To Heaven or to Hell: Bartolomé de Las Casas's Confesionario by David Thomas Orique (review)
Bartolomé de las Casas’s famous 1552 Confesionario sought to employ the power of the Church and the confessional to wrest some small measure of justice for the native peoples who suffered from the Spaniards’ rapacious greed. In doing so, Las Casas articulated an innovative theology that declared that all Spaniards who had participated in, or benefited from, the conquest and exploitation of native peoples lived in mortal sin. Before permitting them to participate in the sacrament of absolution, Las Casas required them to make legally binding public declarations of their guilt, with the promise of full restitution for the spiritual and physical damage they had done. Only then could they be absolved of their sins.