The Mythologized Squanto: Syncretism and Historical Revisionism in Modern Catholic Narratives
Catholic News Agency’s article “Was Squanto Catholic? What we know about this hero of the first Thanksgiving” (November 27, 2025) presents a naturalized account of Tisquantum’s life that obscures essential Catholic truths while promoting dangerous historical revisionism. The narrative centers on speculative claims about Squanto’s baptism by Spanish Franciscans while ignoring the Church’s divine mandate for the conversion of nations. The article states:
“It is apparently from these Franciscans that he received baptism and became Catholic, though it is not clear to what extent he was catechized and practiced his new faith.”
This equivocation reduces the sacrament of baptism to a cultural artifact rather than the supernatural regeneration described in De Baptismo (Council of Trent, Session VII). The article’s admission that “Native American culture was very spiritual” dangerously equates pagan animism with sanctifying grace, violating the Church’s constant teaching that “extra Ecclesiam nulla salus” (outside the Church there is no salvation) as defined by Pope Boniface VIII in Unam Sanctam (1302).
Syncretism and Naturalistic Reduction
The article’s treatment of Squanto exemplifies the neo-modernist tendency to reduce supernatural realities to sociological phenomena. Historian Damien Costello’s assertion that “Catholicism was a crucial ingredient in Squanto’s resiliency” transforms the deposit of faith into a therapeutic coping mechanism. This contradicts Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas, which declares Christ’s kingship over all nations and individuals, requiring their submission to His divine authority rather than instrumental use of religion for earthly ends.
The complete omission of Sublimis Deus (1537) by Pope Paul III – which solemnly affirmed the capacity of Native Americans for conversion and forbade their enslavement – reveals the article’s selective historiography. Nowhere does the text mention the heroic Jesuit martyrs like St. Isaac Jogues who shed blood for these souls’ conversion, preferring instead to celebrate Squanto as a “global citizen” – a thoroughly modern construct alien to Catholic ecclesiology.
Theological Omissions and False Equivalence
By claiming “God only knows” whether Squanto persevered in Catholic practice, the article implicitly denies the Church’s authority to judge external profession of faith. This violates Canon 1325 of the 1917 Code which obliges Catholics to “profess their faith publicly whenever silence, evasion, or their manner of acting would imply a denial of the faith, entail contempt for religion, cause an insult to God, or cause scandal to their neighbor.”
The portrayal of the “first Thanksgiving” as interreligious dialogue constitutes historical revisionism. Governor William Bradford’s own account in Of Plymouth Plantation describes the 1621 event as a Puritan harvest festival, not an ecumenical gathering. The article’s romanticized version serves contemporary pluralist agendas rather than historical truth.
Undermining Missionary Zeal
Most grievously, the article completely ignores the Church’s divine mandate to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). The Franciscans who baptized Squanto are presented as social liberators rather than missionaries seeking the salvation of souls. This reflects the conciliar sect’s abandonment of Catholic Action principles expressed in Pope Pius XI’s Quas Primas:
“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
By celebrating Squanto as a “hero” for facilitating Puritan settlement rather than mourning the lack of evidence for his conversion of fellow natives, the article inverts Catholic priorities. The Puritans themselves were schismatics whose errors would later be condemned in Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864), particularly Proposition 18 equating Protestantism with Catholicism.
Conclusion: The Danger of Hagiographic Revisionism
This narrative exemplifies the neo-modernist tendency to create “useful saints” who fit contemporary political narratives rather than models of holiness. The article transforms Squanto into a proto-ecumenical figure while ignoring the tragic reality that his people died without the sacraments. True Catholic historiography would lament this mass death as an eternal tragedy rather than celebrate it as prelude to pluralist coexistence.
As Pope Pius XII warned in Humani Generis (1950), such historical revisionism serves “the imprudent zeal of souls who neglects to weigh the meaning of words.” Until narratives about America’s founding cease sacralizing Enlightenment ideals and recover the Church’s missionary imperative, they will remain obstacles to Christ’s social kingship.
Source:
Was Squanto Catholic? What we know about this hero of the first Thanksgiving (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 27.11.2025