialogue. He holds a doctorate of ministry from Catholic Theological Union (Chicago) and worked for a time in ministry formation in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Marie Battiste is a Mi’kmaw educator, a member of the Potlotek First Nations, Nova Scotia, and professor of educational foundations at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. She holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Stanford and is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is widely published, and her recent books include Living Treaties: Narrating Mi’kmaw Treaty Relations (CBU Press, 2016) and Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit (Purich Press, 2013).

Joanne Doi, MM, is professor of intercultural studies and ministry at Catholic Theological Union (Chicago). A Maryknoll sister, she has served in the southern Andes Mountains of Peru doing pastoral work and economic development projects among Indigenous people. She holds a doctorate in interdisciplinary studies from the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley).

Pedro (jPetul) Gutiérrez Jiménez, of Mayan-Tzeltal heritage, is coordinator of indigenous theology at the Institute for Intercultural Studies and Research in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Previously, he served on the Mesoamerican Commission for Indian/Indigenous Theology and also as an advisor to both the Mexico Bishops’ Commission for Indigenous Pastoral Ministry and to CONAI, the National Commission of Intermediation, during the peace talks between the Zapatista National Liberation Army and the Mexican government.

Stephen P. Judd, MM, is a Maryknoll missionary who served for decades in southern Peru and Bolivia, working in pastoral ministries among the Aymara and Quechua Indigenous peoples, as director of the Andean Pastoral Institute in Cuzco, Peru, and of the Maryknoll Mission Center and Language Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He holds a PhD in the sociology of religion from the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley); he has published the memoirs of his years in Peru as De Apacheta en Apacheta: Testimonio de Fe en el Sur Andino Peruano (Verbo Divino, 2015).

Sylvain Lavoie, OMI, is archbishop emeritus of Keewatin–The Pas in Manitoba, Canada, and has spent over thirty years ministering among the Indigenous peoples of north and central Saskatchewan. Currently, he serves as chaplain and spiritual director at Star of the North Retreat Centre in St. Albert, Alberta, where his ministry includes offering workshops and retreats on Indigenous ministry, biblical spirituality, addictions awareness, the twelve-step program, forgiveness, and healing. He is the author of Drumming from Within: Tales of Hope and Faith from Canada’s North (Novalis, 2009).

Brian McDonough is a lecturer in theological studies at Concordia University (Montreal) and previous director of the Office of Social Action in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal. His archdiocesan work involved promoting human rights, working with community organizations, assisting refugee claimants and asylum seekers, and accompanying prisoners in a perspective of restorative justice. He holds an MA in theology from Concordia and a law degree from McGill University (Montreal). His teaching interests include social ethics, faith, culture and media, cosmology, and eco-justice.

Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef is a Mapuche feminist, political and human rights activist, and has been a leader within the Mapuche Indigenous rights movement in Chile for over thirty years. Currently, she is executive secretary of the Office of Mapuche Pastoral Ministry in the Diocese of San José in Temuco, Chile. She is the author of When a Flower is Reborn: The Life and Times of a Mapuche Feminist (Duke University Press, 2002).

J. Jorge Santiago Santiago is a current board member and past director of the community-based nonprofit, DESMI (Social and Economic Development for Indigenous Mexicans) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. He has a degree in theology from Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and is coauthor of a book on economic solidarity, Si Uno Come que Coman Todos: Economía Solidaria (DESMI, 2001); his 1996 and 1999 interviews with Bishop Samuel Ruiz have been published, respectively, as Seeking Freedom and La Pasión de Servir al Pueblo.

Robert J. Schreiter, CPPS, is the Vatican Council II Professor of Theology at Catholic Theological Union (Chicago). He holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and his many books include Constructing Local Theologies (Orbis, 1985) and The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies (Orbis, 1998). Past president of the American Society of Missiology and of the Catholic University of America, he has also been working with Church leaders worldwide for twenty-five years in the area of reconciliation.

Roger Schroeder, SVD, is the Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture and professor of Intercultural Studies and Ministry at Catholic Theological Union (Chicago). A priest and member of the Divine Word Missionaries, he holds a doctorate in missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. His experience with indigenous peoples includes six years of life and work in Papa New Guinea and almost yearly visits since 1991 to the Lakota reservations in South Dakota. His publications include What is the Mission of the Church? A Guide for Catholics (Orbis, 2008).

