ABSTRACT
In the field of missionary work Bartolome de las Casas was more successful. In addition to seeking the amelioration of the Indians' social condition, he made a number of evangelical journeys in Guatemala and elsewhere that yielded large numbers of converts. Bartolome de las Casas influenced European attitudes toward slavery in the New World and helped expand Roman Catholicism. Las Casas's attack on slavery and oppression in the New World was an unusual challenge to his contemporaries. Slavery was abolished in the European empires during the nineteenth century; however, the values that had supported it since the time of las Casas persisted and even reached a peak in the late nineteenth century when scientific racism came to influence the secular theories of Social Darwinists. Catholicism gave rise to a rich native religious tradition, including saints such as Martin de Porres, whose care for the poor inspired later native priests such as OscarRomero.
