Priest miscalculates in removing “Apache Christ”

The Catholic Church stumbled badly.

In the dark of night, Father Peter Chudy Sixtus Simeon-Aguinam and his accomplices removed beloved paintings from St. Joseph Apache Mission on the Mescalero Apache Reservation and spirited them away. When parish staff and volunteers opened the church on June 27, they were shocked to find the sanctuary stripped of the eight-foot “Apache Christ,” by Franciscan Friar Robert Lentz, a famed iconographer.

Created in consultation with Apaches, the painting depicts Jesus as a Mescalero medicine man. It has hung behind the altar since 1990. The other painting, by the late Apache artist Gervase Peso, is of Apache spirit dancers.

On the mission’s website, volunteer youth minister AnneMarie Brillante posted that those responsible were the pastor, members of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces. Brillante, a Mescalero, is a lifelong member of the mission.

The diocese didn’t offer a reason, and Father Chudy couldn’t be reached for comment, reported OSV News, a wire service that covers Catholic issues. The priest also replaced the parish’s sacred vessels – Pueblo pottery and Apache baskets – with brass.

“He did not like anything to do with our Native culture,” said a parishioner.

Brillante posted a recording of her call to Deacon John Eric Munson, chief operating officer of the diocese, who told her the paintings were “not stolen, just removed.” He said the pastor, the Knights of Columbus and the diocesan property risk manager acted on authority of Bishop Peter Baldacchino. Brillante argued they stole the icon because it belonged to parishioners, but Munson insisted it belonged to the church.

In a statement, Brother Lentz made it clear he gave the icon to the people. That the priest led men from Alamogordo in its removal “only adds to the shame," he said.

The Knights of Columbus said the organization had no official role in the caper and that members were acting on their own.

Father Chudy, who arrived here in December, had signaled his displeasure with the paintings and his Apache parishioners, telling them during a weekday Mass: "God comes first. You cannot be both an Apache and a Catholic. You have to choose. You cannot be both... You have to leave those ways and that way of life behind."

For Mescaleros it was like a time warp throwing them back through the ages, as the priest repeated what they’d been told from the beginning of European contact. The words coming from a Black Nigerian, whose own people had been oppressed, were all the more disconcerting.

“He thought we were all pagans,” said Mary Serna, director of the mission’s years-long restoration. “He said it was a church and not a museum, but if you’ve traveled you know European churches are also museums.”

On June 30 parishioners, many in traditional dress, came to church and signed a letter seeking the paintings’ return, reported the Las Cruces Bulletin. They placed play money in the collection plate in protest.

Days later, Deacon Munson came to Mescalero with a U-Haul containing the two paintings. Both were damaged, said Mary Serna; the icon’s frame, created by New Mexico artist Roberto Lavadie, was in pieces.

Everyone involved in the removal will be held accountable, she said. They found the missing baskets and pottery in the priest’s empty house; he departed without a word.

At this writing the diocese has still not issued a statement or responded to media calls, including mine. Church leaders are trying to meet with Bishop Baldacchino, who has never visited St. Joseph despite several invitations.

This sorry episode “opened up old, old wounds,” writes AnneMarie Brillante.

The Catholic Church has recently taken steps nationally to atone for years of mistreating Native Americans. It can add this epic cultural blunder to the list.

This piece is syndicated by New Mexico News Services and is republished with permission.