Pachamama: Understanding the Issue of Inculturation

By Fr Glen Fernandes –

The word ‘Pachamama’ has created a significant uproar among the leaders and thinkers of the Church. We live in India, where we are surrounded by people who worship various “gods”, referred to in the Bible and Church tradition as “idols”. Those who worship idols are sometimes referred to as pagans or polytheists.

As Catholics, we face a dilemma when we have to participate in inter-religious dialogue. There are many who oppose the very idea of sitting together with people of other faiths. How can we find a common ground for dialogue with them? On the other hand, we are sometimes accused of worshiping many idols because we have statues and images of many saints in our houses and churches. The idea of inculturation is also confusing to many. The “Pachamama problem” is very relevant when we reflect on Christian life in India. What exactly is this problem?

Several statues depicting a naked woman with a child in her womb were featured in ceremonies during last month’s Synod, or bishops’ meeting, on the future of Catholicism in the Amazon. There was confusion regarding the nature of these images. Some claimed they were an indigenous representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Others said they were merely a symbol of “life” or “fertility” which was meaningful to indigenous people.

But others, particularly conservative Catholic clergy, historians and intellectuals from around the world, considered them to be idols of Pachamama, a “pagan” fertility goddess worshipped by people in the Andean region in South America. They considered the display and apparent worship of such statues a grave scandal, and lambasted Holy Father for allowing “idolatrous worship” to take place in the Vatican. Two of these men went so far as to take violent action: they stole the Pachamama idols from a church near the Vatican and threw them into the Tiber River. They were soon recovered, but by then the damage was already done. In a subsequent open letter, traditionalist Catholics accused the Pope of indulging in “sacrilegious and superstitious acts” during the Synod.

What, actually, were these “Pachamama” idols?

The statues were simply indigenous craft items, carved by local people. They served as part of a cultural display for Amazonian Catholics. However, the problem arose when these statues were given prominence in what looked like worship or veneration. Two opposing views arose with regard to this situation. According to the first point of view, though these indigenous images may have had pagan origins of some kind, they were not “idols” and were not given divine worship. Several Christian customs, such as Halloween pumpkins, the Christmas tree, and Easter eggs also have pagan origins, but are now accepted as a harmless part of a wider Christian culture.

Also, some of the participants at the Synod stated that these statues were Catholic pro-life images. They were symbols of motherhood, birth, pregnancy and the sanctity of life. In a larger way, they were also symbols of the ecological life of the Amazonian region and highlighted the life of that area of God’s creation. The Vatican officials denied that the images were of the Blessed Virgin, and they could not be considered as a depiction of “Our Lady of the Amazon”. Therefore, the apparent “worship” of these statues was no different from as a Catholic who might light a candle before an image, kneel down to pray and put money in the collection box next to the candle. It was all Catholic, but Amazonian Catholic.

However, the opposing view were of the opinion that the display and reverence shown to these statues was scandalous. Regardless of intent, the statues seemed to be idols representing the earth mother goddess Pachamama, who is worshipped with pagan rituals all across South America. These rituals include presenting offerings to her, lighting candles, and praying to her for protection, prosperity, peace and good luck. The ritual in the Vatican garden and in St Maria Transpontina looked similar to the pagan practices of offering gifts to “the earth mother”. And while Catholics may venerate images of Saints, they do not worship them – and they certainly do not perform ceremonies before symbols that might be mistaken for pagan earth mother idols. Such actions would be in direct contradiction to the Catholic faith, and they should have been corrected and excluded from a Catholic church. If the ceremonies were not pagan in their intent and practice, then clarification and explanation should have been provided so that the faithful who do not understand Amazonian culture would not be scandalized.

How do we resolve these two, apparently contradictory viewpoints? The answer lies in a better understanding of the history of the Catholic Faith. Since its foundation, the Catholic Church has been replacing different idols with the presence and images of the true God, as well as depictions of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. During the persecution of Christians in the Roman era prior to the reign of the Emperor Constantine, many Christians were martyred for refusing to worship idols, such as depictions of the Roman Emperor as a “god”.

However, once Christianity grew and flourished in Rome, the Church began to cautiously assimilate the symbols and feast days of pre-Christian Rome, and purify them by connecting them to faith in Jesus Christ rather than in Roman “gods”. Similar phenomena have encountered wherever the Church has come into contact with non-Christian religions. Often, this has included incorporating certain native customs and cultural aspects into the Catholic system, because our worship also is influenced by the place we live. For example, Catholics in some parts of Africa worship according to the “Zaire Rite”, a liturgical variation which includes processions adapted from local African culture.

