Categoria: Teologia

A brief account of «the destruction of the Indians» in Brazil

Leonardo Boff4 Comentários

Meditating on the PanAmazon Synod of October 2019, makes me remember what Bartolome de las Casas called «the destruction of the Indians» when he was dealing with Central America.

The first encounter of April 21, 1500, idyllically narrated by the chronicler Pero Vaz de Caminha, soon turned into a profound disappointment: due to the greed of the colonizers there was no reciprocity between the Portuguese and the Indigenous people. Rather, it was a confrontation, unequal and violent, with disastrous consequences for the future of all Native Nations.

As in the entire Latin American continent, the Indigenous people were deprived of their status as human beings. Even in 1704, the Aguiras Chamber, in Ceara, Brazil, wrote in a letter to the king of Portugal that “there is no need for missions with these barbarians because they have only the form of humans, and whoever says anything different is clearly wrong.” Before Pope Paul III had to intervene, and with the Papal Bull Sublimis Deus of July 9, 1537, he proclaimed the absolute dignity of the Indigenous peoples as true human beings, free peoples and owners of their lands.

Due to the white invader’s diseases, against which the Indigenous people had no immunity: flu, chickenpox, measles, malaria and syphilis; to the Cross and the sword; the degradation of their lands, making hunting and farming impossible; because of slavery; the wars officially declared by Don João VI on May, 1808, against the Krenak in the Rio Dulce Valley; the systematic humiliation and denial of their identity… the five million indigenous were reduced to the current 930.000. The virtual eradication for political purposes of the Indigenous peoples was accomplished, either by forced acculturation, spontaneous and planed misogynistic practices, or by pure and simple genocide, much as Brazil’s General Governor, Mendes Sá, did with the Tupiniquim of Iheus: “The corpses were placed along the beaches, aligned in the extension of a legua.” In recent times, when the great highways and the hydroelectric damns in the Amazon were opened, chemical defoliants, helicopter attacks and low level flights of airplanes were used against the Indigenous populations, plus bacteria that were intentionally introduced.

We need quote only one paradigmatic example that reflects the logic of the “destruction of the Brazilian Indians”. In the beginning of the Twentieth century, when Dominican Friars created a Mission on the banks of the Araguaia River, 6 to 8.000 Kaiapo, were at war with the collectors of natural rubber of the region. By 1918 they had been reduced to 500. In 1927 there were 27, and in 1958 there was only one surviving Kaiapo. In 1962 the Kaiapo were declared extinct in the whole region.

With the annihilation of more than a thousand nations in 500 years of Brazilian history, a human inheritance, built over thousands of years of cultural work, dialogue with nature, creation of languages and construction of a world vision friendly to life and respectful of nature, disappeared forever. We are all poorer without them.

The nightmare of a Native Terena, related by one who knows well the souls of Brazilians and the Indigenous, shows the impact of this demographic devastation on people and nations: “I went to the old Guarani cemetery in the Reserve, and saw a big cross. Some white men came and nailed me face down to that cross. They left and I lay there, desperate, nailed to the cross. Suddenly I awoke, filled with fear” (Roberto Gambini, The Indigenous Mirror, (El espejo indio, Rio de Janeiro 1980, p. 9).

This fear, due to the continuous aggression of the barbarian white (who arrogantly calls himself civilized), has been converted in the Indigenous populations into terror of being exterminated forever from the face of the Earth.

Thanks to the Indigenous organizations and the new protectionist state laws, the support of civil society and the Churches, and to international pressure, the Indigenous nations are strengthening and growing in numbers. Their organizations reveal the high level of consciousness and articulation they have accomplished. They experience themselves as adult citizens who want to participate in the destiny of the national community, without renouncing their identity, cooperating with other historical subjects, sharing their cultural, ethical and spiritual wealth.

Still, the form of the Brazilian State, especially under the Bolsonaro government, is extremely offensive to their dignity. It threatens and mistreats them through its Indigenous policies, as if they were primitive and puerile. In fact, the Native people have an integrity that we Westerners, who are hostages to a paradigm of civilization that divides, atomizes and sets one against the other to totally dominate, have lost. The Indigenous people are the guardians of the sacred and complex unity of the human being with others, immersed in nature, of which we all are part and parcel. They preserve the happy consciousness of our belonging to the Whole and the eternal alliance between heaven and Earth, the origin of all things.

