I have been helping my son do his required 4th grade report on California's Spanish Missions. One of my concerns of the faith, have been those who say there should be no seperation between "church" and "state", (altho, what a true church would want to do with a "state" is beyond me)I came upon this article, and I'll just cut and paste a bit:The social atmosphere in Spain during the Fifteenth Century was one ofpassionate religious zeal brought about by centuries of Christian-Muslim conflict. The Spanish brought with them this fervor as they colonized the recently discovered “NewWorld.” After the triumph of the Protestant Reformation in northern and central Europe,mission work was perceived as a way of restoring the Roman Catholic Church’sprominence in the world. The Americas provided an ideal venue as it housed millions of “pagan” natives, supposedly ready and waiting for Catholic salvation.1The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were one of the Spaniards’ targets for conversion. The Spanish began the conversion of the native immediately following conquest; they subdued the Indians with “a sword in one hand and a bible in the other.” They employed manymethods to convert the natives, but a vast number of Indians converted not because of true piety or direct force exerted by the Spanish. Most converted to simply survive in the new environment that the Spanish had created. The Pueblos of New Mexicoconverted to Catholicism primarily out of necessity.Converting the Indians through mission efforts became an integral goal and desire of Spanish colonization. Indian conversion not only fulfilled the religious fervor of the Spanish, but had other goals as well. With few colonists in New Mexico, there was a shortage of labor. The natives were the obvious choice of cheap labor for the Spanish missionaries. The Franciscan missionaries were to convert the Pueblos to Christianity, and also to instruct the Indians on Western methods of farming, building, and mechanics.5Most missionaries did not know the native language, which resulted in miscommunication between the Spanish and the Indians. Due to the lack of communication, the Indians did not fully understand or accept the basic tenets ofChristianity until the missionaries finally learned their language or, more likely, the natives learned Spanish. Baptism was considered enough to temporarily save a native’s soul, even if the “converted” Indian had little or no understanding of Christianity. The natives’ temporary salvation through baptism was conditional; the natives were to understand that the “padre” through the Sacrament of Penance ultimately decided whether the Indians would enter heaven or purgatory. This blackmail gave a considerable amount of influence to the padres over their neophytes.. The Indians were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism in order to surviveunder the conditions that the Spanish had created for them. Conversion to the Pueblos was simply a practical ploy for survival; they still practiced their traditional religion, though concealing their genuine religious beliefs and practices from the missionaries.15In exchange for converting to Christianity, the Indians received food, clothing, and protection from the Spanish. The natives’ situation was so desperate that some even gave themselves as servants to the Spanish in hopes of obtaining maize or other foods.16The friars realized that the Catholic faith had little appeal to the Indians.
