The Church and Human Rights in the Spanish Colonies

"The Catholic Church" is often blamed for perpetrating human rights abuses in the Spanish Colonies. How true is this accusation?

First, we must define "the Catholic Church". The Catechism defines the Church as such: 

"In Christian usage, the word 'church' designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three meanings are inseparable. 'The Church' is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body."¹  

The Church is the People gathered by God, and "draws her life from the word and Body of Christ". She is a community that lives in Christ, and His teachings. Since the beginning of the Church, there have been those among its members who have not lived in His teachings, and have therefore hurt their communion with the Body of Christ. Starting with Judas, and with Annanias and Sapphira, we see that since the very beginning, due to our capacity for free will and our capability of abusing it, there have been those who claimed to follow Christ but did not "draw their life" from His word. Time and again there have been many who have cried out "Lord, Lord!" but did not live in God's word. They were not "the Catholic Church" just because they are members of that church, any more than Judas was the apostles because he was one of them. 

The Church is not merely an earthly organization, and is more than the actions of some of its members. Those who blame "the Catholic Church" for the evil actions of a few blame Christ for the actions of the very ones who betray Him. Saint Oscar Romero once said:

"...you are the Church; you are the People of God; you are Jesus, in the here and now. He is crucified in you, just as surely as He was crucified 2000 years ago on that hill outside of Jerusalem."²   

Here we see the people of the Church called Jesus, and the People of God. The Church is those People of God who let Jesus act through them. The Church is not those who disobey Jesus. Those members who do not act in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, those who do not act as People of God, do not represent the Church, but rather persecute it from within. Just as the innocent Christ was killed for our sins on Calvary 2000 years ago, His Body, the Church, continues to be attacked today because of the sins of some Church members. When the Church is persecuted by secular society because of these sins, the faithful sons and daughters of the Church are crucified with Christ for the actions of their wayward brothers and sisters.

If we want to find out what the Catholic Church as defined as a community of the People of God, living in Christ as members of His Body, is truly responsible for, we must look at the actions of Her members that have been in line with Christ's teaching. In the case of the Catholic Church's involvement in Spanish colonization,