In his new Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis mentioned the process of inculturation as a starting point for the conversion of the region. The Holy Father most certainly had the Pachamama controversy in mind when he exhorted the Faithful to “not be quick to describe as superstition or paganism certain religious practices that arise spontaneously from the life of peoples. Rather, we ought to know how to distinguish the wheat growing alongside the tares, for ‘popular piety can enable us to see how the faith, once received, becomes embodied in a culture and is constantly passed on.’ It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry. A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used to advantage and not always considered a pagan error. Some religious festivals have a sacred meaning and are occasions for gathering and fraternity, albeit in need of a gradual process of purification or maturation” (QA 78-79). Setting aside the fact that all false religions are by definition superstitions, the Holy Father’s remarks call for a deeper understanding of what the Church means when she uses the term Inculturation.
Understanding authentic inculturation begins by grasping what we mean when we use the term culture. Culture is the soil in which the human person grows. As the Second Vatican Council put it, “Man comes to a true and full humanity only through culture, that is through the cultivation of the goods and values of nature…. The word ‘culture’ in its general sense indicates everything whereby man develops and perfects his many bodily and spiritual qualities” (GS, 53).
Against Cultural Relativism
When viewed in relation to “goods and values of nature,” it becomes evident that cultures are not ends in themselves, but instead means for human growth. Likewise because there are objective “goods and values of nature,” we can also evaluate cultures objectively in terms of good and bad. Good cultures are those that cultivate authentic human flourishing and bad cultures are those that do harm to true human goods. Authentic culture must always be, according to the International Theological Commission, that which “reveals and strengthens the nature of man.”
In short, there is no such thing as a neutral culture nor can anything like cultural relativism be tolerated. We must evaluate and judge cultures by the objective criterion of whether true human goods are protected and promoted. It is the Church’s role to be judgmental towards cultures in three specific ways. Those values that are true human values, even if expressed in “local” terms are adopted as part of the vernacular of the Church and are the means by which the Gospel takes root. If they point to true human values, but are deficient in some way then the Church purifies them. Finally, if they are irreconcilable then the Church condemns them. This process of promoting, purifying and purging is what the Church calls inculturation.
The point of reference for the Church is not the culture itself, but as in all things, the transmission of the Gospel. The culture is simply the means by which the message takes root. This is why it is disingenuous to speak of inculturation as a two-way street. The Church has the fullness of truth and thus has no new facts to learn from the various cultures. The culture gives to the Church what is for its own benefit—a language that speaks the truths of salvation. What she does gain is a fuller manifestation of her catholicity. It becomes proof positive that the Gospel can be put in terms that are intelligible to men of every age and place and answer the deepest longings of all human hearts.
Because he was the most traveled Pope in the history of the Church, St. John Paul II constantly emphasized the connection between inculturation and evangelization. In an address to the People of Asia while he was visiting the Philippines he reminded the Church that “Wherever she is, the Church must sink her roots deeply into the spiritual and cultural soil of the country, assimilate all genuine values, enriching them also with the insights that she has received from Jesus. Given the mission entrusted to it by our Lord, the Church’s priority is always the evangelization of all peoples and therefore of all cultures. Inculturation is a means of evangelization, being at the same time its consequence.”
With all of this laid as a foundation, we can see what role, if any, Pachamama would play in legitimate inculturation. Those who defended it treated it as something that could simply be taken up (literally) as an authentic human value. But worship of a false god, however seemingly benign or how “spontaneously” it arises (how do we know if something arises spontaneously or at the prompting of demons?), is not a true human value. Nor is that something that can be purified but instead must be something that is rejected. Pachamama may have crossed the Tiber after it was tossed in the Tiber, but it was only because certain churchmen lacked both the faith and charity towards the Amazonian people to give them the saving truth of Jesus Christ. As St. John Paul II, who was not immune to failures in authentic inculturation, told the people of Cameroon, “the Gospel message does not come simply to consolidate human things, just as they are; it takes on a prophetic and critical role. Everywhere, in Europe as in Africa, it comes to overturn criteria of judgment and modes of life; it is a call to conversion.” Never once was the call to conversion issued to the worshipper of Pachamama.
The great missionary saints, whether it was St. Paul, St. Patrick, St. Francis Xavier, or St. Isaac Jogues, were all masters of inculturation not because they were clever but because theirs was a call to conversion even if they translated them into colloquialisms. It was because they were holy men that they were up to the task. As John Paul II put it, “Only those who truly know Christ, and truly know their own cultural inheritance, can discern how the divine Word may be fittingly presented through the medium of that culture. It follows that there can be no authentic inculturation which does not proceed from contemplating the Word of God and from growing in likeness to him through holiness of life”.