Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers Exaudi readers his weekly article.

FACTS

Since a Jubilee for Indigenous Peoples was not planned worldwide to commemorate the 2025th anniversary of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of the Father, it was organized virtually by the CELAM Commission of Indigenous Peoples, coordinated by Bishop José Hiraís of Huejutla, Mexico, along with the CELAM Advisory Team on Indigenous Theology, chaired by Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, and the Latin American Ecumenical Articulation of Indigenous Pastoral Care (AELAPI), coordinated by Sister Josefa Ramírez of Argentina. Some participated via Zoom, and others through various social media. Despite our publicity, not many attended, perhaps because they were not interested in the subject or because of their multiple occupations. Pope Leo XIV and the Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development sent us a profound message.

There’s a recurring attitude of disdain toward these peoples, as if they were ignorant, foolish, stubborn, half-pagan. They don’t know them! When I began to live with them, as the parish priest of an Otomi ethnic group, San Andrés Cuexcontitlán, I also looked down on them a little, not as people, but in their culture. God granted me the grace to begin to value them, without ignoring their shortcomings like those of other cultures. They are another way, legitimate like any other, of being people, of living in family and in the community, of being believers. As bishop in Chiapas, I was able to live with them more and better understand their dignity and their contribution to humanity.

Since I was their parish priest, from 1966 to 1970, many of them had already despised their own culture due to all the marginalization they suffered. I wanted to learn their language, but the catechists were opposed to it, saying they no longer wanted their children to speak it, lest they be exposed to the same contempt they had suffered. Many indigenous people don’t want to appear as such for the same reason: we’ve made them feel ashamed of their way of being and living. However, we continue to fight to ensure that their culture is valued and not lost. Some of them are also committed to preserving it, as it can serve as a contribution to a dignified life for all.

LIGHTNING

I highlight some phrases from Pope Leo XIV, in his message for this occasion:

“For us, the Jubilee must be primarily a moment of living and personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ of salvation, an occasion for reconciliation, grateful remembrance, and shared hope, more than a mere external celebration. In planning the Jubilee moments, Pope Francis sought to emphasize the universality of the Church, which does not standardize, but rather welcomes, dialogues, and is enriched by the diversity of peoples; it includes in a special way you, the Indigenous Peoples, whose history, spirituality, and hope constitute an irreplaceable voice within the ecclesial communion.

We are a People of brothers and sisters, one in the One. It is from this Truth that we must reread our history and our reality, to face the future with the hope to which the Holy Year calls us, despite our hardships and tribulations. As Indigenous Peoples, we are strengthened by the certainty that One is the origin and goal of the universe, the First in all; the source of all goodness, and therefore, the primary source of all that is good, including in our communities.

The long history of evangelization that our Indigenous Peoples have known, as the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean have so often taught, is laden with “lights and shadows.” There are no schisms among us. The Jubilee, a precious time for forgiveness, invites us to forgive our brothers and sisters from the heart, to reconcile ourselves with our own history, and to give thanks to God for his mercy toward us.

In this way, recognizing both the lights and the wounds of our past, we understand that we can only be a People if we truly abandon ourselves to the power of God, to his action in us. He, who planted the ‘seeds of the Word’ in every culture, makes them flourish in a new and surprising way, pruning them so that they may bear greater fruit. This is what my predecessor, Saint John Paul II, affirmed: “The power of the Gospel is everywhere transforming and regenerating. When it penetrates a culture, who can be surprised that many elements within it change? There would be no catechesis if it were the Gospel that were to change in contact with cultures” (CT, 53). Therefore, in dialogue and encounter, we learn from different ways of seeing the world, we value what is proper and original to each culture, and together we discover the abundant life that Christ offers to all peoples. This new life is given to us precisely because we share the fragility of the human condition marked by original sin, and because we have been touched by the grace of Christ, who shed the last drop of his Blood for all, so that we might have ‘Life in abundance,’ healing and redeeming all those who open their hearts to the grace that was given to us.

In the concert of nations, indigenous peoples must present with courage and freedom their own human, cultural, and Christian riches. The Church listens and is enriched by their unique voices. We also recall the Gospel’s call to avoid the temptation to place at the center what is not God—be it power, domination, technology, or any created reality—so that our hearts may always remain directed toward the one Lord, the source of life and hope.

Therefore, for those of us who, by God’s mercy, call ourselves and are Christians, all our historical, social, psychological, or methodological discernment finds its ultimate meaning in the supreme mandate to make known Jesus Christ, who died for the forgiveness of our sins and rose again so that we may be saved in his name, already from this earth, and then worship him with all our being in the glory of Heaven.

I invite you to renew your commitment to the Lord’s mandate: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will always be with you until the end of the age,” spreading the joy that comes from having encountered His Divine Heart  (12-X-2025).

ACTIONS

Let us no longer despise our brothers and sisters among the Indigenous Peoples. Let us learn to value their culture, which is different from our own, because, through their experiences, which are in conformity with the Gospel, God enriches society and the Church.