Bartolome Las Casas (1484-1566) migrated from Spain to the West Indies in 1502. He befriended the Indigenous people but saw them cruelly massacred and exploited by conquistadores and settlers. From 1514 till his death he became a defender of the Indians. He was a priest-colonist, then a Dominican friar, later a Bishop. He fought at the Spanish court and in the New World for full human rights for the Indian peoples.
From the Indigenous people of his time – ‘the poor’, Las Casas was moved to rediscover the radical challenge of the Gospel. It is our challenge also. |