When, in October 1999, I encountered, in Umeo, the Samis,the Indigenous Norwegians, they first asked me a question before our conversation:

– Do the Brazilian Indigenous keep the marriage of heaven and Earth?

I immediately understood the question and firmly answered:

– But of course, they maintain this marriage, because from the marriage between heaven and Earth all things are born.

They happily replied:

– “Then they still are as truly Indigenous as we. They are not like our brothers from Stockholm who have forgotten heaven and only stayed with the Earth. This is why they are unhappy and so many commit suicide. If we maintain the unity of heaven and Earth, of spirit and matter, the Great Spirit and the human spirit, we will then save humanity and our Great Mother Earth”.

That surely is the great mission of the Original Peoples and the enormous challenge to help us save our Pacha Mama, our Mother Earth, who generates and supports us all and without which nothing in this world is possible.

We need to listen to their message and join in their commitment, to be, as they are, witnesses to the beauty, wealth and vitality of Mother Earth.

Leonardo Boff Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher and  of the Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Un desafío: salvaguardar la unidad de la familia humana

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

Existe el peligro real de que la familia humana se bifurque en dos. Una, la de aquellos que se benefician de los avances tecnológicos de la biotecnología y nanotecnología y disponen de todos los medios posibles de vida y de bienestar, cerca de mil seiscientos millones de personas, pudiendo prolongar la vida hasta los 120 años, que corresponde a la edad posible de las células. Y la otra humanidad, los más de cinco mil cuatrocientos millones restantes, barbarizados, entregados a su suerte, pudiendo vivir como mucho hasta los 60-70 años con las tecnologías convencionales, en un cuadro perverso de pobreza, miseria y exclusión.

Este foso proviene del horror económico producido en la escena histórica por la dominación del capital globalizado, especialmente del especulativo, bajo la regencia cruel del neoliberalismo radical. Considerándose triunfante frente al socialismo real, cuyo derrocamiento se dio a finales de los años 80, aquel ha exacerbado sus principios: la competición, el individualismo, la privatización, la difamación de todo tipo de política y la satanización del Estado, reducido al mínimo. Cerca de 200 megacorporaciones, cuyo poder económico equivale al de 182 países, dirigen, junto con los organismos del orden capitalista como el FMI, el Banco Mundial y la Organización Mundial del Comercio, la economía mundial según el principio de la competición, sin el más mínimo sentido de cooperación ni de respeto ecológico hacia la naturaleza. Todo se ha vuelto mercancía, desde el sexo a la religión, en un deseo de acumulación desenfrenada de riquezas y servicios a costa de la devastación de la naturaleza y de la precarización ilimitada de los puestos de trabajo.

El peligro consiste en que los muy ricos creen un mundo sólo para ellos, que rebajen los derechos humanos a una necesidad humana que debe ser atendida por los mecanismos del mercado (por lo tanto sólo tiene derechos quien paga y no quien es simplemente una persona humana), que hagan de los diferentes desiguales y de los desiguales no semejantes, a los cuales se les niega prácticamente la pertenencia a la especie humana. Son otra cosa, aceite quemado, ceros económicos.

En Occidente, que hegemoniza el proceso de globalización, la idea de igualdad nunca triunfó políticamente: Quedó limitada al discurso religioso-cristiano, de contenido idealista. Ese déficit de una cultura igualitaria favorecería la bifurcación de la familia humana. Puede triunfar una edad de las tinieblas mundial que se abatiría sobre toda la humanidad. Sería volver a la barbarie.

El desafío a ser enfrentado es hacer todo lo necesario para mantener la unidad de la familia humana, habitando la misma Casa Común. Todos somos Tierra, hijos e hijas de la Tierra, y para los cristianos, creados a imagen y semejanza del Creador, hemos sido hechos hermanos y hermanas de Cristo y templos del Espíritu. Todos tienen derecho a ser incluidos en esta Casa Común y a participar de sus dones.

Para dar cuerpo a este desafío necesitamos una ética humanitaria distinta, que implica rescatar los valores ligados a la solidaridad, la empatía y la compasión. Es importante recordar que fue la solidaridad/cooperación la que permitió a nuestros antepasados, hace algunos millones de años, dar el salto de la animalidad a la humanidad. Cuando salían a recolectar alimentos no los comían individualmente, como hacen los animales, sino que reunían los frutos y la caza, los llevaban a su grupo de iguales y los repartían solidariamente entre todos. De este gesto primordial nació la sociabilidad, el lenguaje y la singularidad humana. Será todavía la solidaridad irrestricta, a partir de abajo, la compasión que se sensibiliza ante el sufrimiento del otro y de la Madre Tierra, la que garantizará el carácter humano de nuestra identidad y de nuestras prácticas. Vergonzosamente fue lo que les faltó a los grandes acreedores internacionales que, ante la tragedia del tsunami del sudeste asiático, no perdonaron los 26 mil millones de deuda de aquellos países flagelados. Solamente pospusieron un año el pago.

