This website is produced on Coast Salish Territory and we happily acknowledge and express our appreciation to our Coast Salish hosts.
GOAL OF WEBSITE
The goal of the Aboriginal Catholic Theological Network is to provide a forum where conversation between the Aboriginal Tradition(s) and the Catholic faith can be carried on in a way that assists urban Aboriginal Catholics in being both "Aboriginal" and "Catholic".
The site seeks ways in which Aboriginal and Catholic faith communities can move beyond surficial syncretic strategies (i.e. mixing Aboriginal symbols in a Catholic Mass) and see the deeper theological truth as the Great and Holy Spirit leads. As an example should we be exploring the concept of Jesus' pre-existence as Logos and the full impact of Jesus as "Christ" (Universal, Cosmic or Aboriginal Christ)? Could it be that, in studying the "persons" and "natures" of western Trinitarian theology, we can "name" those Christian truths in terms of what our own people have always known? What is the knowledge and memory of our people on the "nature" of God and are there any connections that could create an Aboriginal theological foundation that could then be in conversation with theology and Catholic teaching?
Equally, and within an honorable protocol, through the sharing of our elders, people of knowledge (which we all are) contemporary Aboriginal thought, street theology, the Aboriginal struggle and so forth, our people can inform and illuminate the "traditional" long-standing understandings of Catholic theology and doctrine. Our people can teach the church community more about how - as humans who have lost their ability to live with the earth - to regain their ability to live with the land, to understand the "earth" as God's body and a body that is understandable to us via the Cosmic Christ. The inclusiveness of Jesus' parables, the healing of Jesus' ministry and the proclamation of the kingdom (which is here and now) is not limited to the human species but all of God's creation because.. ..God is creation, God is the universe.
The Aboriginal Catholic Theological Network website is an "Aboriginal" first website coordinated by an Aboriginal Catholic. The primary purpose is not necessarily in the area of apologetics but rather of facilitating a process where our people can develop our own articulation of what it means for us to be "Aboriginal Catholics". The website does not pretend to represent the great cultural and spiritual diversity within the "North American Indian" community, nor does it pretend to understand the richness and often the complicated nature of Catholic teaching. The site humbly, through interaction, seeks to learn from Aboriginal elders, activists, community as it does from Catholic and Christian theologians, clergy and the teaching authority of the Church in an effort to meet its goal.
AN ABORIGINAL CATHOLIC THEOLOGY: IS NOT NEW AGE RELATIVISM
The Urban Aboriginal Catholic Theological Network is Aboriginal. This is important to distinguish from the outset because it is anticipated that many will critisize the site for being "New Age" or
promoting the idea of "relativism" an idea that Pope Benedict XVI himself has highlighted as problematic. New Agers have appropriated (stolen) Aboriginal world view, metaphysics and cosmology that have been articulated by
anthropologists and/or listening to Aboriginal elders. Sometimes when non-Native people are given information it has been used for the wrong reasons and the fruit of that has become a multi-million dollar
industry (of which Aboriginal people have yet again been marginalized). Liberals (who still protect us), postmodernist (who still try to find ways for us to explain ourselves)and fundamentalists who are still
convinced that we are going to hell with our traditions cannot speak for us, only we can speak for us.
Aboriginal theology or an Aboriginal articulation (understanding) of Catholic teaching has to come from an Aboriginal place, we simply cannot "put on" Catholicism, or "put on" Aboriginalism". We must find a deeper theological framework that is truly Aboriginal yet a framework that is in conversation with the Christian world. An Aboriginal theology is not necessarily an "Aboriginal only" project as theologians, clergy play a big role in helping us articulate, but also helping us challenge western theology into adopting our language, we need to find a common language if we are to be in theological conversation. That language cannot be "relativism"; we have the same God and that God (Creator) is the source of that language that we must adopt first before being in conversation.
Aboriginal people cannot simply be innocent sheep - look at where that has got us - but we must be Aboriginal leaders in the true and dignified sense of the word, willing to question and willing to lead in the faith community of which we are members. Aside from traditional or conservative (note: not orthodox) Catholics, long gone are the days of "burning in hell" as taught in the residential schools, long gone are the days of missions where we are recipients of the "white man's" Catholic kindness, we must move towards being Aboriginal leaders and equal participants in our Church and that means developing, promoting and proposing to the Vatican an "Aboriginal theological framework(s)" that is(are) inspired by the Holy and Great Spirit when we get there in "Indian time"!
