The Pope and the Indigenous People

Eight representatives from different Indigenous communities 

sat down for lunch with the Holy Father. 

They included an indigenous priest, 

who was dressed as a normal indigenous man, 

rather than in any particular clerical dress. - VR

I love how the Holy Father goes out to those who have been excluded and exploited, praising their culture and heritage, showing them off to the world, as it were - restoring their dignity.

I'm impressed with this story from Mass with the priests and religious:

Pope Francis referred to Bishop Vasco de Quiroga (1536) in his homily as ‘the Spaniard who became an Indian’. One who spoke of these indigenous people “as being sold, humiliated and homeless in marketplaces, picking up scraps of bread from the ground“. And one the Pope went on to say who far from being tempted to resignation succeeded in kindling the faith in the midst of so much ‘paralyzing injustice’.

[Pope Francis on Tuesday celebrated Holy Mass at a stadium in Morelia, capital of Michoacán, urging Mexican priests, religious and seminarians not to be resigned to the paralyzing injustice of violence, corruption and drug trafficking. - VR]

I hope we all take these things to heart, and strive to avoid complacency and resignation, as well as the 'measuring' out of mercy - or trying to put some sort of 'price' on it.  Those who show mercy, receive mercy - those who analyze it and measure and weigh it receive the measure by which they measure.  We need to open our hearts and not only quit accepting praise from men, but quit being afraid of them.

Bishop Vasco de Quiroga