Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
September 12, 2001
Bishops address Columbus Day polarization
Desire for reconciliation, compromise needed for peace
Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., and Bishop José Gomez spoke with the Register last week about the continuing dispute among Italian American, Native American and Hispanic groups over upcoming Columbus Day events.
The dispute over the Columbus Day parade is again upon us, with Italian-American groups marching and Native American and some Hispanic groups planning protests. How can these groups move away from polarization and closer to mutual understanding?
Archbishop Chaput: The first thing that's required for any group to move away from polarization is the desire to move away from polarization and to understand the other side. There's a lot of political posturing going on with this issue that makes real discussion and mutual encouragement impossible. Good will exists somewhere in all of this, but it's clouded by public posturing which people then can't back down from, or move away from, because it might seem like they're giving in to political pressure. This way of handling conflict in terms of public protest and mutually opposing marches is not fruitful for building up a community. Surely we can express ourselves in ways that don't exclude dialogue with opposing points of view, but I don't think that's being done.
Bishop Gomez: First of all we should keep in mind the call from the Holy Father in his document "Ecclesia in America" for conversion, communion and solidarity. If we keep those things in mind it will be much easier to work together. In Mexico and some Latin American countries, October 12, which is Columbus Day here, is called the "day of the beginning of a new race." What's celebrated is not just the discovery of America but also the beginning of a new civilization in the New World where at least three different races came together: the European, Native American and African peoples. In Latin American countries, it is really the celebration of a new culture developing as a result of the discovery of America. It doesn't focus on the person of Columbus.
Supporters of the parade see Columbus as a hero for discovering the New World and for bringing Christianity to the Americas, but protestors see him as an oppressor who enslaved indigenous people and committed genocide against them. How should Catholics think about Columbus and other historic figures?
Archbishop Chaput: We need to examine the claims made by both sides in the argument and not to presume that one side is right and other side is wrong, but really examine the dispute ourselves historically. These are very, very complicated issues. I've read some of the material that's been prepared, and quite honestly, some of it's outrageous in terms of [errors in] quoted statistics and even dates. For example, in one of the pieces I read, [16th century Bishop] Bartholomew de las Casas had allegedly circulated a petition about the treatment of native people in the Americas at a certain date — but he would have been 12-years-old at the time. Some of the historical claims made just aren't accurate. I don't think we should ever be afraid of historical truth. But it's also important for us not to use truth in a way that promotes our position, but rather that reflects the objective reality. I'd encourage all parties in this dispute to make certain they have their history straight. When they make claims that can then be dismissed as not truthful, that results in a lack of trust. All of us need to really study the facts and not be afraid of the truth. There seems to be very little of that going on, and a lot more posturing.
Bishop Gomez: We should think of Columbus as a human person with virtues and defects. If we look at the historical record, some things were obviously done in a very bad way. That's clear in the history of the Latin American countries, and also in the United States. But people also need to remember that Columbus brought many good things to the New World — the Catholic faith is a very important thing, and it arrived through the missionaries who came with Columbus. Education is another positive. The first universities in America were founded in Peru and in Mexico. So, a lot of good things came with the new civilization, along with the painful things like diseases and misunderstandings of the life of the Native American people. If we keep in mind what the Holy Father is calling us to do — conversion, communion and solidarity — we can develop a proper understanding of what Columbus means and what he brought to the New World.
Should Columbus be seen as an evangelizer?
Archbishop Chaput: I don't honestly know. I doubt it, but that's just my personal opinion. This is too complicated an issue for a sound bite in a news story. I think some of [Columbus'] writings, his diaries, show that he was a religious man who saw his role as being part of the evangelization, but in others he's trying to make money because he's bankrupt. He's like an ordinary human being who has two sides. How do you say these things in sound bites? [Catholics are] being asked to take sides, and we really shouldn't take sides. The role of the Christian is to bring people together. To acknowledge real sin, real mistakes, but then to look for forgiveness and to be assertive in seeking reconciliation — to take the initiative on that. Too much of this conflict seems to be about maneuvering to get apologies from someone else, rather than to be pushing positively toward real reconciliation of peoples.
Bishop Gomez: I see the trips Columbus made as a means God used to bring missionaries to the new continent. If we want to understand that the missionaries came with Columbus and therefore the faith arrived in America, in that sense — in that very indirect sense — Columbus might be called an evangelizer. But I don't think he can be seen as an "evangelizer" in the direct way we normally understand the word.
Where should we look for the "truth" about Columbus?
Archbishop Chaput: We should turn to historians. And we should make sure that we read a lot of historians because, like all human beings, historians sometimes filter and interpret their facts, as well as present them. It's very important for us to have a broad spectrum of study on these matters.
Bishop Gomez: Research should be done in a fair, honest, open way without predetermined agendas. For a long time in Mexico, Columbus was seen exclusively in a bad light. But in the last 20 to 30 years, the disposition of many people toward Columbus has changed because they've realized that a lot of good things also came through Columbus. With the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, many positive things came to light. When people know the historical facts better, then they can understand and judge the past more clearly, forgive more fully, and also work more effectively to prevent the same evils in the future. No one can deny that there were many abuses. Too often, the treatment of Native Americans was very bad. At the same time, I'm amazed at how the missionaries were able to work with the symbols, language and culture of Native Americans to transmit the Catholic faith. Those are important historical realities in the evangelization of America.
Scholars on both sides of the "Columbus as hero vs. Columbus as villain" issue accuse the opposition of racism. What is your opinion?
Archbishop Chaput: Those kinds of accusations should be very slow in coming. What is racism? It's the disregard or diminishment of a person because of his or her race. One of the huge sins of human relationships is the sin of racism. But I think in this particular debate the real issue is political power, and so I don't know that there's any racism at all involved. I would hope that most people who are parties in this debate really are against racism and could work for reconciliation of racial differences. That's what this should be about, rather than who's to blame. Who's more racist than the other? What good does that argument do for anybody?
Bishop Gomez: I think the "racism" word can be an easy way to escalate a conflict. To make any progress, you have to be open to working with people and things as they are. Many times we deliberately use these negative labels to personalize a debate and provoke an opponent. I don't think that's healthy, and it's almost never productive. Not every bad habit or behavior in a culture is necessarily racist. A lot of things in Latino culture may seem racist to other people, and a lot of things that we Latino people see as racist are unintended habits or frames of reference in other people. Real racism can and does exist in some elements of American culture. But we need to be careful how we use that word. Before talking about "racism" we need to honestly study the facts,
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