AN IMPORTANT POINT ABOUT THEOLOGY
Theology is basically defined as "faith seeking understanding". The traditional approach to creating "theology" was to study the scriptures for the basic meaning of Jesus' life, ministry and purpose, then to understand how the early Fathers and the patristic church understood the things of Jesus, how the Holy Spirit has led the Church in addressing issues that Jesus would not have even known about.
The Urban Aboriginal Catholic Theological Network is being incubated because Aboriginal people do have a Catholic experience, and Aboriginal tradition and unfortunately the two traditions are still on a parrallel path not yet united theologically. The limits of current western theology rests in the fact that not all generations have been able to voice the leadership of the Holy Spirit in the Church for our day. Equally, women have not been able to voice the work of the Holy Spirit in their personal and communal lives and while this has changed feminist theology is still very much marginalized. Aboriginal people, like other marginalized or colonized communities still need to be heard as the Holy Spirit is working in those communities. Women and marginalized and/or colonized communities need to become involved in the process of developing theology that both challenges and invigorates Catholic thinkers of the past, present and future. The Church is very much alive, dynamic and finding new meaning to old text and understandings. As an individual once we stop being creative and learning then we stop living in the manner the Creator designed.
In order for the Urban Aboriginal Catholic Theological Network to be "truly Catholic" it must not start from a "hermeneutics of suspician" (i.e. doubt everything the Catholic Church teaches as a product of patriarchy) but rather take the work done by the Holy Spirit in the persons of the "players" in history as the building blocks and growth that truly - as humanly possible- reflects where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church and then read SCRIPTURE and TRADITION from the perspective of Aboriginal EXPERIENCE.
I believe that our concepts are consistent with Church teaching, with the theology of inculturation and truly consistent with the tradition of a Church where two saints can disagree with each other....St. Thomas Aquinas re-read the works of St. Augustine (base on Plato) and from a 12th century Italian context and the recently discovered complete works of Socrates, Aquinas re-worked, reconciled and inserted his cultural experience on the works of the great St. Augustine of Hippo. In our time we need to celebrate the works of these great men (AND the works of great medieval women like Hildegaard de Binen, etc.), we need to take their leadership and openess to the Holy Spirit by using our experience as URBAN, ABORIGINAL and 21ST CENTURY peoples to produce theology that engages thinking, discussing, learning and "taking to heart" the articulation of an Aboriginal theological understanding of the universal truths taught by the Church. So given the reality of the past 2000 years, one must not think that the doctrines themselves are invalid, but perhaps they are not as clear or "sensical" as they could be, and that is where social,cultural, individual and group experiences in modern times comes into play.
Finally, the Urban Aboriginal Catholic Theological Network is a prayer of one Aboriginal individual's faith seeking understanding. The site builds on the general understanding of the Bible, explores how the teachings of the Bible are in conversation with Aboriginal experience, the site must look at the development of the Catholic culture and world view as it came to us in the 1400's and how we have experienced it in the last 600 years and finally to listen to our own experience and read that experience back into the doctrines of Christianity in a manner that is in coversation not arguement with the deposit of truth. And when I say "not in arguement" I do not mean fitting Aboriginal experiential knowledge into a Catholic box. The Church, to be truly in conversation and relationship with Aboriginal people, must also be open to re-thinking traditional perceptions of doctrine, not to disregard the Holy Spirit's work with western theologians, but to expand that work with the work the Holy Spirit has done with Aboriginal tradition even prior to the arrival of the missionaries. Inculturation is about gospel "MEETING" culture, not culture "fitting into" gospel.
TRADITION AND LIVING MAGISTERIUM
ABORIGINAL WORLD VIEWS OF CATHOLICISM
PURPOSE (Outlines the Website's Objectives)
ORIGINAL KNOWLEDGE (Aboriginal Cosmology, Spirituality, and Contemporary Realities)
CATHOLICISM (A "Primer" on Catholicism for Our People)
INCULTURATION (Systematic Theology - Meeting of Catholic and Aboriginal Traditions)
POSTCOLONIALISM ("Naming" Aboriginal Catholicism Using Postmodern Theologies)