Joe Hoffmann

The Mission

#3.       In The Mission The Papal Delegate was put into a very difficult situation due to the pressures coming from the Jesuits and the peoples of Portugal and Spain.  Each side either had a strong argument or strong influence which made the decision by the Papal delegate very hard. 

On one side he had Portugal and Spain biting at his heels to be allowed to open these missions to the slave trade.  The only thing stopping the slave traders from infiltrating the Jesuit missions was the church.  The Portuguese and Spanish claimed the local tribes were nothing but animals that looked like human beings.  Their arguments plus the great pressure and influence from the countries over in Europe was a huge factor in the decision Altamirano had to make. 

On the other hand, the Jesuits wanted to protect the native people of South America.  They claimed that the indigenous peoples were the same as everyone else and deserved the same rights.  Altamirano went to see what the Indians were like for himself, and was greatly surprised.  He learned that they were civilized and holy people.  They formed a good, moral community.  While visiting them he even mentioned how the only difference between the White Mans farm and the Indians farm was that the Indians here were free.

Some would say Altamirano was stuck between a rock and a hard place.  He was in a loose-loose situation.  If he chose to let the Portuguese and Spanish enter the Missions he would put many Indians to death.  Those who are not killed would be enslaved.  If he were to choose this it would haunt him for the rest of his life, condemning the innocent to death and slavery. 

On the other hand, if he denied the Europeans access to the Missions he would be risking the lives and safety of the Jesuits in the camp, and whose to stop them from going above the falls and into the missions anyway?  If he were to deny them the right to capture slaves from above the falls but the Europeans did it anyway the church would loose all power and control in Spain and Portugal.  Altamirano used the phrase, “Sometimes one must sacrifice an arm to save the body.”

Altamirano was a tragic figure because the decision he made was not the best one and it ended in tragedy.  His decision caused the lives of a whole tribe of Indians.  His decision was not the morally correct one and even he knew it.  Altamirano said, “now your priests are dead, and I am left alive.  But in truth it is I who am dead, and they who live.  For as always, your holiness, the spirit of the dead will survive in the memory of the living.”  Here he acknowledges the Jesuits of men of faith for sticking with and following what they believe in.  Altamirano may not be dead physically, but spiritually he is.  He did not do what his conscience told him to do but instead did what the church officials from back in Europe told him to do.  The Jesuits live in memory and heaven because they are true men of faith.