Some things cannot change...at least not quickly.

Indigenous grandmas nearly kicked out of Vatican
Indian Country Today July 18, 2008.
All Rights Reserved
Thirteen indigenous grandmothers, formally known as the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, initial greeting at the Vatican was not pleasant. The group was almost kicked out while performing a prayer and waiting to speak with Pope Benedict They went to pray. They went to see Pope Benedict XVI on his home turf. They went to ask that he rescind historic church doctrine that played a role in the genocidal onslaught of millions of indigenous people worldwide.
For 13 indigenous grandmothers, accomplishing only one of their three goals wouldn't have been so bad - had they also not been harassed by several Vatican policemen who claimed the women were conducting ''anti-Catholic'' demonstrations. The elders, formally known as the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, convened in the morning hours of July 9 at St. Peter's Square. After setting up an altar cloth, candles and sacred objects, including feathers and incense, they began holding a prayer and ceremony circle. Nine-year-old Davian Joell Stand-Gilpin, a direct descendant of Chief Dull Knife of the Lakota Nation, was brought along by one of the grandmothers to participate in traditional regalia.
Soon, however, four Vatican police officials asked the women to stop the prayer ceremony, claiming their prayers were in contradiction to the church's teachings - despite the two crosses on the alter cloth and some of the members being practitioners of the Catholic faith.
The officials told Carole Hart, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer and filmmaker traveling with the grandmas, that the group was in violation of Vatican policy. They said a permit Hart had obtained in order to document the prayer gathering was only relevant in terms of filming, but did not allow the women to pray, sing or burn incense.The police said the actions of the grandmothers were ''idolatrous. Through the course of obtaining the permit, Hart had written to Vatican officials explaining that the grandmothers would be conducting a prayer ceremony at the site.''We stuck to the fact that we were legitimately there with this permit,'' Hart said. ''The grandmas did not back down.
Still, the police urged the grandmothers to move on; but Hart and the group appealed the decision to a higher authority. Finally, the police brought back a law official who assessed the situation. Upon seeing 13 indigenous elder women and hearing one of their songs, the official concluded there was no problem with the ceremony. The official also ultimately invited the grandmothers to enter St. Peter's Basilica to rest and pray.Despite their short-term success, the ultimate goal of the grandmothers - to hand-deliver a statement to Pope Benedict XVI, asking him to rescind several controversial papal bulls that played a part in the colonization of indigenous lands - was thwarted.Documents from the 15th century, such as the papal bulls, show the papacy played a role in the genocidal onslaught that affected millions of indigenous people on the North American continent. In 1455, for instance, Pope Nicolas authorized Portugal ''to invade, search out, capture, vanquish and subdue all Saracens and pagans'' who had previously made their homes in North America.
Just a short time before the grandmothers left for their long-planned journey to Rome, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would be leaving the Vatican to rest at his summer home, called Castel Gandolfo, in preparation for a trip to Australia. The pope had originally been scheduled to be in residence July 9. Laura Jackson, the grandmothers' publicist, described the pope's decision to leave the Vatican as a ''sudden cancellation'' and noted that the grandmas held tickets to a scheduled public audience he was to have held that day.
While Castel Gandolfo is less than 20 miles away from the Vatican, the grandmothers ultimately decided not to make the journey to the pope's summer getaway despite some in their inner circle encouraging them to pay an unexpected visit.
Hart believes the grandmothers chose to focus on St. Peter's Square because it's part of the Vatican and is a strong symbol of the pope.
''As women of prayer, I think they felt that bringing their prayer there, on the very ground on which the church as an institution stands, as close as they could get to the heart of the church, would have a great effect on what will happen next,'' Hart said. Additionally, the women had no guarantee that they would even be able to enter the grounds of the pope's summer residence. Instead, the elders left a package with one of the pope's personal guards at the Vatican. The package contained a written statement the women had sent to the Vatican in 2005 decrying the papal bulls, to which the Vatican never responded. It also contained a new 632-word statement to the pope asking him to repeal three Christian-based doctrines of ''discovery'' and ''conquest'' that set a foundation for claiming lands occupied by indigenous people around the world.
''We carry this message for Pope Benedict XVI, traveling with the spirits of our ancestors,'' the women said in their new message. ''While praying at the Vatican for peace, we are praying for all peoples. We are here at the Vatican, humbly, not as representatives of indigenous nations, but as women of prayer.
The package was given to the pope's guard via a traditional Lakota manner, by extending it to him three times with him then accepting it on the fourth attempt. The entire process was captured on film, and is expected to be made into a documentary by Hart in the coming year. It is unknown whether the pope has yet personally received the package, but legal scholars and Native activists in the U.S. have nonetheless been paying close attention to the grandmothers' journey.

''I think the trip is very significant,'' said Steven Newcomb, co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute and author of the book, ''Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery,'' and an Indian Country Today columnist.
''These are women who are very much grounded in their own languages and traditions. They're able to raise visibility of the issue in ways that others are perhaps less effective.
The grandmothers from the U.S. who sit on the women's council are Margaret Behan, of the Arapaho/Cheyenne of Montana; Agnes Baker Pilgrim, of the Takelma Siletz; and Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance and Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance, both Oglala Lakota of Black Hills, S.D.All of the grandmothers are currently in private council in Assisi, Italy, and are expected to be returning home by early August.
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I am not certain what these representatives of the Amerindian tribes hoped or believed would be accomplished, but I could have told them what would happen. The "church" has just now been willing to admit that its celibacy rule has bred demons in males who were never supposed to be like that. Now they want them to admit that the wars and atrocities committed against others in the name of god were also wrong? We Wiccan have been trying to do that for centuries- it has done no good. Saying I'm sorry doesn't come easily to the patriarchal regime. It will not change until we get rid of them either, and I fear that that change will have to be a violent one- males are not going to give up easily to the matriarchal way. At least not those raised by the "church."
Good try ladies. I am afraid the effort alone will have to be your reward.

Note of passing

Sadly, that passing is of this planet as we humans know it. I am just beyond depressed at the level of damage done by humans that is causing cascading problems around the world. There is no way out of the cycle we've started- it will take the equivalent of several human generations to clear up anything we've created in the way of problems, and too many species, too many ecosystems, just do not have that kind of time.
To top it off, once more I am seeing signs that David Brin's book Earth was not just a piece of fiction but some kind of prediction. There is talk in the scientific community of creating miniature black holes.....the very premise of the book. Someone arrogant enough to think he can control a black hole makes one that seems stable, but it gets loose. A speck the human eye cannot see starts to consume the planet from within. Another main point to the story is a growing lack of privacy. Discover magazine has a big article in it this month about the emerging problem of privacy on a national scale: pictures of top secret places and things within the US government have made their way onto the Internet thanks to satellites like the one Google Earth uses. Certain countries around the world have made a huge stink about being photographed by satellite, but I guarantee, even if we the public ain't seeing it, that information is out there for the right bidder.

I dont' know if Brin was just making educated guesses, or if he had some kind of vision. His book is frighteningly accurate, and gets moreso everyday. It scares me, because the biodiversity of this planet is one of the things that makes it what it is. It is also such a detailed and intricate web that even one strand being removed can cause cascades of effect that may not be immediately evident. As the highest predator on the list, supposedly, humans have the most to lose too. I also think they have the self centered blindness to fail to see anything is truly wrong before it is too late.

I hate to tell everyone, but I am pretty sure it already is.