Bartolome' de Las Casas

He seemed to come up a lot in my classes, probably because my school is Dominican.

American Minute with Bill Federer

July 17

Apostle of the Indies, Bartolome' de Las Casas," died JULY 17, 1566.

He left Spain in 1502 for the West Indies and later returned to
Europe.

Then he heard Dominican Father Antonio de Montesinos speak Pentecost
Sunday, August 15, 1511, on the verse: "I am a voice crying in the
wilderness."

Las Casas returned to the Americas and dedicated his life to helping
Indians. He became the first priest ordained in the New World.

Las Casas petitioned King Ferdinand and later Emperor Charles V to
end military conquest and use peaceful means to convert Indians, as
he explained in his treatise "Concerning the Only Way of Drawing All
Peoples to the True Religion."

When Las Casas' writings "A brief report on the Destruction of the
Indians" and "Apologetica historia de las Indias" were translated in
Europe, an outrage arose, pressuring Spain to enact New Laws
protecting Indians, though colonists largely ignored them.

Las Casas declared in his tract "Confesionario" that any Spaniard who
refused to release his Indians is to be denied absolution.

Las Casas stated:

"The main goal of divine Providence in the discovery of these
tribes...is...the conversion and well-being of souls, and to this
goal everything temporal must necessarily be directed."