Respect Indigenous Cultures, Traditions, Pope Asks Elise Harris - CNA/EWTN News
go to original July 7, 2016

Pope Francis' prayer intentions for July 2016 (Vatican)

Pope Francis has dedicated the month of July to praying for the world’s indigenous peoples, asking specifically in his new prayer video that their identity and cultural traditions be respected.

“I want to be a spokesman for the deepest longings of indigenous peoples,” the Pope said in the video, released July 6.

Speaking in his native Spanish, Francis said that “I want to add your voice to mine in a heartfelt prayer that all will respect indigenous peoples, threatened in their identity and even in their existence.”

The video opens with an Indian woman walking up to a podium, asking her audience on behalf of all indigenous peoples “that our ways of life be respected, our rights and our traditions. Will you listen to me?”

When the video pans out showing that the auditorium is empty, Pope Francis appears, expressing his desire to be the spokesman for the rights of indigenous communities throughout the world as one-by-one members of other indigenous populations join the woman on stage.

Indigenous peoples have been a theme in many of Pope Francis’ speeches and travels abroad since his election, including his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si.”

Read the rest at Catholic News Agency

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