This new interview with Sarah Augustine opens our eyes to the current and historical harms fueled by the “Doctrine of Discovery”. We are invited to break the chains of all the oppressed, in this case the Indigenous Peoples. Sarah unveils with profound honesty how the Church, perhaps inadvertently, paved the way for the creation of unjust social structures still very much active in today’s world.
Just one month ago, African theologian Laurenti Magesa gave a prophetic conference at Tangaza College (Nairobi) on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Charles Lavigerie’s anti-Slavery Campaign. In his speech Magesa said that “except for rare cases such as Cardinal Lavigerie, much of Christian evangelization within Africa itself was reluctant to pronounce and declare unequivocally that the Slave Trade and slavery were “intrinsically evil.” Magesa documents the words of Pope John Paul II recognizing and acknowledging this historical oversight in the history of the Church. In John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter of 1994, Tertio Millenio Adveniente (TMA), he openly apologized for what he describes as the “sinfulness” of the Church’s children on this matter. The Pope further noted that “acknowledging the weaknesses of the past is an act of honesty and courage which helps us to strengthen our faith, which alerts us to face today’s temptations and challenges and prepares us to meet them” (TMA 33). It is in this spirit that this interview takes place. We are invited to strengthen our faith as we openly name the “force without a face” behind the “Doctrine of Discovery.”
Sarah invites us to choose life. She says: “To choose Life is to decide with one’s whole being to work on the side of Life, promoting human dignity over financial gain, standing in the way of a juggernaut of endless growth at any cost that Western society defines as mundane, conventional, necessary. To choose life is to stand on the side of the oppressed day after day, even if it means becoming oppressed, because this is what will enable us to retain our humanity, or perhaps experience it for the first time, since all of us are dehumanized by the machines of death.” READ MORE
This new interview with Sarah Augustine opens our eyes to the current and historical harms fueled by the “Doctrine of Discovery”. We are invited to break the chains of all the oppressed, in this case the Indigenous Peoples. Sarah unveils with profound honesty how the Church, perhaps inadvertently, paved the way for the creation of unjust social structures still very much active in today’s world.
Just one month ago, African theologian Laurenti Magesa gave a prophetic conference at Tangaza College (Nairobi) on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Charles Lavigerie’s anti-Slavery Campaign. In his speech Magesa said that “except for rare cases such as Cardinal Lavigerie, much of Christian evangelization within Africa itself was reluctant to pronounce and declare unequivocally that the Slave Trade and slavery were “intrinsically evil.” Magesa documents the words of Pope John Paul II recognizing and acknowledging this historical oversight in the history of the Church. In John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter of 1994, Tertio Millenio Adveniente (TMA), he openly apologized for what he describes as the “sinfulness” of the Church’s children on this matter. The Pope further noted that “acknowledging the weaknesses of the past is an act of honesty and courage which helps us to strengthen our faith, which alerts us to face today’s temptations and challenges and prepares us to meet them” (TMA 33). It is in this spirit that this interview takes place. We are invited to strengthen our faith as we openly name the “force without a face” behind the “Doctrine of Discovery.”
Sarah invites us to choose life. She says: “To choose Life is to decide with one’s whole being to work on the side of Life, promoting human dignity over financial gain, standing in the way of a juggernaut of endless growth at any cost that Western society defines as mundane, conventional, necessary. To choose life is to stand on the side of the oppressed day after day, even if it means becoming oppressed, because this is what will enable us to retain our humanity, or perhaps experience it for the first time, since all of us are dehumanized by the machines of death.” READ MORE
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