From Rome, Italy
A study in progress on Inculturation
between Churches and Aboriginal Cultures
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I appreciate feedback on this topic paper -- Bro. Joshua Seidl, SSP
PAULINES AND INCULTURATION
-- Bro. Joshua Makatewikonaweg Minwahjimo Seidl , SSP
Web site: www.hawkdancer.com
Introduction: Buffalo do not live in Quebec, Canada.
Buffalo (bison) graze the Great Plains located between the two costal mountain ranges of North America. Much of this is wide-open grass country. The buffalo are found well into Canada, down through the United States of America and into Mexico. Buffalo sometimes go into the forest to the eastern or western extremes of their traditional territory. Buffaloes seldom climb mountains, though they have ventured into low mountain areas.
Some students of missionology and inculturation may have a good hint why a paper on Evangelisation might begin with such information. Missionaries need to know geography and environment. French missionaries of the early 17th century speciously wrote down that the indigenous people of Quebec were nomads who follow buffalo herds. The Pauline2005-06 charisma course was privy to these findings in an exercise on missionary communications.
In reality, the Iroquois lived in villages and cities. They were not nomads, but something prompted the early missionaries invading their homelands to write and tell other missionaries that they were nomads. It is very likely that those same missionaries never saw a buffalo; and the Iroquois, Wyandotte and Anishinabe of the region would certainly not have said much about an animal that does not live in their territory.
Buffalo cannot survive Quebec's terrain. Imagine how a herd of such huge beasts would be able to stampede through the thick woodland, hilly and mountainous terrain. It is impossible.
The early missionaries imposing themselves upon Native ancestors were financed through the French, Dutch, and English crown governments. Their evangelization was inebriated by an immoral and crass desire to take Native lands, Native wealth and make them slaves or subjects of European crown governments, and to suppress the Natives' sacred inheritance of culture and faith . These missionaries had little capacity to comprehend the great Native American cultures.
Instead they naively, ignorantly or with deliberate intent, inscribed as many negative falsehoods about Natives as possible. This is typical of human nature when they wantonly wage wars of conquest.
Missionaries were caught between the loyalty and love they have for their homelands and the souls of those they intended to conquer. Young, impressionable and enthusiastic seminarians and Religious were taught that Native Americans were wild savage enemies of the Church, without civilization or regard for human life. These prejudices became culturally ingrained and accepted granting the otherwise good and holy missionary the encouragement to convert and conquer through preaching and cannon fire.
Intent of paper
My examination of Pauline inculturation reflects the Indigenous populations' view of past , current and future prospects of Christian evangelization. My own family history places me in a unique position for this paper. My Grandfather and my Great Grandfather were both Midiwin and ordained ministers of the Methodist Church. Mide is the Anishinabe-Ojibwe word for "medicine" or better put - Midiwin are the Aboriginal Theologians of the Sacred Traditions of the First Nation People. There are over 500 Aboriginal nations (tribes) in North America. Anishinabe is one collection of Nations surrounding the Great Lakes Region (West Ontario, Michigan, north Wisconsin and Minnesota). The Methodists are counted among the main line Protestant Christian denominations. I am well acquainted with their example of inculturation of Church and local culture; a ministry they practiced decades before the word "inculturation" was coined, or even used at the Second Vatican Council.
Inculturation envelops the whole Church and the whole culture. St. Paul inculturated the Gospel with the Greek or Gentile culture since the very beginning of his missionary endeavours. "The World is Our Parish." These concepts may have bearing wherever Paulines live.
The term Native American refers to the indigenous or aboriginal people of the Americas.
Part One: Growth and maturity of Evangelization effort
All cultures have inbred biases towards other cultures. The best, most open minded of persons are infected in ways they cannot realize until they speak out or pen the error for others to find. The unintended harm of the prejudicial expression will influence the weak to continue the bias. Let us hope the strong will address the issue respecting the slighted party.
We had to deal with a multitude of culturally accepted biases in the U.S.A. In the events leading up to our civil war of the first half of the 1860's, most Northern Bishops, Clergy and Religious expressed the then popular movements to abolish slavery. Most southern Clergy and Religious justified the continuance of slavery. Both sides quoted St. Paul.
It was another 100 years before the Church in America stepped to the forefront to determine if equal civil rights can be afforded to people of colour. Though it is generally accepted that racial discrimination is a great evil, it has not been eradicated. Freudian slip ups, even among Paulines, show how deeply imbedded racism and the resistance to ethnic diversity are in our cultural make up. These little slip are unintended, naοve or innocently ignorant up to a point. Identifying misconceptions affords the opportunity to apply modern social sciences.
