Chavez hails pope's 'rectification' on conversion of natives
|
| Published on Saturday, May 26, 2007 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Friday hailed what he called Pope Benedict XVI's move to "rectify" comments the pontiff made on the religious conversion of natives in Latin America.
"I think he wisely made a rectification, for what he said in Brazil does not correspond to the harsh and terrible historical truth of what occurred here," the firebrand leftist leader said in a speech at a military base.
Chavez last week called on Benedict XVI to apologize for offending native peoples during the pope's recent trip to Brazil to reach out to Latin American Roman Catholics.
The pontiff had said on the last day of his May 9-13 trip to Brazil that "Christianity was not imposed by a foreign culture," drawing a sharp reaction from leaders of indigenous groups to whom the remark smacked of revisionism.
"Christ was the Savior (America's natives) silently yearned for," the intellectual pope told Latin American bishops in a speech in the Marian shrine town of Aparecida.
On Wednesday he moved to control damage caused by the remarks, acknowledging the "suffering" of indigenous Latin Americans.
Indigenous and missionary groups in Brazil also hailed the pope for revising his comments, which had caused offense on the grounds that colonists in Latin America abused the rights of indigenous people.
The incident followed other damage limitation moves in September 2006, when he inflamed the Muslim world with comments linking Islam to violence.
| | | | Reads : 47 |
|
