I'm getting a little sick of this-
"The Holy Father in Damage Control Mode, Again".
Why?
Because when the Holy Father said that the native people of Brazil were longing for Christ the "leaders" of indigineous peoples were "offended".
Oh no. Not that!
When are we going to get an apology for the brutal deaths of Catholic martyrs who in every age have sacrificed their lives to bring the Truth of the Faith?
I won't hold my breath.
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The problem though that I have with all the reports is that the Pope seems unaware of Romanus Pontifex of 1455, a bull by which Pope Nicholas V notes that he gave Prince Alphonso of Portugal the right to invade and pertually enslave all "pagans"....here is part of the text: " We [therefore] weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso -- to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery..."
When one reads the Pope's comments, he seems to place the Church clerical on the good side only. The Church clerical facilitated both property seizure and enslavement. In 1537 Pope Paul III tried to undo the damage of several Popes of the late 15th century but he seems to have been ignored in favor of the previous bulls and in 1566, after that good Pope, one can see on line in the Catechism of the Council of Trent that slavery was implicitly approved in the section on the 7th commandment (see section on "various names of stealing")....it forbade stealing a man to enslave him but in the same sentence forbade stealing another man's slave since theologians of the time following Roman law held that there were 4 just titles to slavery and one was being born to a slave. That's why for all the anti slavery bulls by about 8 Popes, they were interpreted to exclude the just titles derived from Roman law. That's why England who did not have Roman law but common law was a leader against slavery really and in fact by the end of the 18th century.
The Pope seems unaware of this problem of a Pope (several really) being part of the problem by granting such licence to the Prince... which the indigenous leaders may have read up on since there are indigenous groups who have petitioned Rome for years to denounce the cited bull and others of the late 15th century.
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