A missionary, author, editor or preacher will act from what he or she has learned growing up as a child in the Church and becoming an adult in the Church. A case in point, that I hope can evoke a little humour today, comes from a very true incident of early Jesuit missionary endeavours in North America.
The French were under the impression that they owned the land rightfully belonging to the Sovereign Five (latter Six) Nation Iroquois Confederation. This is a region covering what is today called Quebec and New York State, and portions of adjoining political boundaries. This was in the late 1500's and early 1600's. They were intent on finding China and India which some believed was located just west of Quebec.
Father Jean Nicolet, SJ, was a French explore and spy back in 1634. The French conquistadors were just then discovering the Great Lakes region. They surmised the great sea-like body of water separated North America from Asia. He set out from the northern reaches of Lake Huron, through the straight of Mackinaw into Lake Michigan. He was so convinced that he found the western rout to China that he wanted to make a good impression upon the Chinese and show them how well acquainted he was with their ways. He donned himself in an elaborate Chinese Robe. He was thus dressed when the Menominee (indigenous) People saw him come ashore into their country. The landing site is now known as Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Geographic ignorance is not confined to a singular incident in 1634. Hollywood produced an action packed movie in the 1990's. The movie concludes when the hero and heroin board a ferryboat from Detroit, Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Any half way decent map will show how ludicrous this is. It is a very long water route. One can drive this much swifter and with greater ease in a matter of several hours. There is no ferryboat landing or service between Detroit and Milwaukee via Chicago.
The French examples, no matter how inane they seem today, had a devastating effect on the indigenous nations of North America. No doubt, the old missionaries acted in good faith from their viewpoint. None-the-less, the violence of racism weighs the same on the victim regardless of the intention of the perpetrator. There is a saying, "The road to Hell was paved with good intentions."
The Christian faith can have adverse affect on indigenous populations if inculturation has not been a prime part of a missionary's training. "Whatever religion they try to inculturate us with, it will have an impact in spiritual terms, which is in a way our Achilles heel, since most of us indigenous peoples approach life from a spiritual level," Luis Macas, a Saragura Indian and president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, remarked to IPS.
The Pauline apostolates and spirituality is well suited to search out genuine history of Native Americans from Native sources. An understanding of Native spirituality and historical traditions still alive within the First Nations can negate the adverse affect of earlier missionary activities. Hollywood myth, and western Euro-American legends, more often than not fanciful and misleading about Native culture and history, must give way to serious study of history; and this is obtainable only from the Native communities. In simple terms, forget what you learned in the cowboy movies.
[This material has been obtained from: Web site: www.hawkdancer.com]
The prime Alberionian example:
Our founder, Blessed James Alberione, is exemplar of examining history, personal history as well as collective. He begins Abudantes divitiae recounting God's mercy. He sheds tears in his colloquies with Jesus, hoping for complete forgiveness, through the intercession of Mary and Saint Paul. [AD 1]
The study of history gave him the opportunity to highlight the ills and needs of peoples, their fears and hopes; especially the need for undertakings and means in harmony with the present century. [AD 101]
Modern concepts in cultural diversity, civil rights, religious freedom, ecumenicalism, socialology and psychology in a theological light are essential to our communication apostolate. These sciences are ever evolving. We need to keep updated.
Looking back at our Founder's written works we find but a few references of how he may have been taken with biased thinking and teachings of the time. Anti-Semitism was a given factor at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. It was so ingrained in social thought, that it entered the teachings of seminary and in houses of religious formation. Alberione was handed a certain degree of anti-Semitism at least from the turn of the century until some time after 1944, perhaps even beyond 1950. By his inscriptions, he in turn passed on these anti-Semitic thoughts to his Pauline children.
He courageously engaged in apologetics against the enemies of the Church. His chief rival , and that of the Church in those days, was Freemasonry. An erroneous connection was made fabricating an alliance of Jews and Freemasons against the Church. It was incorrectly stated that Jews had dominant control of the media. Many people still believe this today.
Alberione is not to be faulted for what others taught him at a very impressionable age in his seminarian and early priesthood development. But, it is our responsibility as Paulines to point out the error and to rectify it so that future generations of Paulines, or any Christian for that matter are not future influenced by these few lines. To minimise the issue as a mere sign of the times is insignificant. It excuses a wrong. Peace is complete only in justice. Acknowledgement, rather than excuses and cover ups, is a measure of justice and reconciliation. It is for this that Alberione began his book, Abudantes Divitiae, seeking forgiveness. His humility in beginning his instructions to us is a blessing and a grace.
