In Bolivia, Pope Francis Apologizes for Church’s ‘Grave Sins’
By JIM YARDLEY and WILLIAM NEUMAN

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia — Pope Francis offered a direct apology on Thursday for the complicity of the Roman Catholic Church in the oppression of Latin America during the colonial era, even as he called for a global social movement to shatter a “new colonialism” that has fostered inequality, materialism and the exploitation of the poor.

Speaking to a hall filled with social activists, farmers, garbage workers and Bolivian indigenous people, Francis offered the most ambitious, and biting, address of his South American tour.

He repeated familiar themes in sharply critiquing the global economic order and warning of environmental catastrophe — but also added a twist with his apology.

“Some may rightly say, ‘When the pope speaks of colonialism, he overlooks certain actions of the church,’ ” Francis said. “I say this to you with regret: Many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God.”

He added: “I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offense of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

Francis, an Argentine, is the first Latin American pope, and his apology comes as he is trying to position the church as a refuge and advocate for the poor and dispossessed of his native continent.

During his visit to Ecuador, and now Bolivia, Francis has made broad calls for Latin American unity — on Thursday mentioning “Patria Grande,” the historic ambition to make the continent a unified world force — even as he has sidestepped some local controversies.

Bolivia suffered stark exploitation during Spanish rule, as silver deposits helped finance the Spanish empire, bankroll European colonialism elsewhere and also fill the treasury of the Vatican. Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, is a longtime leftist critic of the church, yet on Thursday he spoke before the pope and praised him.

Francis’ criticism of multinational corporations and global capitalism has already brought him criticism and suspicions among some who question the leftist tint of his ideas.

Mr. Morales, a fierce critic of American corporate influence, wore a white shirt and a dark jacket bearing a picture of the Communist revolutionary Che Guevara on the left breast.

“For the first time, I feel like I have a pope: Pope Francis,” Mr. Morales said.

Francis has filled four consecutive days with appearances, but other than an environmental critique offered in Ecuador, the pope had hewed mostly to theological topics or broad themes like family, service and mission.

His appearance on Thursday night was at the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, a congress of global activists working to mobilize and help the poor. Some people wore Che Guevara T-shirts while some indigenous women wore traditional black bowlers.

Francis drew cheers when he called on the activists and others to change the social order: “I would even say that the future of humanity is in great measure in your own hands, through your ability to organize and carry out creative alternatives, through your daily efforts to ensure the three Ls — labor, lodging, land.”

Francis repeated his condemnation of an economic system rooted in pursuit of money and profits, but in an aside he criticized “certain free-trade treaties” and “austerity, which always tightens the belt of workers and the poor” — a likely reference to Greece.

“Human beings and nature must not be at the service of money,” he said. “Let us say no to an economy of exclusion and inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth.”

But if Francis again called for change, he also offered no detailed prescription.

教會對你們犯了罪…教宗祈求南美原住民原諒

天主教教宗方濟各九日在玻利維亞最大城聖克魯斯市參加第二屆全球群眾運動組織大會，他演說時把自己定位為全球被壓迫者的領袖，一方面，他為了天主教曾在歐洲殖民統治期間，強迫南美洲原住民信奉天主教，向南美洲原住民鄭重道歉；另一方面，他譴責一些施加撙節方案的機構「遂行新殖民主義」，支持弱勢族群爭取土地、居住與勞動權，並呼籲受壓迫民眾改變全球經濟秩序。

方濟各說，南美洲的天主教教會領袖承認過「曾以上帝之名，對美洲原住民犯下大罪」；一九九二年，時任教宗的若望保祿二世訪問多明尼加時，也為教會五百年來給美洲原住民帶來的「苦痛」道歉，但他要更進一步地帶著「悔恨」道歉：「我謙卑地請求原諒，不只因為教會在所謂的征服美洲期間冒犯原住民，還因為教會對原住民犯了罪。」聽眾報以熱烈掌聲。

此外，方濟各把矛頭對準國際貨幣基金等國際機構及部分已開發國家採取的開發援助政策，他說：「任何機構或國家都無權剝奪人們行使主權的權利。每當它們剝奪人們權利的時候，我們都會目睹新形式的殖民主義興起，這嚴重損害和平與公義。」

出席大會的除了草根運動團體以外，還有玻利維亞原住民領袖與玻利維亞首位原住民總統莫拉雷斯。去年第一屆大會由教廷主辦。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/world/americas/pope-francis-bolivia-catholic-church-apology.html

Video：Pope Francis celebrated mass in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Thursday during his tour of south America.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000003791382/pope-francis-celebrates-mass-in-bolivia.html

2015-07-11．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯李京倫