Indigenous Leadership in the Church: The Experience of the Diocese of San Cristöbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

"The meetings of minds between missionaries and native leaders in the past mission history of the Church," writes Carl Starkloff, "have generally taken the form of 'power encounters' and contests, ... " In his significant work, A Theology of the In-Between, where Starkloff examines the history of "syncretism," he articulates his hope that in future encounters, "marginalization and identity conflicts suffered by local cultures at the hands of 'catholic' Christianity" will be avoided.! The recent experience of the indigenous communities in the diocese of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, is an important case study of an encounter that engendered a new synthesis between the Catholic faith and indigenous cultures. Since the 1970s, the diocesan organizations in San Cristobal de Las Casas opened a new space for the participation of the indigenous communities in the leadership of the local church. In this paper, I will briefly examine the historical background and context of the shifts in ecclesiology and missiology that prepared the way for the emergence of the new indigenous leadership in this local church, describe the stages of its development, and mention some of its present challenges. and cultural diversity?