Holy Mass in Salvador da Bahia (7 July 1980)
ShareOn 7 July 1980, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in Salvador da Bahia, as a commemorative reminder of that first mass in Brazil celebrated by Friar Henrique de Coimbra “on the arena of the beach later christened as Porto Seguro.”
Excellency Archbishop Cardinal Avelar Brandao Vilela,
Your Coadjutor Archbishop Monsignor Joao de Souza Lima,
Your Auxiliary Bishop Monsignor Tomàs Murphy,
my brothers in the episcopate and in the ministerial priesthood,
beloved sons and daughters, religious and laity.
1. Almost 480 years ago, surrounded by a group of discoverers and perhaps by astonished and curious Indians, Friar Henrique de Coimbra celebrated holy mass on the arena of the beach later christened as Porto Seguro. Today you wanted the Eucharistic sacrifice to be a commemorative reminder of that first mass in Brazil.
This circumstance gives the present rite a singular character and a new dimension. It is the historical roots of Brazil that shine through in this celebration.
In this context, the readings we have heard proclaimed carry a message and ask for our meditation.
The text of Saint Matthew reproduces a decisive moment of the Church. It is the moment in which the Risen One, at the end of his earthly life, must return to the Father. The apostles remain and the Church remains, born of the power communicated to the incarnate Word and transmitted by him to the apostles. What is the mission of the Church and the apostles? "Make disciples of all nations" - orders Jesus -, teach to live according to the Gospel. Baptize in the name of the triune God. You know that I am leaving, but I remain with you to the end (cf. Mt 28:18-20).
The Apostle Paul reflects on this mission, having before his eyes the concrete life of one Church among others. He sees it one and many. Multiple in the diversity of charisms, ministries and activities, one in the one Spirit who inspires diversity. Multiple in the variety of races, social conditions, origins of those who are called to compose it, one because only one is the baptism that introduces everyone into the Church. Multiple as the members are multiple, one in the image of the unity of the body.
The Church has been meditating on these texts and messages since its inception, but it is aware that it has not yet studied them as much as it would like (and will it perhaps one day deepen them?). In the different concrete situations it re-reads these texts and scrutinizes these messages in the desire to discover a new application in them. Let us make contact with them once again in this expressive Eucharistic celebration.
You wanted the Pope's mass as he passed through this city to be the commemorative memory of another mass: the one which was the first celebrated in the newly discovered land. What to tell you then?
2. The first observation to make is that while the majority of peoples came to know Christ and the Gospel after centuries of their history, the nations of the Latin American continent and, among them, especially Brazil, were born Christian. The caravels that landed in the bay of Porto Seguro on 3 April 1500 also carried the first missionaries and evangelizers, the sons of Saint Francis. After Pedro Alvares Cabral and the first colonizers landed, a cross was erected and the first mass was celebrated, at which some natives were already present and admired. The newly discovered lands were given the name of Terra Santa Cruz. These facts, at the dawn of Brazil, should have profoundly marked the now five-century-old history of the new nation that was being born for the West.
The same phenomenon occurred throughout Latin America, as we read in Puebla's conclusions: "Latin America constitutes the historical context in which three cultural universes meet: the indigenous, the white and the African, then enriched by different migratory currents. Here converge at the same time different ways of conceiving the world, man and God, and of reacting to them. A kind of Latin American mestizaje has taken place..." ( Puebla , 307).
What is certain is that apostles, like Father José de Anchieta, whom I had the joy of including in the catalog of the blessed of the Church last June 22, placed themselves resolutely on the side of the indigenous populations, learning their language, assimilating their tastes, adapting to their mentality by defending their lives and, simultaneously, proclaiming to them the saving truth of Jesus Christ, converting them to the Gospel, baptizing them and integrating them into the Church.
3. Thus was born Brazilian Catholicism, the result, like Brazil itself, of one of the most important amalgams in human history. Here Indians, Europeans and Africans mixed for three centuries and, starting from the last century, the blood and cultures of the Arabs, such as the Maronite Christians and the Asian Japanese emigrants, who today constitute a large community, predominantly Catholic. In this sense, Brazil offers a highly positive testimony. Here a multi-racial human community is being built under Christian inspiration. A true carpet of races, as sociologists say, all amalgamated by the bond of the same language and the same faith.
The characteristics of this young, dynamic, industrious people, the great hope of the Church, thus remain defined in this way, at least in broad strokes. A deeply religious people, as evidenced not only by the names of states - São Paulo, the Holy Spirit, Santa Catarina - and many capitals - Belém, São Luiz, Salvador or their great devotion to the Mother of God, invoked under various titles, but especially under the title of "Our Lady Aparecida"; the popular festivals of the "Cirio di Nazaré", of the "Signor do Bonfim", of the "Divine Spirito Santo", to which people flock in great numbers; the processions, characteristic for the great participation, of the "encontro", of the "dead Lord", of the "resurrected Lord", of the patron saints; but also the adherence of the faithful to their bishops and priests, to the Pope,
These are as many proofs of the great religiosity of Catholic Brazilians in the absolute majority of their sons and daughters.
However, we need to look forward rather than back. We need to know how to draw lessons from the past for the future. It is urgent to promote true progress, which results from a process of integral development, safeguarding at all costs the sacred values of faith, morals and the family. This, dear sons and daughters, is the great challenge you have to face. It is your great task, brothers in the episcopate, priests, religious and lay Catholics. Strive not to disappoint the hopes that the Pope places in you. Be worthy of the missionaries who evangelized you, worthy of the Christians who preceded you in faith.
