THE MISSION: A CONTEXT

Key Terms
Guarani People - An Indigenous The Affair of the Indies - A term Treaty of Madrid - An agreement
people of South America, primarily describing the political and religious between Spain and Portugal that
living in areas of modern-day conflict in the 18th century over redrew colonial boundaries in South
Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. control of missions and territories in America. It transferred control of
South America. several Jesuit mission territories to the
Portuguese, leading to the destruction
of those missions and the
enslavement of Indigenous peoples.

Jesuits - A Catholic religious order Evangelization in the New World - Expulsion of the Jesuits from the
officially called the Society of Jesus, The efforts by Christian missionaries New World - In the mid-18th century,
founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. (especially Catholics) to spread the European monarchies (especially
Jesuits are known for education, Gospel in the Americas. Spain and Portugal) expelled Jesuits
missionary work, and spiritual from their colonies, accusing them of
discernment. interfering in politics and resisting
exploitation of Indigenous populations.

Jesuit Reductions - Planned Slavery in the New World - The

The exploration, conquest, and settlement of the New World established the political rule of
the Spanish and Portuguese Empires over large portions of the Western Hemisphere from
about 1500 to 1900. This included present-day Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean
islands, significant portions of North America, and all of South America, not to mention
colonies elsewhere (e.g. Angola, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, the Philippines). The
fundamental imperial purpose was political and economic power; but because both Spain
and Portugal were deeply Catholic and the initial colonial period coincided with the
rivalries associated with the Reformation and Counter Reformation, missionary endeavors
were also a key component of policy, particularly in Spanish territories.
Spain and Portugal competed for power in the New World, but a second tension was
between religious and political authorities. For instance, how should they treat native
peoples? If part of Spain’s mission was to extend Christendom, shouldn’t it do so through
evangelism, winsome diplomacy, and kindness? Or were the locals savage enemies to be
dealt with firmly? Part of this tension was theological, and a vigorous debate surrounded
the status of indigenous people due to their controversial practices of ritualistic
cannibalism, public sexuality, and mass human sacrifice. During this time, the Spanish
Scholastics debated and extended Catholic Just War teaching on the issues of jus ad
bellum (the morality of going to war) and jus in bello (the morality of how war is fought).
Two prominent voices illustrate the intensity of the debate: Juan de Sepúlveda and
Bartolomé de las Casas. Citing natural law and Aristotle, Sepúlveda claimed that the native
people were barbarians beyond the pale of civilization due to the well-documented
practices of cannibalism and human sacrifice (e.g. Aztecs, Incas, and others) and thus it
was just for the Spanish to attack them and extend the boundaries of Christendom. This
was not an argument for slavery or torture, but one that saw Spain’s conquest as bringing
order and Christian morality to the New World. In contrast, las Casas questioned the
morality of Spain’s motivation for going to war in the first place and argued that even if
the cause was just, that noncombatants (women, children, farmers, the elderly) were not
legitimate targets—even if they were idol-worshippers and cannibals. The ethics
surrounding the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World in the sixteenth
century—or the Affair of the Indies, as the moral dilemma came to be known—incited
crucial debates about the relationship between war, justice, and peace.

This debate also meant that the Spanish and Portuguese went on two different tracks
vis-à-vis slavery in the New World. By the early eighteenth century, the Spanish outlawed
slavery; slavery continued in (Portuguese) Brazil until 1888. The Spanish Catholic Church
played a robust role in banning slavery, particularly in its religious orders (e.g. Franciscans
and Jesuits), as voices on behalf of native peoples.

The Mission is set in the midst of these real events, particularly the 1750 Treaty of Madrid,
which ceded Brazilian territory that included Jesuit missions, such as Father Gabriel’s in
the film, to the Portuguese. These Jesuit missions, also known as reductions, were unique
from many other missions in the Americas in that they expected the natives to convert to
Christianity but generally did not expect them to adopt European cultural norms. These
Jesuit reductions operated largely autonomously from the imperial authorities governing
the territory. It is well documented both by clerics and by visitors that the size and
sophistication of the mission in this film—which includes natives singing in Latin, a violin
shop, sculpture, and literacy—are historically accurate. According to the Catholic
Encyclopedia, by 1732 there were thirty Jesuit-Guarani missions in the South
Brazil-UruguayParaguay region with over 140,000 Christian Indians.4 However, with the
expulsion of the Jesuits from the New World in 1767 and the cession of many of these
missions to the Portuguese, this unique world was shattered. The film depicts well the
religious and political controversies of the day, including the relationship of papal Rome to
the national Catholic hierarchies in Spain and Portugal; the political and religious
responsibilities of the Spanish king to native peoples in his dominion; how religious
authorities and clerics can engage political leaders in pursuit of moral policies; the loyalty
of low-level political and religious officials to their authorities; the contrast between an
idealized and actual world; whether an eternal (religious, spiritual) perspective shapes how
one views real-time events; and whether politics is only about interests rather than values.

1. What moral challenges might a person face when trying to defend human dignity in the
face of political or military power? How do faith, experience, or reason help guide those
choices?

2. What does it mean to act justly in an unjust world? Can two people act differently and
both be morally right?

3. Jesuit missionaries believed in protecting the Guaraní people through nonviolence and
education. How might their faith and reason have come into conflict with colonial
interests?

4. In your own words, explain why the Treaty of Madrid and the expulsion of the Jesuits
might have been such a crisis for the people in the Jesuit missions.

5. What do you think were the consequences of European empires treating Indigenous
people as either “barbarians” to be conquered or “souls” to be saved? How would these
views influence someone’s moral decisions?