A igreja católica do século XVI sobre o indígena latino-americano: sujeito de direitos?

Abstract

The Portuguese and Spanish states of the 16th century were fervently Catholic, so they reflected the historical character of the Church at that time, expressing catholicity in its original sense, which is based on the universality and pentecostal element of that belief. The latter is translated into the need to preach the Catholic word to the four corners of the world, promoting the salvation of souls. In a connection, sometimes symbiotic and in other antagonistic, between such religious factors and the imperialist objectives of those nations, the undeniable fact is that there arises a fertile theoretical development about the nature of the indigenous being, questioning it as subject of rights or not. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the debate that emerged in the 16th century from such a context, through a bibliographical review of the main thinkers of the time, namely: Antonio de Montesinos, Francisco de Vitória, Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés Sepúlveda. The results demonstrate that this discussion promoted a development on the notion of natural rights, later retaken in the bourgeois revolutions of the following centuries. In addition, there is an obvious resonance of this dispute on the present, transmitting from the natives to the refugees the questioning about whether or not they are subjects of rights. Therefore, despite its appearance more than four centuries ago, the theme in question has a need to be revisited, which is intended to be accomplished through the following work.