Pontiff says he was ‘pained to hear a sarcastic comment’ about feathered headdress worn by indigenous man at Amazon synod

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Pope Francis has denounced “offensive words” spoken against Latin America’s indigenous people, noting that a feather headdress is no more ridiculous than hats worn at the Vatican.

Speaking at the start of an unprecedented three-week assembly focusing on the Amazon, Francis opened the meeting by extolling native cultures and urging bishops to respect their histories and traditions, rather than imposing ideologies on them in a new form of colonization.

Francis described how upset he became when he heard a snide comment about the feathered headdress worn by an indigenous man at mass on Sunday.

“I was pained to hear, right here, a sarcastic comment about a pious man with feathers on his head who brought an offering,” the pope said on Monday.

“Tell me: what’s the difference between having feathers on your head and the three-peaked hat worn by certain officials in our dicasters?” he said to applause, referring to the three-pointed red birettas worn by cardinals.

Francis urged the bishops to use the three weeks to pray, listen, discern and speak without fear. “Speak with courage,” he said. “Even if you are ashamed, say what you feel.”

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The three-week synod, or assembly, unites 184 bishops, including 113 from the nine countries of the pan-Amazon region, including Brazil.

Representatives of indigenous peoples, some with their heads adorned with coloured feathers, are attending the synod, with many gathering in Saint Peter’s Square on Monday.

History’s first Latin American pope has repeatedly denounced how they are exploited, marginalized and treated as second-class citizens by governments and corporations that extract timber, gold and other natural resources from their homes.

The working document for the synod, known as the “instrumentum laboris”, denounces in scathing terms social injustices and crimes in the region.

The synod is opening with global attention newly focused on the forest fires that are devouring the Amazon, which scientists say is a crucial bulwark against global warming. It also comes at a fraught time in Francis’s six-year papacy, with conservative opposition to his ecological agenda on the rise.

Francis’s traditionalist critics, have called the proposals in the synod working document “heretical” and an invitation to a “pagan” religion that idolizes nature rather than God.