Eva Solomon, CSJ, is executive director of the Building Bridges Project in Winnipeg, Manitoba, for Canada’s Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops’s Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs. An Anishinaabe and member of Henvey Inlet First Nation, she has been a Sister of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie for fifty-five years and holds a DMin in cross-cultural ministry. She received the 1999 Christian Culture Gold Medal Award from Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario, for her work among Aboriginal people and in reconciling Anishinaabe spiritual traditions with Christianity.

Roberto Tomichá Charupá, OFM Conv., is director of the Latin American Institute of Missiology at the Catholic University of Bolivia (Cochabamba) and a visiting professor at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure (Rome). Since 2006, he has also served as an advisor to the Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) on issues related to missions and Indigenous theology. Born into an Indigenous Chiquitano family in Bolivia, he is a priest of the Conventual Franciscan order and holds a doctorate in missiology; he has published a variety of books and journal articles in Latin America and Europe.

Francis White Lance, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, is a Sundance leader and Yuwipi man. He is also an ordained priest of the Anglican Catholic Church in America; he holds an MA in theological studies from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (now Bexley-Seabury in Chicago) and an honorary PhD from Winona State University (Minnesota). A descendant of the legendary Oglala Sioux chief, Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse), he has published two books on the Lakota way of life: Why the Black Hills are Sacred and Tasunke Witko Woihanble.

Foreword

The goal of this volume—and the conference from which it came—is to allow Indigenous¹ voices to be heard, voices too long silenced within the church. The conversations represented in the volume are much too rare. In recent decades, progress has been made in the official recognition of the many sins and crimes committed against Indigenous peoples by representatives of the church over the centuries. Formal apologies are good and necessary for going forward in a spirit of repair and reconciliation. But apologies are not enough. After the wrongs—many ongoing—have been recognized, what can we do concretely to take positive steps toward the full incorporation of Indigenous gifts in the body of Christ? What is God doing among Indigenous peoples from which the rest of us need to learn? The contributors to this volume, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, offer compelling reflections on what works and what does not.

There is an ancient Christian principle known in Latin as preparatio evangelica that expresses some of the ambivalence of the encounter of European and Euro-American missionaries with Indigenous peoples. The basic idea is that God was already at work among the peoples of the world, preparing the way for the gospel, long before the arrival of the missionaries. In the hands of a writer like Eusebius, preparatio evangelica indicates the superiority of Christianity over pagan belief systems, whose insights were superseded and absorbed by the coming of the gospel. Preparatio evangelica in this sense can be a tool used by the colonizers to assimilate other cultures. But in a more positive sense, the principle can be a recognition that God has long been at work in Indigenous cultures before the advent of the colonizers and that, in fact, the good news in some way was already there, before the missionaries came with their version of it. The gospel is not something simply brought by the missionaries, but rather something that can happen in the gifts of God that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can offer to one another. The church is a tertium quid, something built anew in this encounter, expressing the genius of every culture but the sole possession of none. I think this is the hope that animates the contributions to this volume.

The conference out of which this volume grew was a collaboration between the Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago and the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University. Michel Andraos of CTU was the driving force behind this initiative, and I am grateful for his hard work and generous spirit. There was a beautiful spirit at the conference; as people told their stories and listened to one another, one could not help but see seeds being planted for a new intercultural church. I trust that some of that spirit shows through in the pages that follow.

William T. Cavanaugh

Director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology

DePaul University, Chicago

1. Editor’s note: I opted for capitalizing Indigenous throughout the book. Most Indigenous academics are capitalizing the word because it is used as a proper noun referring to specific peoples and not in a generic sense; this is now becoming a common practice in academic publications.

Introduction

Michel Andraos

The title of this volume, The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas, takes its name from the international conference jointly organized in November 2016 by the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology (CWCIT) at DePaul University and Catholic Theological Union (CTU).

