Abstract
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Brazilian Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga wrote two liturgies of repentance: Missa da terra sem males, which expresses remorse and apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church addressed to the indigenous peoples of Brazil, and Missa dos Quilombos, which repents for the Church’s sins against the Afro-Brazilian community. These liturgies model a way to respond to the moral problems of the Church’s involvement in colonization and the slave trade, as well as its ongoing complicity with racial discrimination and abuse. If the Church wishes to be true to its moral commitments and to act as a relevant force in society, it must acknowledge its wrongdoings and redress the harms it has perpetrated.
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Notes
- 1.
Pedro Casaldáliga, I Believe in Justice and Hope, trans. Joseph C. Daries (Notre Dame: Fides/Claretian, 1978), 9.
- 2.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 19.
- 3.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 28, 30.
- 4.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 204–5.
- 5.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 179.
- 6.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 188–89.
- 7.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 122.
- 8.
Casaldáliga, Justice and Hope, 143. See also Pedro Casaldáliga, In Pursuit of the Kingdom: Writings: 1968–1988 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), 57.
- 9.
Casaldáliga, Pursuit, 61.
- 10.
Casaldáliga, Pursuit, 61.
- 11.
Pedro Casaldáliga and Pedro Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males” (liturgy), Servicios Koinonia , accessed January 12, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426042307/http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/Casaldaliga/poesia/terra.htm
- 12.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 13.
Pedro Tierra is the pseudonym of Hamilton Pereira da Silva, a longtime political activist and more recently Brazilian public official. See Leonhard Creutzberg, “Pedro Tierra,” Portal Luteranos, last modified June 29, 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426043001/http://www.luteranos.com.br/conteudo/pedro-tierra-1948
- 14.
Martín Coplas is a composer from Argentina who traces his ancestry to both the Quechua and Aymara peoples. He specializes in folk music traditions and is particularly interested in the exchange among various folk styles. See Leonhard Creutzberg, “Martin Coplas,” Portal Luteranos, last modified June 29, 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426042641/http://www.luteranos.com.br/conteudo/martin-coplas
- 15.
A 30-minute film version produced by Verbo Filmes intersperses footage from the premiere with scenes from a Paraguayan Guarani village: Cónrado Berning, “Missa da Terra Sem Males,” YouTube video, 35:02, Verbo Filmes, 1979, digitized and posted by Armazém Memória, October 5, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBNqtK-VF5g
- 16.
See, for example, Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males” (liturgy), Servicios Koinonia, accessed January 12, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426042307/http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/Casaldaliga/poesia/terra.htm
- 17.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 18.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 19.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 20.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 21.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 22.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.” For a more extended analysis and critique of the Casaldáliga liturgies, please see Ann Hidalgo, “Liberating Liturgy: Voices of Latin American Theology” (PhD diss., Claremont School of Theology, 2015), https://archive.org/details/HidalgoLiberatingLiturgy51916/page/n1
- 23.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 24.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 25.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 26.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 27.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa da terra sem males.”
- 28.
Selma Suely Teixeira, “Missa dos Quilombos: um canto de Axé,” Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, accessed April 3, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426044116/http://www.dacex.ct.utfpr.edu.br/selma2.htm
- 29.
Hélder Câmara (1909–1999) was archbishop of Olinda and Recife from 1964 until his retirement in 1985. He was a strong supporter of liberation theology and outspoken critic of the Brazilian military dictatorship.
- 30.
Rafael Senra, “A Missa dos Quilombos: Produto Político, Religioso e Cultural,” Darandina 2, no. 3 (2009): 1, accessed April 4, 2015, http://www.ufjf.br/darandina/files/2010/01/Rafael-Senra-.pdf
- 31.
Marcelo Nassif, “Missa dos Quilombos, D. Helder Câmara, Invocação à Mariama,” Blog do Bruxo, June 9, 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426043609/http://blogdobruxo.com.br/page/noticia/missa-dos-quilombos-d-helder-camara-invocacAo-A-mariama-. “Quem somos,” CECOSNE, accessed on Dec. 10, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426043844/http://www.cecosne.org.br/quemsomos.html
- 32.
Nassif, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 33.
Romero Venâncio, “Milton Canta Zumbi na Missa Dos Quilombos: Notas,” Consciência.net, last modified November 15, 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426044305/http://consciencia.net/milton-canta-zumbi-na-missa-dos-quilombos-notas/
- 34.
Senra, “A Missa dos Quilombos,” 1.
- 35.
Venâncio, “Milton Canta Zumbi.”
- 36.
Mev Puleo, The Struggle Is One: Voices and Visions of Liberation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 219.
- 37.
Pedro Casaldáliga and Pedro Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos” (liturgy), Servicios Koinonia , accessed Jan. 12, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20160426042400/http://www.servicioskoinonia.org/Casaldaliga/poesia/quilombos.htm
- 38.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 39.
Teixeira, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 40.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 41.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 42.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 43.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 44.
Casaldáliga and Tierra, “Missa dos Quilombos.”
- 45.
Sylvia Marcos, “ Mesoamerican Women’s Indigenous Spirituality: Decolonizing Religious Beliefs,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 25, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 32.
- 46.
Puleo, The Struggle Is One: Voices and Visions of Liberation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 223–24.
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Hidalgo, A. (2019). Reimagining the Church as a Decolonial Ally: Pedro Casaldáliga’s Liturgies of Repentance. In: Barreto, R., Sirvent, R. (eds) Decolonial Christianities. New Approaches to Religion and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24166-7_14
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