4. I know that you too are discussing, as in Africa which I recently visited, the right ways of the process of acculturation. Yes, the culture of every people is sacred and worthy of respect in its essential elements. But it is also important to remember the rights of God, of the Church and of the Gospel. Thus, equally, the fundamental right of every man to the benefits of the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ. "Every man must be able to encounter Christ", I recalled in the encyclical "Redemptor Hominis" (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis , 13). On the contrary, every man needs Christ, himself a perfect man and man's savior. Christ is the light which, integrated into the most diverse cultures, illuminates and elevates them from within. True faith is not even in contradiction with the religious values of the religion of every people, since it reveals to them the true face of God, who is father. The Christian faith respects the cultural expressions of any people, provided they are true and authentic values.
But failing to transmit the entire deposit of faith to all men would be infidelity to the very mission of the Church. It would be tantamount to not recognizing men's fundamental right: the right to the truth.
It is clear that the proclamation of the faith presupposes an adaptation to the mentality of those who are evangelized. But in no way however does this adaptation imply an incomplete expression and proclamation of the Gospel. We are guardians of the word of God and, therefore, we do not have the right to mutilate it in our preaching, to whomever it is directed. Nor should it be said that evangelization will necessarily have to follow the process of humanization. The true apostle of the Gospel is the one who humanizes and evangelizes at the same time, in the certainty that whoever evangelizes also civilizes. And so it should be done. May the missionaries and evangelizers of this dear Brazil always remember that their main commitment is the Gospel, it being the primary competence and duty of the State to offer every Brazilian the conditions required for a dignified life, result of the convenient satisfaction of all the primary necessities of existence. Only in a subsidiary way does it belong to the Church to solve problems of a temporal order.
The Church wishes to enter into contact with all peoples and all cultures. It itself wants to enrich itself with the true values of the most diverse cultures. The liturgy is one of the fields - certainly not the only one - for this interchange between the Church and cultures. In this sense, experience shows convincingly that it is possible to religiously safeguard those truths and cultural expressions that legitimate ecclesiastical authority proposes as divinely instituted, and to respect with loving and attentive fidelity the texts and rites that the same legitimate authority deliberately excludes from creativity of individuals and groups - commentators, liturgical animators, presidents of Eucharistic assemblies, principal celebrants of the sacraments -, and at the same time give the celebration an incarnational character in the environment in which it is celebrated; the wisdom with which the presidents and celebrants play their roles is of the utmost importance.
Indigenous, Negro and European culture must benefit from this permanent and fruitful exchange, as well as, why not mention it, the Church itself in your country.
5. A mention, albeit brief, of an important topic is appropriate here. Various documents of the universal Church, of the Church in Latin America and of your particular Churches have dealt with the problem of popular religiosity. I recall the apostolic exhortation " Evangelii Nuntiandi " (cf. Paul VI Evangelii Nuntiandi , 48) of my predecessor Paul VI, the documents of Medellin, the conclusions of Puebla (cf. Puebla , 444-469) and my encyclical " Redemptor Hominis ” (John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis , 13 and 14). I note with joy that even in Brazil research is being done, essays are being written and an ever greater effort is being made to respect popular religiosity which, moreover, is also an expression of a profound dimension of man. It is the very soul of the people that emerges in the expressions and manifestations of popular religiosity, some of which are very sincere.
In the depths of popular religiosity there is always a real hunger for the sacred and the divine.
It is therefore necessary not to despise it, not to ridicule it. It is necessary to cultivate it and make use of popular religiosity to improve the evangelization of the people. Popular religious manifestations, purified of their subvalues, of all superstition and magic, undoubtedly constitute a providential means for the masses in their adherence to the faith of their ancestors and to the Church of Christ. “Like the whole Church, the religion of the people must always be evangelized anew. In Latin America, after almost five centuries of preaching the Gospel and of the baptism conferred on its inhabitants in a generalized way, this evangelization must appeal to the "Christian memory of our peoples". Evangelization will therefore be a work of pastoral pedagogy, with which popular Catholicism is assumed, purified, completed and dynamized by the Gospel. In practice, this implies resuming a pedagogical dialogue, starting from the last links that the evangelizers of the past left in the heart of our people.
Therefore one must know the symbols, the silent and non-verbal language of the people, in order to be able to communicate, in a vital dialogue, the good news through a process of catechetical re-information" (Puebla, 457 ) .
6. In visiting the State of Bahia and your beautiful city of Salvador, cradle of the Brazilian nation and starting point for the evangelization of your great country, I warmly greet the various ethnic groups who have met and merged: the indigenous , black men, Europeans from Portugal and other nations, Orientals and Asians. Persevere with great constancy in the road traveled up to now. Be faithful to your historic mission in Latin America and in the world. You are successfully demonstrating how the fundamental law of Christianity, fraternity, can lead the most diverse peoples to the harmonious and constructive coexistence of the future. You are still proof of how goodwill allied to the Christian faith can build a democracy characterized by humanism and fraternity.
Of your historical roots it can be said that they pass on to us two lessons: that of a culture imbued, from the very first moment of its existence, with the values of the faith, and of the capacity that this same faith has to integrate the most diverse races and ethnic groups. Not without reason, therefore, Brazilian scholars observe that, together with the language, the Catholic faith of the majority of your people is an eminent factor in this integration which challenges the obstacles of enormous distances, difficult communications, climatic differences.
May the Lord grant that the diversity in the unity evoked by the texts of this Mass is realized with possible perfection at all levels of your national community. For this the Lord covers you with his blessings.
© Copyright 1980 - Vatican Publishing House
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