The relationship between Christianity and the Indigenous peoples of America has received a lot of attention over the past few decades. The commemoration of the five-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the conquest of Indigenous America was a moment of reflection for the churches on their involvement in this violent history. Since the 1990s, in many parts of the Americas, churches have been issuing apologies to the Indigenous peoples for European Christianity’s role in the conquest and subsequent colonization. Unfortunately, the violence of the prior five centuries has not disappeared. Rather, it continues to be the reality that Indigenous peoples of America, from northern Canada to southern Chile, experience in their daily lives and in their relationships with the states, churches, and society at large. As Mohawk scholar, activist, and public intellectual Taiaiake Alfred argues, Indigenous peoples continue to have only one of two options in their relationship with the dominant societies: exclusion or forced assimilation. He writes: In this spiritual and psychological war of genocide and survival, immersed in colonial cultures, surrounded by Settlers, and falsely labeled as citizens of the states which have forcibly integrated them, Onkwehonwe [original or indigenous people] are offered only two choices on the question of culture and identity within the aboriginal paradigm: accept being excluded—and the alienation, loss, and frustration that that situation implies—or choose to become assimilated.² This argument is asserted by Indigenous voices across the Americas and beyond.

The relationship with the churches has not been radically different from that of the states, as most authors in this book attest. While several movements in the churches over the past few decades have been proactive in supporting and defending Indigenous peoples’ rights, and overall many non-Indigenous church missionaries, ministers, and activists paid with their lives for this cause, the situation still requires radical structural transformation and the courage to take institutional actions that are consistent with the churches’ public statements. Noted Indigenous Zapoteco theologian Eleazar López Hernández says that, in this regard, The contradictions between official statements and ecclesial realities are well known.³ Reflecting on this necessary and urgent transformation from a theological and pastoral perspective was the main purpose of the 2016 conference entitled The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. As clearly articulated throughout the book, there is a need for new and different pastoral and theological ways of thinking and acting. The contributions in this book point toward these new ways.

Another important aspect that the contributors in this volume address is intercultural, interreligious, and theological dialogue with Indigenous peoples. What several contributors make clear is that, while church leaders in the Americas, and most recently Pope Francis, have been apologizing for the mistakes that have occurred since the conquest of Indigenous America, not much serious dialogue has taken place yet about what a new relationship with the Indigenous peoples would look like, especially in relation to rethinking the old theology. In his apologies, Pope Francis specifically mentioned the church’s involvement in colonization, and other recent popes—in particular John Paul II—have also apologized.⁴ Yet, there remains much resistance to structural changes from the ecclesial hierarchy. Despite the advances of the Indigenous theology movements discussed by several authors in this book, we are still a long way from the transformations required in mainstream theology and pastoral practices to make them truly intercultural. One key question is left without a satisfying answer: Why are the desired dialogues and transformations not advancing seriously and rapidly enough, given the acknowledged significance and urgency of this task? Advancing this conversation by doing historical, social, and theological analyses for tackling this and other such questions is precisely the area in which this volume hopes to make a contribution.

A group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous theologians, pastoral leaders, and scholars from different parts of the Americas came together to discuss the future of this dialogue in relation to decolonization and reconciliation, focusing primarily on the theological and pastoral perspectives. The driving question of both the 2016 conference and this publication is this: How can theology and the churches contribute to moving forward the processes of intercultural dialogue with Indigenous peoples and become active, responsible actors in the processes of decolonization and reconciliation? Indigenous theologians generally contest reconciliation without a clear and concrete commitment to ongoing decolonization of theology and pastoral ministry. However, as several authors in this volume note, there is not yet theoretical clarity in the churches about what a decolonial theology and pastoral ministry would look like. It remains to be seen how the church structures and ministry that have been heavily shaped by the colonial experience could truly become part of a decolonial turn.⁵ The contributions in this volume, it is our hope, help us to start imagining this new theology.

Pope Francis’s recent address during his January 2018 meeting with the peoples of Amazonia strongly urges the Catholic Church to make taking sides with the Indigenous peoples and advocating for their concerns central to the church and its institutions. As he told the peoples of Amazonia, I wanted to come to visit you and listen to you, so that we can stand together, in the heart of the church, and share your challenges and reaffirm with you a heartfelt option for the defense of life, the defense of the earth and the defense of cultures. In the same address, Francis advocates for a truly intercultural dialogue where Indigenous peoples, their traditions, wisdom, cultures, and spiritualities are the main partners. He concludes his address with a plea for Indigenous peoples to shape the culture of the church and contribute to building a Church with an Amazonian face, a Church with a native face.⁶