Inculturation, the modern approach to Evangelisation
••The examples of St. Paul and of the Mary, Queen of Apostles
The shortest definition I can give for inculturation is: the mutual embrace between local culture and the Church.
The key word, often missing in inculturation efforts is "mutual." Too often this is thought of as "compromise." Inculturation is not a compromise of Christianity, but rather a fulfilling of the Christian message, particularly in the Pauline context. Neither is inculturation a compromise of Indigenous culture. Church and local culture embraced each other in Europe and the Middle East, and else where. Pope John Paul II insisted on the same relationship for Aboriginals of our lands when he asked: why can't it be the same for Indigenous People in the Americas?
St. Paul was all things to all people. He battled with the Elders of Jerusalem insisting that the Gentiles not be required to take on Jewish Culture (the Law) in accepting faith in Jesus Christ. Rather, the Christian message was to enter fully into their cultures, languages and ways. Our Lady of Guadalupe fully embraced Aztec and all indigenous cultures of the Americas in pointing the way to her Son, Jesus the Christ.
The Society of St. Paul has a specific constitutional mandate to promote indigenous cultures: "In those countries where circumstances warrant it our activity will promote indigenous culture as well." [SSP Constitutions 72.1]
The key word here is "promote." No longer are we tempted to tell prospective Indigenous candidates to the Pauline Family to forget that they were born Indigenous, pretend you have no upbringing, or leave your culture out of our Society of St. Paul. This was a common practice for all the seminaries and houses of formation in the Americas. But, the Pauline Family, unlike the others, actually has a constitutional mandate to embrace and to promote Indigenous cultures.
Our late holy father of great memory, Pope John Paul II was like wise very determined that we promote Native vocation and Inculturation fully from within the context of indigenous culture. "Special attention needs to be given to vocations among indigenous peoples: they need a formation which takes account of their culture. While receiving a proper theological and pastoral formation for their future ministry, these candidates for the priesthood should not be uprooted from their own culture."
It is no easy task to accommodate this in the principally non-Indigenous Pauline Family, but it is our goal. The Canadian SSP Region has already published theological and pastoral resources produced through the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre of Ontario. There is so much more to be done, but at least the Paulines have begun. There is still a high threshold of mistrust and ignorance between the Church (including the Pauline family) and Native Americans. There is much to learn. The obligation lies primarily with the non-indigenous Gospel Leaders to learn from the Native Elders and wisdom keepers, the Guardians of the Seven Fires of Prophesy, and the Faith Keepers, from the Peace Shield Keepers and Teachers. Native Peoples have been listening to the Church and the Gospel for over 500 years. So, it is not that Natives need to learn the Euro-Church's way, but that the Church must now learn from the Native Americans in matters of inculturation.
"If the Church in America, in fidelity to the Gospel of Christ, intends to walk the path of solidarity, she must devote special attention to those ethnic groups which even today experience discrimination. Every attempt to marginalize the indigenous peoples must be eliminated. This means, first of all, respecting their territories and the pacts made with them; likewise, efforts must be made to satisfy their legitimate social, health and cultural requirements. And how can we overlook the need for reconciliation between the indigenous peoples and the societies in which they are living."
The Ojibwa Deer Clan does not carry weapons of war. They are poets and song makers. They are taught their whole life to find right words of respect between people, to seek true peace of spirit and hearts among people. The Deer Clan People are a threat to no one. Let their elders bring their gifts to the Church. The average European has no inkling of the vast blessings and grace and peace the Deer People have for the Church and for the world.
The more Paulines bring their media communications, their Liturgical and Pastoral apostolate and all other works in line with the examples Mary and Paul, the better. No one has any right or authority to enter another culture. We may enter by invitation only.
The Seven Sacred Prophesies of the Anishinabe People fore told of a race of fair skinned people that would come into their homelands. The Anishinabeg would know their intentions, not by their words, but by what they bring with them, by what is in their hands:
• "Beware if the Light Skinned race comes wearing the face of death. You must be careful because the face of brotherhood and the face of death look very much alike. If they come carrying a weapon...beware. If they come in suffering... They could fool you. Their hearts may be filled with greed for the riches of this land. If they are indeed your brothers, let them prove it."