Sin el gesto del buen samaritano que se inclina sobre los caídos a la vera del camino o la voluntad de infinita compasión del bodhisatwa, que renuncia a penetrar en el nirvana por amor a la persona que sufre, al animal quebrantado o al árbol reseco, difícilmente haremos frente a la inhumanidad cotidiana que se está naturalizando a nivel brasilero y mundial.

En la perspectiva de los astronautas, de aquellos que tuvieron el privilegio de ver la Tierra desde fuera de la Tierra, Tierra y Humanidad forman una sola entidad, compleja pero una. Ambas están ahora amenazadas. Ambas tienen un mismo destino común y se enfrentan juntas al futuro. Su salvaguarda constituye el contenido principal de un sueño ancestral: todos sentados a la mesa, en una inmensa comensalidad, disfrutando de los frutos de la buena y generosa Madre Tierra.

Si el cristianismo y los demás caminos espirituales no ayudan a realizar este sueño y no llevan a las personas a concretarlo, no habremos cumplido la misión que el Creador nos reservó en el conjunto de los seres, que es la de ser el ángel bueno y no el satán de la Tierra. No habremos escuchado ni seguido a Aquel que dijo: “Vine a traer vida y vida en abundancia” (Jn 10,10).

Es importante que tomemos conciencia de nuestra responsabilidad, sabiendo que ninguna preocupación es más fundamental que cuidar de la única Casa Común que tenemos y lograr que toda la familia humana, superando las contradicciones que existen siempre, pueda vivir unida dentro de ella con un mínimo de cuidado, de solidaridad, de hermandad, de compasión y de reverencia ante el Misterio de todas las cosas, que producen la discreta felicidad durante el corto tiempo que nos es concedido pasar por este pequeño, bello y radiante Planeta.

¿Una utopía? Sí, pero necesaria si queremos sobrevivir.

*Leonardo Boff ha escrito: Proteger la Tierra- salvar la vida. Cómo escapar del fin del mundo, Record, Rio 2010.

Traducción de Mª José Gavito Milano

Um desafio: a salvaguarda da unidade da família humana.

Leonardo Boff7 Comentários

Há o risco real de que a família humana seja bifurcada, entre aqueles que se beneficiam dos avanços tecnológicos, da biotecnologia e nanotecnologia e dispõem de todos os meios possíveis de vida e de bem-estar, cerca de 1,6 bilhões de pessoas, podendo prolongar a vida até aos 120 anos que corresponde à idade possível das células. E a outra humanidade, os restantes mais de 5,4 bilhões, barbarizados, entregues à sua sorte, podendo viver, se tanto, até os 60-70 anos com as tecnologias convencionais num quadro perverso de pobreza, miséria e exclusão.

Esse fosso deriva do horror econômico que tomou a cena histórica sob a dominação do capital globalizado especialmente do especulativo sob a regência cruel do neoliberalismo radical. Considerando-se triunfante face ao socialismo real cuja derrocada se deu no final dos anos 80, exacerbou seus princípios como a competição,o individualismo, a privatização e a difamação de todo tipo de política e satanização do Estado, reduzido ao mínimo. Cerca de 200 megacorporações, cujo poder econômico equivale a 182 países, conduzem junto com os organismos da ordem capitalista como o FMI, o Banco Mundial e a Organização Mundial do Comércio a economia mundial sob o princípio da competição sem qualquer sentido de cooperação e de respeito ecológico da natureza. Tudo é feito mercadoria, do sexo à religião, numa volúpia de acumulação desenfreada de riquezas e serviços à custa da devastação da natureza e da precarização ilimitada dos postos de trabalho.

O risco consiste em que os muito ricos criem um mundo só para si, que rebaixem os direitos humanos a uma necessidade humana que deve ser atendida pelos mecanismos do mercado (portanto só tem direitos quem paga e não quem é simplesmente pessoa humana), que façam dos diferentes desiguais e dos desiguais dissemelhantes, aos quais se nega praticamente a pertença à espécie humana. São outra coisa, óleo gasto,zeros econômicos.

