Are Missionaries Agents of Colonialism? by Dr. Jeff Mirus

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Aug 30, 2024

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.

Recent observations by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle suggest that the charge that Christian missionaries are agents of colonialism has not yet been laid to rest (see Cardinal Tagle defends missionaries). In reality, this is an accusation typically made by those who are themselves “colonializing” by trying to turn the third-world poor into agents of, or supports for, Western secularism.

Thomas Mirus recently called my attention to a case in point: African Archbishops: ‘They Are Sending Us Missionaries of Evil’. We have seen this again and again with the rising tide of secularization in the West over the past seventy-five years. It is always the Christian missionaries who are accused of shackling poorer populations to a self-serving “colonialism”, whereas the so-called enlightened advocates of human liberty are actually seeking to enslave them to vice—to protect them not from the sovereignty of a particular State but from the sovereignty of God. …

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