The historical relationship between European and American Indigenous cultures has been disastrous for the latter. There is not much trust for the Church as a result of previous missionary action. Actions speak louder than words. The prophecy has been fulfilled. The Light Skin Race came. These new comers had the face of death, for most of the indigenous population died because of the new comers' disease, genocide, and a war that has not ended. They spoke of brotherhood, but killed their indigenous hosts instead. Thus it came to be as it was foretold that the face of brotherhood and the face of death look much alike. They came bearing weapons. They came in suffering; that is, they asked for some land because so many of their children were dying of hunger in the East. Native ancestors were moved, for they were compassionate people and it hurt them to the heart that any child would go hungry. So they agreed to share some land, but the White People came and took it all from them and from their children. They came not because of suffering, but because of greed for the riches of this land.
It should be no wonder that today's evangelist would be looked upon with suspicion. The invitation to enter indigenous communities will not come quick or easy. Native Americans already heard the words of brotherhood and of suffering masses teaming to their land for refuge. The Book of the Gospel was already given them a long time ago by missionaries. It was the same yesterday as it is today. It speaks of brotherhood and suffering. They have always known of these things. The last line of this prophecy is, "If they are indeed your brothers, let them prove it."
Today's missionary cannot prove this to another culture until they first prove it to themselves. It requires Paulines and all Gospel Leaders to bring themselves to the point of genuinely shedding tears in their colloquies with Jesus, hoping for complete forgiveness, through the intercession of Mary and Saint Paul. [Adaptation of AD 1]
Non-Natives, in example of the Church, must accept the indigenous brothers and sisters for all that they are. The Church must hear their story, learn their culture, language and always look up to them, for they are more important. Shepherds appointed by the Divine Master may not approach any culture as if they assume that they are masters to lord it over sheep. The Native walk with God should not be regarded any less than the Euro-American cultural faith encounter with God. The non-indigenous ecclesial leadership must regard Native gifts to the Church as more worthy than theirs. Otherwise, the ministers sin as did Cain who was envious that the Lord was more pleased with his Brother Abel's offering.
"The Church 'recognizes that it must approach these Americans from within their own culture, taking seriously the spiritual and human riches of that culture which appear in the way they worship, their sense of joy and solidarity, their language and their traditions.'"
The early European missionaries wrote that Native people were savages, uncultured wild people, that they had no regard for life, and that they were enemies of God. The next generation of young missionaries believed this. A great many of the Clergy and Religious today have asked questions strongly suggesting that they too have been brought up to believe these fallacies about America's First Nations. Such ministers are not yet prepared to bring the Gospel message into indigenous communities.
Another portion the Anishinabe prophesies says: "A boy will be born to point the way back to the traditional ways. He will show the direction to the stepping stones to the future of the Anishinabe people."
••Could this boy be the Christ Child?
This is for the indigenous elders to discern. If anyone has been given Light on this matter, let him or her be humble and present what gifts of knowledge they have regarding this child. Today's non-Native Gospel leader must study the new sciences of understanding and cultural awareness. For non can enter the indigenous circle of life unless they are willing to give the mutual embrace that is the mark of true inculturation, and be able to prove that they come as brothers and sisters. This requires great skills in communication, and moulding such knowledge for true Pauline application.
"This is especially important among the indigenous peoples, in order that 'the seeds of the Word' found in their culture may come to their fullness in Christ."
There is a heresy common among many who would defend the old missionaries. The modern heretic excuses the abominations saying, "European Missionaries brought God to the Americas."
God was already here. He created all. No one is greater than God to have some dominion over him, or to think God relies on them to be in his own creation. Nor is God so limited that he does not remember what he has done with certain portions of His sacred creation. Many Native American Elders have brought up this concern. It is important to them, that today's Gospel leaders acknowledge that the Indigenous people have always had an intimate knowledge and relationship with God long before they found Christopher Columbus and the first missionaries wondering about lost on their beach heads. We are all related.
A final note on inculturation is to describe with is and what is not inculturation:
It is not:
-1. Inculturation is not granting a minority culture permission to display their cultural heritage in Liturgy but once a year.
-2. Inculturation is not to be limited only to a few Liturgical compliments, while shying from stronger issues.
-3. Inculturation is not to be directed and approved of primarily through the administration of the dominant culture.
It is:
+4. Inculturation involves the whole church and the whole culture. It is enamoured by the First Church - that is family and all of that culture's family structure and spiritual values.
+5. Inculturation is how the Church and local culture interacts mutually benefiting and supporting each other in every aspect of life.
+6. Inculturation heals as does Jesus, our divine physician.
+7. Inculturation is the image of Christ given us in example by St. Paul and Mary, Queen of Apostles. We can look to the other, as well as in a mirror, and see the image and likeness of God.
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