Vatican
City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday hit out at "offensive words" spoken
against the Amazon's indigenous people, noting that a feather headdress is no
more ridiculous than hats worn at the Vatican.
"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 at the opening of a
synod focused on the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous
communities.
"Tell
me what's the difference between having feathers on your head and the
three-peaked hat worn by certain officials in our dicasters (Vatican
ministries)?" the pope said to loud applause.
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.
Before an
audience of around 250 people, the Argentine pontiff decried "offensive
words" used about indigenous peoples, and rejected reductive or
destructive "ideological colonisations".
The working
document for the synod, known as the "instrumentum laboris",
denounces in scathing terms social injustices and crimes, including murders,
and suggests a Church action plan.
The
document has been criticised by ultra-conservative Roman Catholics, but the
pope called Monday on the gathered bishops to feel free to draw up their own final
document.
He called
the document "a martyr text destined for destruction", prompting
laughter from the audience, before the synod got down to work.
Representatives of the Amazon rainforest's ethnic groups attended the
synod with Pope Francis (AFP Photo/Tiziana FABI)
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