Understanding Native Cultures

In a similar way, whenever Catholic missionaries have gone to indigenous peoples they have always used the native culture to connect and link with the gospel. However, this process has always been controversial. For example, a controversy over whether the Chinese custom of venerating ancestors should be accepted by Chinese Catholics raged for over 300 years, until it was resolved in favour of local custom by Pope Pius XII. Sometimes, mistakes are made, which can be of two kinds. First, elements of pagan culture may be accepted uncritically without “purifying” them, leading to confusion and scandal. Second, due to mistrust of indigenous people and excessive zeal, all elements of local culture may be rejected, sometimes violently. The tension between these two extremes can be illustrated by a comment made to me bya gentleman on Twitter. He asked me if it was true that in India Catholics call goddess Kali as ‘Our Lady of India’! Obviously, one cannot simply “adopt” the Hindu goddess Kali as a representation or “avatar” of the Blessed Virgin Mary; on the other hand, understanding Indian concepts of motherhood and femininity may be a valuable way to engage in dialogue and evangelization with our Hindu brethren.

The Pachamama controversy is an eye opener for all of us. We need to remember that dialogue with other religions and cultures is only a means to an end. Dialogue is one of the processes through which those outside the Church are aided and guided to come to the knowledge of the Truth. The area of inculturation is still “gray” to many and needs more explanation and exploration. No culture is free of flaws and imperfections, and we must be cautious not to uncritically accept questionable practices or ideas out of a desire to please others.

It is almost sixty years have passed since the term “inculturation” first appeared in a Vatican Council, though this was foreshadowed by Pope Pius XII’s document “Evangelii Praecones” which talked about the need to “perfect and complete” pagan culture in the light of Christian revelation (EP 58), but without seeking to “dominate” other peoples (EP 23). Since then, the term and concept of inculturation have been extensively used in papal speeches on missionary action, evangelisation and intercultural and inter-faith dialogue. Since its birth, when it experienced a shift from the Judaic to the Hellenistic world, the Church encountered a great many cultures.

Cultural Pluralism

In the 20th century, the Magisterium of the Church welcomed the rapid rise of complexity and cultural pluralism, through reflection and analysis. The Second Vatican Council dealt with the relationship between faith and culture in the constitution “Gaudium et Spes” which also closely looks at how in the modern world, scientific development and the emerging social sciences, along with industrialisation and urbanisation, shaped a new form of mass culture (GS 23). In its document “Nostra Aetate”, the Council also dealt with the relationship between the Catholic faith and other religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, stating that it “rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions”. (NA 2)

Pope St. John Paul II defined inculturation in Redemptoris Missio, as “the intimate transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity and the insertion of Christianity in the various human cultures.” In other words, inculturation raises two related problems, that of the evangelisation of cultures and that of the cultural understanding of the Gospel. It was this movement that led John Paul II to say in 1982, “The synthesis between culture and faith is not only a requirement of culture, but also of faith, Faith that does not become culture is not fully accepted, nor entirely reflected upon, or faithfully experienced.”

This means that inculturation is not an action but a process that unfolds over time, one that is active and based on mutual recognition and dialogue, a critical mind and insight, faithfulness and conversion, transformation and growth, renewal and innovation. If we want to really understand what is at stake in the process called “inculturation”, clarify the relationship between faith and culture, and see how the Christian faith spreads around the world when it comes into contact with all cultures, we must first ask ourselves what culture means.

What is culture? It is “the set of means used by mankind to become more virtuous and reasonable in order to become fully human.” Pope St. John Paul II showed this openness to other cultures when he organized a “World Day of Prayer for Peace” in Assisi, Italy in the year 1986, inviting not only Christians but Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Jews, and followers of native African religions to spend a day in fasting and prayer. Like the “Pachamama episode”, this ceremony was criticized by certain Catholics who viewed it as scandalous and false worship, though this was clearly not the intent, as stated by the Pope himself.

Dialogue between cultures and religions, which was one of the pillars of John Paul II’s pontificate, characterises Benedict XVI’s action as well. Pope Benedict XVI had said that the inculturation of the faith is a necessity, insofar as the specificity and the integrity of the faith are not compromised. However, for him, the relationship between the Church and cultures involves other aspects, especially the action of evangelisation based on critical insight.

In expressing concerns that are his own, Benedict XVI appealed on several occasions “for the purpose of offering a reflection that would display the riches of the one truth in the plurality of culture”. In his book “Truth and Tolerance”, written before his Papacy, Pope Benedict XVI also spoke of the need to “transform” rather than “reject” non-Christian cultures, offering the example of St Gregory the Great who suggested that “the ceremonies and animal sacrifices” of pagan ceremonies could be “transformed in honour of the saints and martyrs”, providing a “continuity of worship”, but directing it towards the true God rather than idols.(“Truth and Tolerance”, part II, chapter 3).

Conclusion

Considering all the above facts and opinions, it becomes clear that the “Pachamama problem” does not represent a new or dangerous crisis for the Church; rather, it is a milestone on the Church’s sometimes uneasy journey together with potential converts and those of other faiths. As the past teaches us, we cannot reject the cultures of other lands and people wholesale. However, as our Lord told his disciples when he sent them out to preach the Gospel, we must be “shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” (Matt. 10: 16) when engaging in dialogue and missionary activities with other cultures – approaching them with humility rather than a wish to dominate, but avoiding anything that could scandalize or confuse the faithful by clearing explaining the meaning and purpose of our ceremonies and forms of worship, and making it clear that our aim is to “perfect” indigenous culture in the light of the Gospel of Christ.