The latest Pope Video, Indigenous Peoples, was released today. In it, Pope Francis asks us to "respect indigenous peoples, threatened in their identity and even their existence."
The bespectacled Argentinian white man appears a few seconds after we are shown clips of diverse "indigenous" men and women, including our gross lipped friend.
By the way, the lips, or what's inside them, are officially called "lip plates" and they are perhaps most famously worn by members of the Kayapo tribe in the Amazon.
Let's just say it. Lip plates are grotesque, horrific and disgusting. If any indigenous tradition deserves not to be respected, it's that one. Okay, maybe cannibalism too, but you get the idea.
I'm not just saying that from my own Western point of view. I am confident that an unbiased referee from, say, the Andromeda galaxy would heartily agree.
And, yes, white people do gross things too.
But I want to make a serious point. The Pope claims that he "wants to be a spokesman for the deepest longings of the indigenous people," which as far as the video implies seem to be made up of not much more than body mortification and wearing colorful hats.
That's racist.
The greatest longing that all of have - whatever continent or culture we are from - is to come home to our Father. And I'm not just talking about Catholics or Christians. Every man, woman and child since Adam has had such a longing. It's built in. And it's racist to imply that, say, South American Indians are in any way different.
Of course all of us also have another built in condition, one which is in direct conflict with that longing and has the potential to permanently frustrate it--the disposition to sin.
The job of the Church - in one sense the only job of the Church - is to help us satisfy the first and combat the second.
The Pope seems to think the job of the Church is to relentlessly promote liberal political causes. Ot at least that's the charitable interpretation. And in the Pope Videos (now numbering seven) he ticks them off one by one.
The Kayapos deserve better.
You should read Anthony Esolen's article in Crisis today. He relates of a tribe in SE Asia in which a woman walks deep into the woods with her firstborn infant. She then proceeds to smash its head into a rock feeding the remains of the brain to a sow.
ReplyDeleteVery good commentary Oakes. Francis is appalling. This is all bullshit. He's a New Ager. What would his response to Apocalypto the movie be? That the indigenous people continue to bounce human heads down the ziggurat?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. Oh, he might concede that the Aztecs did have a bit of a "throwaway culture" thing going on but then he would no doubt pivot to discussing youth unemployment in Sardinia.
DeleteMore Papal nonsense. He can only enjoy credibility among the folks who thing Western culture and Catholicism are bad things. Conclusion: Pope Francis is one of those folks. Lord who will relieve us of this troublesome Pope?
ReplyDeleteMy people are indigenous to Poland and their heritage is traditional Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteIt was stolen by the very NuChurch the Pope is pushing. Traditional Catholics are "threatened in their identity and even their existence." Time for NuChurch to respect us.
I am a Roman Catholic. Who speaks for us? Certainly NOT this Holy Father who has abandoned his children.
ReplyDeleteMost Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!