Indian leaders in Brazil condemn pope

Indian leaders in Brazil are angry about comments by Pope Benedict that they had been "purified" by the Catholic church since Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492.

Speaking to bishops at the end of his visit to Brazil, the pope said:

Indigenous people of the Americas had welcomed European priests after conquest.

Jecinaldo Satere Mawe, chief coordinator of Coiab, an Amazonian Indian group, said:

It's arrogant and disrespectful to consider our cultural heritage secondary to theirs.

The pope said that the people of the Americas had a "silent longing" for Christianity. The pope seems to have a rather warped view of history. I find his statements very offensive. The pope also declared that the Catholic church had not imposed itself on indigenous people. What world is he talking about?

"Since Columbus's landing, millions of tribal Indians are believed to have died as a result of European colonisation backed by the Roman Catholic church through murder, disease or enslavement."

Indian groups sent the pope a letter asking for his support in defending their ancestral lands and culture. The letter stated that the Indians had suffered a "process of genocide" since the first Europeans arrived.

Priests blessed conquistadors as they waged war on tribal Indians.

Indians today are still struggling for survival. Other tribal leaders also criticized the pope. Dionito Jose de Souza, a leader of the Makuxi tribe in northern Roraima state, said: "

The state used the church to do the dirty work in colonising the Indians but they already asked forgiveness for that...so is the pope taking back the church's word?"

Pope John Paul II, in 1992, declared the church had made mistakes in its evangelization of the native people of the Americas.

We repudiate the [pope's] comments," Sandro Tuxa, leader of the movement of northeastern tribes, said.

To say the cultural decimation of our people represents a purification is offensive, and frankly, frightening.

The Catholic church's own Indian advocacy group in Brazil also condemned the pope's remarks. Paulo Suess, the advocacy group's adviser, said:

The pope doesn't understand the reality of the Indians here, his statement was wrong and indefensible.

I cannot understand how the pope can be so ignorant about his church's history and what happened when the Americas were colonized by the church. I find his recent remarks shocking, irresponsible and inexcusable. They also betray a very limited grasp of reality. Wake up.