This is a big and challenging agenda for the church, and this volume does not pretend to offer a comprehensive discussion of such a complex and critical topic. The contributors offer focused analyses and reflections on certain instances of the relationship between the church and the Indigenous peoples of America. They highlight processes where this relationship is advancing, as well as the challenges, obstacles, and setbacks on this journey. A limitation of the book is that it primarily focuses on these processes within the Roman Catholic context. It is important to note that discussions on this topic are taking place in all the Christian churches and from a variety of perspectives. This book’s primary focus on the Catholic context is simply due to the limited scope of the conference; the discussion in this book is only one part of a much larger conversation and one more step of a long journey.

The book has two main parts. In Part One, Indigenous Theological Voices and Responses, Indigenous authors from five different geographical regions represented at the conference—Canada, the United States, Mexico, Bolivia, and Chile—open the conversation and are followed by a non-Indigenous contributor from the same region broadly responding to their presentation. As the conference did, the book privileges the Indigenous voice in these conversations. The non-Indigenous respondents from each region are all pastoral leaders and/or theologians who have been working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, in most cases for several decades. The stories told in this book are still evolving. The contributors are all key actors in these stories and represent processes of theological and pastoral praxis in their own contexts. They do not represent a geographical region but rather an important praxis in that region that they were invited to discuss, and they speak about their personal stories and their concrete experiences and involvement.

I would like here to briefly highlight the contributions, the authors, and their contexts in order to give the reader some background; I follow the regional alphabetical order, as in the table of contents. Speaking from the Bolivian context, Roberto Tomichá and Stephen Judd tell the story of the recent emergence of teología india, the Indigenous theology movement in the church and the contribution of this theology to imagining an Indigenous autochthonous church. Tomichá, himself an Indigenous Chiquitano Aymara theologian, does this from the two perspectives of Indigenous memory and the current Indigenous theological proposals for imagining a truly intercultural theology in the church. Judd, a Maryknoll missioner in the Aymara region for most of his life, tells the story of the encounter between the Maryknoll and the Indigenous worlds and how teología india has challenged and transformed mission theology—and continues to do so.

The reader will note more contributions from Canada than the other regions, and this is primarily because of the importance of the Indigenous resurgence movements that have been taking place in that country over the past decades; additionally, most people outside the Canadian context know very little about these movements. This new resurgence is a kairos moment and could potentially, in the years to come, make a significant contribution to transform the relationships between the churches and Indigenous peoples, with implications beyond Canada.⁷ Eva Solomon, Indigenous Sister of Saint Joseph, and Sylvain Lavoie, archbishop emeritus of the Diocese of Keewatin-The Pas and an Oblate of Mary Immaculate missionary, are the pioneers who started the Building Bridges organization for promoting ministry from an Indigenous perspective. This organization has been working for over a decade under the umbrella of the Catholic Bishops of Western Canada. Solomon and Lavoie present their insights on the reality of the relationship between the Catholic Church of Canada and the Indigenous peoples, and the current challenges of that reality in light of the findings and final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) on the Indigenous Residential Schools. Solomon shares her story, personal experience, and theological reflection on reconciliation, offering a unique understanding of this context. Lavoie also shares his personal story, experience, and reflections on the current challenges and hopes of pastoral ministry in Western Canada and beyond. Brian McDonough’s chapter provides background and an in-depth overview on the TRC, as well as a reflection on the responses of different entities, focusing primarily on the Catholic perspectives. McDonough, well-positioned for this task, concludes his chapter with a profound and hopeful theological reflection.

The two contributors from Chile—Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef and Jaime Bascuñán—make a particular contribution from the southernmost part of the continent. A lifelong Mapuche leader, diplomat for a short period of time, and now pastoral leader at the Diocese of Temuco, Reuque tells the story of her long journey of trying to reconcile her multiple experiences of being a Mapuche, a Christian, a Catholic, and a woman. Reuque collaborates with the Institute of Theological Studies at the Catholic University of Temuco to develop a program of intercultural and interreligious dialogue with the Mapuche people. Bascuñán describes and reflects on this in his chapter. Even in a region with a Mapuche majority such as Araucanía, where the Catholic University of Temuco is located, intercultural