5. Mission from Colombus

MISSION FROM COLUMBUS TO THE FALL OF THE BERLIN

WALL (1492-1989)

Prophets, Jesuits, Missionary Societies, and New Approaches

MISSION IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY (1492-1773): CONQUISTADORS,

PROPHETS, AND JESUITS

• Spain and Portugal opened new trade routes to the Americas. Dispute over control of lands.

• Pope drew dividing line from north to south: placing Brazil, Africa, and Asia under Portugal control; the rest of the Americas and the Philippines under Spanish control.

• Pope created a patronage agreement that gave the two royal governments the rights and responsibilities for mission.

• Back home Spain and Portugal succeeded in removing the foothold of Muslim control.

• There was the creation of a massive trans-Atlantic slave trade.

BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS: PROPHET IN THE AMERICAS

• Spaniards moved to the Americas and conquered Aztecs, Mayans, and Incan empires.

• Spaniards established a plantation system (encomienda) whereby the settler had the responsibility for teaching the faith to the indigenous people under their control as indentured laborers.

• Father Antonio Montecinos a Dominican missionary spoke out against terrible treatment of the Indigenous. Bartolomé de las Casas experienced a deep conversion when he heard about the prophetic stance of the Dominicans.

• He ceased being a plantation owner, joined the Dominican order, and asserted that the indigenous were fully human beings.

• He influenced Pope Paul III to write a statement on the fundamental human dignity of the Indians and King Charles V to write new laws to eliminate major abuses.

• Bartolomé de Las Casas became bishop in the area of Chiapas in Southern Mexico.

FRANCIS XAVIER: MISSIONARY TO ASIA

• Portugal lacked finances for expansion in Asia. China and Japan were able to resist extensive foreign intrusion.

• Missionaries in Asia were not absorbed in sweeping conquest.

• The Jesuits were initially the main missionaries to go to Asia. Their positive attitude toward human nature and non-Western cultures led to creative approaches to mission.

• Francis Xavier’s passion for mission carried him by land and sea over ten thousand miles in ten years.

• Xavier began his missionary work in India and extended it to Malaysia and Japan.

• Xavier realized that God was somehow already present in the Japanese people. He accommodated the gospel to the culture.

• Because Xavier was respectful of their culture, Japanese converts participated very soon in mission work among their own people.

MISSION IN THE AGE OF PROGRESS (1792-1914): CIVILIZERS, EVANGELIZERS, AND

VOLUNTEER SOCIETIES

• After 1773 the state of mission in the Catholic Church was dismal. France became the leading Catholic nation.

• The French Revolution put a stranglehold on the French church. Religious Orders were suppressed.

• Protestantism became the dominant player in mission during this period.

• Colonialism expanded to Africa: Christianity, commerce, and civilization.

SAMUEL AJAYI CROWTHER: AFRICAN MISSIONARY TO AFRICANS

• Crowther was captured in Nigeria and brought to the Americas as a slave, but rescued from the slave ship and taken to Freetown in 1822.

• He became a teacher and an Anglican priest. He introduced the use of the local language Yoruba and took the lead in translating the bible.

• He became a voice against slavery and developed a good working relationship with the Muslims.

• When Africa was divided by Europe, new missionaries came and did not support Crowther. They eventually pushed him aside and replaced him with a European bishop.

DANIEL COMBONI: REGENERATION OF AFRICA BY AFRICANS

• Daniel Camboni went to the Sudan as a missionary through the Mazza Institute in Verona.

• In 1864 he drew up a “Plan for the Regeneration of Africa” which included establishing centers in Africa for training both Europeans and Africans for mission work.

• The institute Comboni founded to carry out this vision led to the foundation of two missionary congregations of men and women.

• Comboni worked tirelessly to promote his plan for Europeans and Africans to do mission together. He defended the human dignity and ability of Africans especially when imperialism and racism became strong.

• Comboni was named a bishop and vicar apostolic of Central Africa en 1877.

MISSION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1919-1989): THE EMERGENCE OF

WORLD CHRISTIANITY• By 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall,

Christianity had become a world phenomenon: the majority of Christians lived in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

• The Catholic Church accounted for half of the world’s Christians, but Christianity’s geographical location had shifted from North to South.

• Both Catholicism and Christianity were being shaped by non-Western Christians: numbers, vital faith, ethical values, worship styles, global social justice, etc.

• Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day are icons of this age. They incarnated God’s mission of love.

• Mother Teresa focused on responding to the people in front of her by loving one person who is considered unlovable.

• Dorothy Day focused on both underlying social issues and attending to immediate needs through the houses of hospitality.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• What person, movement, or image is inspiriting and enriching for your personal understanding of mission?

• What did you find more surprising and/or most challenging in this chapter?