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Notes -
Preaching and catechism in Quechua was obligatory for priests in Peru immediately after the counter-reformation- in fact, the modern dialect of southern Quechua descends from the form standardized to be taught to missionaries. Nahuatl was the standard vernacular in Spanish missions from Mexico until the very late 17th century, even when the sacraments were performed in Latin.
And, it should be noted- Catholic missionaries to animist peoples, both today in Africa and New Guinea and in the renaissance to Indians, typically try to push mass attendance but emphasize confession as a draw to new converts. Providing priests fluent in indigenous languages is obviously important to this endeavor, and early missionary accounts note Indians walking for hundreds of miles to go to confession and returning to their home villages.
It’s rather fascinating to me that confession is seen as a draw to converts, given the strong resistance to it among many members of my own church body. When the denomination was organized, congregations were initially required to introduce private confession wherever possible, but that provision was dropped within a decade or so due to massive pushback from the laity. I wonder if the difference is just that private confession seems “too Catholic” to many Protestants, while pagans have no such hang-ups, or if there are other factors at play.
Animist pagans typically live in superstitious terror of having offended powerful and invisible beings through misconduct. Confession is quite a draw to them, therefore- missionaries to places with lots of animists will still tell stories about poor villagers walking several hundred miles through hostile territory because they’ve heard their sins can be forgiven by a more powerful God than the ones they’re so afraid of.
Third world villagers who’ve never seen a Bible are not the same thing as wiccans who do drugs and dance around naked- the latter don’t like the idea of confession any more than Protestants usually do.
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