This cartoon reminds me of Pope Francis' visit to a remote, traditional, and obviously poor indigenous population in Latin America where the journalist asked one of the participants what he would like to change. The man, obviously of pure Indian blood, not young, caught somewhat off guard, with the greatest meekness, said: "Change?...That it not change."
Then, at the Mass, where "the Native language" was grossly exaggerated, for it was obvious that the people and even the liturgical "ministers" in the liturgy who were speaking those tongues had no clue what they were saying or how to say it, at the moment of the "Pater" the Holy Father invited everyone to say the Pater Noster in his own language. The entire assembly resounded with the "Padre Nuestro" in perfect Spanish! It was obvious that the Native language of those indigenous peoples was Spanish.
The journalists repeatedly claiming that many of the people there spoke a Native language and not Spanish, as they scanned the crowd and stopped one group of Natives after another, they were all, without exception, speaking Spanish!
This also calls to mind the proposal at the African Synod some years ago when some of the European cardinals, putting forward the idea of an African Rite, when exploring what language such a Rite might use they were surprised that the African bishops suggested Latin, the language of the Church, as their common liturgical tongue!
We give them condoms and computers but don't dare teach them any Latin, that's too Eurocentric.
We give them condoms and computers but don't dare teach them any Latin, that's too Eurocentric.
