Carlos Caso-Rosendi
Reading the morning newspapers in Buenos Aires many of us were astonished to hear that the Church was mediating between Argentine President Mauricio Macri, and a ‘revolutionary’ political organization leaders that call themselves Tupac Amaru after the name of an indigenous leader of a rebellion against Spanish colonial rule. Tupac Amaru was in fact the last Inca Emperor or ‘Sapa Inca.’ He was eventually captured by the Spaniards along with several of his generals. The trial of the Sapa Inca was pretty much a kangaroo trial. Tupac Amaru was convicted of the murder of some Catholic priests in Vilcabamba and sentenced to be beheaded. Various trusted sources report that numerous Catholic clerics, convinced of Tupac Amaru’s innocence, pleaded on their knees to Viceroy Francisco de Toledo for the Inca’s release. In the end Tupac and his generals were executed. His last words before being hanged were: “Mother Earth, witness how my enemies shed my blood.” The Incas ruled their empire of slaves with an iron fist. Merely glancing at the face of the Inca was enough reason to condemn the poor curious commoner to death. After many generations of the vilest oppression, liberation came riding the Spanish horses. Atahualpa, the last to rule over the full empire was killed after paying a huge ransom in gold. Tupac, his nephew was the last king of the Inca family.
The Tupac Amaru movement of today is what we call a movement for the rights and progress of the indigenous people in northeastern Argentina. For all I know they are no friends of the Catholic Church but practice the ancient aboriginal religions. The person they are interceding for is Milagro Sala, a woman activist known for her frequent tirades inciting violence and mayhem. During the last Peronist administration, Milagro enjoyed nearly absolute immunity, raising lots of money by dubious schemes involving federal funds, allegedly shaking local merchants, and forcing people to enroll in her movement. She is suspected of involvement in various murders. When the new governor of her province took power, he refused to continue dishing millions into the unaccounted pockets of Milagro. In response she began attacking the government with a number of the usual tactics but the strategy backfired and landed her in jail on a strong presumption of various criminal activities. Her lawyers tried to post bail to no avail. Milagro is now in the can for the foreseeable future.
It is remarkable that the Church, some say even Pope Francis, has taken interest in the case and it is now mediating between the Argentine central government and the leaders of Tupac Amaru. Why do I say that? We know that all kinds of disorder flourished in Argentina during the Kirchner era. The Church was then far from silent. The then Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina, Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio was often at the forefront demanding the government to do something about the poor. Of course, it was the government’s awful incompetence what was creating thousands of poor people month after month, so the vehement (and futile) complaints of Cardinal Bergoglio were ignored or rebuffed. In certain provinces like Santiago, Chaco, and Formosa problems like malnutrition and outright starvation began to appear in the news. The government did nothing. We hope the new administration will begin to address the issue but even so it will be too late for the dead children that could have enjoyed a good meal a day for years for the cost of one of the señora presidenta’s Louis Vutton handbags and matching shoes. C’est la vie under Peronist rule, lots of talk from the balcony, lots of fashion and regalia but little food on the table except for the pre-election bags of goodies to buy poor people’s votes.
All of that is over now and the Church wants to help poor Milagro, who allegedly fed on the poor like a vampire through various corruption schemes. There was no such allowance for Cuban dissidents during the last Papal visit to the island of communist enchantment, and I don’t hear much about the political prisoners like Leopoldo López held by Magilla Maduro in Venezuela.
Remember my plea to Pope Francis, a few years ago? There I asked the Pope to see if something could be done to help an innocent priest, Fr Gordon MacRae who has been suffering in prison due to a false accusation followed by another kangaroo trial in the Courts of the State of New Hampshire, United States of Mom and Apple Pie. I have no means to know if something was actually done behind the scenes but I was allowed to see a letter sent by some Vatican bureaucrat to Fr MacRae. Not much more than a “hang in there, buddy” written in a more or less official tone (in German!)
How come a scoundrel like Milagro Sala gets the Church machinery moving, while a most obviously innocent priest gets hardly any attention at all? I am just asking respectfully, I was a prisoner once in my youth. That gives me some rights.
A question that will remain unanswered in our new church so preoccupied with the dark “existential peripheries” of human experience. Such experiences appear not to be all equal. Allow me to paraphrase Orwell; may be some “are more equal than others.”
Carlos Caso-Rosendi 
Carlos, there are many in the Church who are afflicted with the insanity that is political correctness-this is not surprising, Catholics have no special immunity and indeed may be particularly prone to the virus because, as Professor Bruce Charlton clarifies in his excellent book on political correctness, “Thought Prison” (freely available to download), this insanity is a satanically warped form of altruism.
Thus, indigenous peoples are “victims” and share no responsibility for their own situation or for their actions to deal with it. Instead, all is the fault of their “oppressors”. The others you mention do not fulfill the criteria for such “victim” status.
