Peruvian researcher: Big mistake to think ‘the Catholic faith was imposed on the Incas’

Peruvian researcher and author Rafael Aíta asserts that one of the most widespread beliefs about the evangelization of Peru is also one of the most mistaken: the belief that Catholicism was forcibly imposed upon the Incas.

The period of Inca rule in Peru spanned from 1200 to 1532, while Spanish rule began in 1532 and ended in 1821, the year of the country’s declaration of independence.

In an interview with “EWTN Noticias ,” the network’s Spanish-language television news program, the author of the new book “ The Catholic Incas ” contended that the conversion of many members of the Inca nobility was a far more complex process, marked by dialogue and the discovery of common ground between their beliefs and Christianity.

“I believe the biggest mistake, even among us Catholics, is thinking that our faith was imposed upon us,” Aíta affirmed.

“The numbers donʼt add up, because a small handful of Spaniards cannot convince thousands or hundreds of thousands of people,” Aíta indicated. “What we find in this historic process is a series of convergences that are far removed from imposition and much closer to negotiation,” he explained.

According to Aíta, who is also known on social…