No Ocidente que hegemoniza o processo de globalização, a ideia de igualdade politicamente nunca triunfou. Ela ficou limitada ao discurso religioso-cristão, de conteúdo idialístico. Esse déficit de uma cultura igualitária impediria a bifurcação da família humana. Pode triunfar uma idade das trevas mundial que se abateria sobre toda a humanidade. Seria a volta da barbárie.

O desafio a ser enfrentado é fazer tudo para manter a unidade da família humana, habitando a mesma Casa Comum. Todos são Terra, filhos e filhas da Terra, para os cristãos, criados à imagem e semelhança do Criador, feitos irmãos e irmãs de Cristo e templos do Espírito. Todos têm direito de serem incluídos nesta Casa Comum e de participarem de seus dons.

Para dar corpo a este desafio precisamos de uma outra ética humanitária que implica resgatar os valores ligados à solidariedade, à empatia e à compaixão. Importa recordar que foi a solidariedade/cooperação que permitiu a nossos ancestrais, há alguns milhões de anos, darem o salto da animalidade à humanidade. Ao saírem para coletar alimentos, não os comiam individualmente como o fazem os animais. Antes, reuniam os frutos e a caça e os levavam para o grupo de co-iguais e os repartiam solidariamente entre todos. Deste gesto primordial nasceu a socialidade, a linguagem e a singularidade humana. Será hoje ainda a solidariedade irrestrita, a partir de baixo, a compaixão que se sensibiliza diante do sofrimento do outro e da Mãe Terra, que garantirão o caráter humano de nossa identidade e de nossas práticas. Foi o que vergonhosamente faltou aos grandes credores internacionais que face à tragédia do tsunami do sudeste da Ásia não perdoaram os 26 bilhões de dívidas daqueles países flagelados, Apenas protelaram por um ano, o seu pagamento.

Sem o gesto do bom samaritano que se verga sobre os caídos da estrada ou a vontade de infinita compaixão do bodhisatwa que renuncia penetrar no nirvana por amor à pessoa que sofre, ao animal quebrantado ou à árvore mirrada, dificilmente faremos frente à desumanidade cotidiana que está se naturalizando a nível brasileiro e mundial.

Na perspectiva dos astronautas, daqueles que tiveram o privilégio de ver a Terra de fora da Terra, Terra e Humanidade formam uma só entidade, complexa mas una. Ambas estão agora ameaçadas. Ambas possuem um mesmo destino comum e comparecem juntas diante do futuro. Sua salvaguarda constitui o conteúdo maior de um ancestral sonho: todos sentados à mesa, numa imensa comensalidade, desfrutando dos frutos da boa e generosa Mãe Terra.

Se o cristianismo e os demais caminhos espirituais não ajudarem a realizar esse sonho e não levarem as pessoas a concretizá-lo, não teremos cumprido a missão que o Criador nos reservou no conjunto dos seres, que é a de sermos o anjo bom e não o Satã da Terra. Nem teremos escutado e seguido Aquele que disse: “Vim trazer vida e vida em abundância”(Jo 10,10).

Importa conscientizarmo-nos de nossa responsabilidade, sabendo que nenhuma preocupação é mais fundamental do que cuidar da única Casa Comum que temos e de alcançar que toda a família humana, superando as contradições sempre existentes, possa viver unida dentro dela com um mínimo de cuidado, de solidariedade, de irmandade, de compaixão e de reverência que produzem a discreta felicidade pelo curto tempo que nos é concedido passar por esse pequeno, belo e radiante Planeta.

Uma utopia? Sim, mas necessária se quisermos sobreviver.

Leonardo Boff escreveu:Proteger a Terra- salvar a vida. Como escapar do fim do mundo, Record, Rio 2010.

How the Pan Amazon Synod could surprise us

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

The «Pan-Amazon Synod» is taking place in Rome from October 6th to the 27th. In 1974, Pope Paul VI instituted the concept of the Synod: first were the «Synod of Bishops», with representatives from every continent, and the «Regional Synods», such as the 1980 Synod of the Dutch Bishops and the Synod of the German Bishops, that is being celebrated in 2019, among others.

The Synod, that etymologically means “to make together (syn) the path (odos)” is an opportunity for local or regional churches to take the pulse of their ministries, analyzing problems, identifying challenges and seeking together ways to implement and realize the Gospel.