Such attitudes are utterly unChristian as they deny the ability and right of indigenous people to be treated as responsible moral agents with their own free will, but rather as inferior beings deserving of special treatment regardless of consequences to morality or law.
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Mickvet: Here in blessed South America we have had a resurgence of Indigenist movements. They are merely Communism in disguise. For those who know any history it is clear that since the days of Pizarro arriving in Peru (1531) life began to improve for the inhabitants of the Inca Empire. It is true that the indigenous people were abused in some regions. Fr. Bartolome de las Casas, St Francis Solanus, the Jesuits of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay; and others worked to correct those situations with mixed results. That does not diminish the fact that the Inca Empire was a brutal dictatorship. So was the Aztec Empire in Mexico. That was the reason few fought to keep the Inca in his throne. The majority oppressed decided to support the Spaniards and the rest is history. Pizarro and his 200 men conquered a country the size of France and Great Britain combined. It would have been impossible without local allies. During the 400 or so years of Spanish domination there were a few unsuccessful insurrections but it is remarkable that Spain never maintained an important occupation army such as the Colonial British Army in India and other British possessions. When the creole rebellion started with Bolivar, the Spaniards had to send armies from Europe to try to quench the rebellion. There is a lot of work to be done here but I do not think Communism that never worked anywhere, will address the need of our indigenous peoples, who by the way are very industrious and inventive when left alone. The problem we have are the gigantic state bureaucracies that suck the life and treasure from our countries giving nothing in return. That class of bloodsuckers only get worse when the Left takes power. See Cuba with the Castros living in private islands that would be the envy of the richest Rockefeller while the people of Cuba depends of their relatives in the US for simple things like soap and toilet paper. The Church is making the problem worse more so now that political correctness seems to have more weight than the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Thank you for an excellent article, Carlos! You said many things that a friend & I were discussing just a little while ago.
Have you read Hilaire Beloc’s book, “Crisis of Civilization”? I briefly glanced at it while at work a couple weeks ago & was shocked to learn that the criminal amounts of usury being legally charged by banks & other financial institutions are all the work of Protestant ideology! Before the Reformation, economic systems were founded on Catholic social justice principles; thus usury was illegal. In fact, interest of any form was illegal! A lender agreed to accept a portion of any profit made by a borrower.
I looked at our system of government in the US, which we all know, is based 100% on Protestant ideals. For the most part, it works well when it operates according to the Constitution. However, our current taxation schemes are cheating lower income people of their ability to save for “rainy days,” etc. I remembered how my grandparents were able to live on their savings after they retired. The amount they’d paid in taxes while working was very, very small because there were no government welfare programs at any level! The elderly depended on affordable private medical insurance (usually “catastrophic” plans), & lived with their children if they could no longer live alone. The system worked exceptionally well! Low taxes, a living wage being paid to workers (who were primarily the male head of households), no health insurance programs so health care costs were low–most people could afford to go to the doctor or hospital when necessary, no credit cards, etc.,–life was relatively good!
Look at the demonic mess in which we’re living today! Everyone with whom you speak is suffering from high anxiety & depression because of the uncertain world in which we live–nothing stays the same for two days in a row! And the whole mess was planned with the help of satan’s minions! But, of course, most people now believe demons don’t exist; nor does God. Addictions to every drug imaginable, broken homes, majority of kids born out of wedlock, Islam (another tool of satan) on the rampage, a Church that’s been infiltrated by homosexuals, Masons, & every other evil group, etc. But, we’re supposed to believe that this is all “good.”
When will God finally intervene???
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We have to give thanks to God for allowing us to learn from this. There is good even behind the most terrible things, like the Cross. I agree with everything you said here. That is the result of trying to live without God. The Lord is near, He won’t allow this demonic calamity to continue any longer. Remember, this is the year of liberation.
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A priest-friend told me today that many people are telling him they’re dealing with anxiety & depression, things they’ve never had before. They know that the powers of evil are crushing everyone. Every day I look towards heaven, & cry out “Any time now, Lord!!!” (I’m only half-joking about the last statement, Carlos!)
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Join the club! Bear the cross with patience. I am just learning to do that. Evil people will say you’re evil, crazy people will say you lost your mind, the dishonest will accuse you of robbery, etc. This is OUR passion, because we are not greater than the Lord who bought us with His sufferings. When I am under the weight of many troubles I like to think that this is a reverse-mirror of Heavenly glory. All the sufferings here are badges of honor, and stars of joy in the heavenly realm! Christ said: “Take courage! I have conquered the world!
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“Our times demand a more vigorous faith, the purest morals, a most ardent charity, and a greater disposition for sacrifice similar to those of the first age of the Church … and our duty, the duty of the episcopate, the clergy, and the faithful is to prepare ourselves for the encounter of Christ with the world.”
Pius XII, June 2, 1942
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