The Pan Amazon Synod has special relevance, for the twin levels of consciousness manifested in its basic theme: “New paths for the Church and for the integral Ecology”. It is about defining a new form of the Church’s presence in the American continent, particularly in the vast Amazon region that spreads over 9 countries, in an expanse of more than 8 million square kilometers. The other form of consciousness is seen in the importance of the Amazon to the Earth’s equilibrium and the future of life and humanity.

The Roman Catholic Church in the American continent and the Amazon region was a mirror of the mother-Church of Europe. After five centuries, it has transformed itself into a source-Church, with an Afro-Indigenous-European face. In his opening homily of the Synod, on October 4th, Pope Francis openly said: ”How many times has God’s gift been… not offered, but imposed! How many times has there been colonizing instead of evangelizing! May God save us from a new colonialism”.

On another occasion, in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, he asked for forgiveness–something never before done by a Pope–: ”I humbly ask for forgiveness” Francis said, “not only for the offenses committed by the Church herself, but for the crimes against the original peoples that took place during the conquest of the American continent”.

The «Instrument of Work» to prepare the Synod, asks that “viri probati”, this is, married men, proven to be honorable, especially indigenous men, be ordained priests. Dom Erwin Kräutler,Bishop Emeritus of Xingu, the largest diocese in the world, suggested to Pope Francis that in place of the term viri probati (honorable men) the term personae probatae (honorable persons), which would also include women, should be used. Dom Erwin says: in the communities women do everything that the priest does, except consecration of the bread and wine. Why not allow them this mission as well? Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God; the women, her sisters, why cannot they represent him? Moreover, the text says that women will be given a special mission. It could be, as in all the other Christian Churches, that women too, in their own way, be priests.

This Pope is innovative and courageous. The best theologians say that neither dogma nor doctrine precludes women from representing Christ. Theologically speaking, the priest is not the one who consecrates. Christ does that. The priest only lends visibility to the act. At present, the only roadblock is the patriarchy.

The most important and acute question is safeguarding the Amazon biome. That vast region has been studied by the greatest scientists for at least two centuries. As Euclides da Cunha said in his Amazon essays:“Human intelligence could not support the weight of the portentous reality of the Amazon; human intelligence would have to grow with her, adapting to her, to dominate her” (Vozes 1976, p. 15). The Amazon is the world’s greatest filter. It captures carbon dioxide, returning oxygen to us, and mitigates global warming. Its biodiversity is such that “in few hectares of the Amazon jungle there exists a greater number of species of plants and insects than all the flora and fauna of Europe”, says the great specialist E. Salati.

But its most important meaning lies in the immensity of its waters, be they those of the flying rivers (the tremendous humidity of the trees, that rises above the jungles), the surface waters of the rivers, or the immense aquifer Alter do Chão. If we do not preserve the jungle, the Amazon will be turned into a desert, like the Sahara, that some 15 thousand years ago was like the Amazon, with the Nile river flowing into the Atlantic If the Amazon is deforested, fifty billion more tons of carbon dioxide annually would be released into the atmosphere, making life impossible in the South of the continent.

Pope Francis referred to the fate of the Amazon when analyzing the present global situation:“the Earth is ever more interconnected and the peoples that inhabit it are part of the planet’s community, for example, the problem of the fires in the Amazon is a problem not only for the Amazon region… is a world problem, as is the migratory problem”.

Awareness that the Amazon biome is a «Common Good of the Earth and of Humanity» is growing. The cry of each country’s sovereignty still exists in the old paradigm that divides up the planet… Today it is important to reunite those parts and recreate the reality that there is but one, a whole: the Common Home for us and for the entire «Community of Life»… Brazil does not own the Amazon (63%); Brazil is only its current administrator –under a new government– of a highly irresponsible form. It pays little attention to the fires and, when it deals with the minerals, the oil, and other wealth, it supports huge projects that threaten the Native peoples — those who know how to care for and to preserve the jungle– and the ecological equilibrium of the whole Common Home.

There is a project supported by scores of caciques, bishops. authorities, scientists and others that will be presented in the Synod, to declare “The Amazon, ¡intangible sanctuary of the Common Home!”.

UNESCO has already registered several biomes in many countries; why not do so with the Amazon, where the future of the Earth’s vitality and human civilization is at stake?

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher of the Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.