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The Vatican on Thursday responded to Indigenous demands and officially rejected the “Doctrine of Discovery,” a theory backed by a 15th-century “papal bull” that legalized the confiscation of indigenous lands in colonial times and is the basis of some property laws today.
A Vatican statement said the 15th-century papal bull or decree “does not adequately reflect the dignity and equal rights of Indigenous peoples” and was never considered an expression of the Catholic faith.
He said the document was “manipulated” for political purposes by the colonial powers “to justify immoral acts against the natives which were carried out, sometimes, without opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities.”
The statement, from the Vatican’s office of development and education, said it “recognized the mistake,” acknowledged the devastating effects of colonial-era assimilation policies on Indigenous peoples and apologized.
The statement was a response to decades of indigenous requests for the Vatican to officially revoke the papal bull that granted religious support to the Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms to expand their territories in Africa and the Americas to spread Christianity.
The decree supports the “Doctrine of Discovery,” a legal concept coined in an 1823 US Supreme Court decision that has been understood as the ownership and sovereignty of land given to Europeans because they “discovered”.
It is said to be a 2005 Supreme Court decision involving the Oneida Indian Nation written by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
During Pope Francis’ visit to Canada in 2022, when he apologized to Indigenous peoples for the residential school system that forced the removal of Indigenous children from their homes, he was asked to formally reject the papal bull.
Two indigenous women unfurled a banner at the altar of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré National Shrine on July 29 that read: “Rescind the Doctrine” in bright red and black letters. The protesters were escorted out and the Mass continued without incident, although the women later drove the banner out of the basilica and placed it on the fence.
Three papal bulls still exist
In its statement, the Vatican said: “In no uncertain terms, the magisterium of the Church upholds the dignity due to every human being. Therefore the Catholic Church rejects those concepts that fail to recognize the human rights of indigenous people, including what is known as the “doctrine of discovery” law and politics.
The Vatican has provided no evidence that the three 15th-century papal bulls (Dum Diversas of 1452, Romanus Pontifex of 1455 and Inter Caetera of 1493) have been officially revoked, annulled or rejected, as Vatican officials often claim. However, it was quoted from his successor, Sublimis Deus in 1537, which reaffirmed that indigenous people should not be deprived of their freedom or property, and should not be enslaved.
It is important that the rejection of the “Doctrine of Discovery” came during the first Latin American pontificate in history. Argentina’s Francis, who previously traveled to Canada, apologized to the indigenous people of Bolivia in 2015 for the crimes of colonial conquest in the Americas. It was published while he was in hospital Thursday with a respiratory infection.
Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Vatican’s cultural office, said the statement was a reflection of the Vatican’s dialogue with Indigenous peoples.
“This record is part of what can be called the architecture of reconciliation and also the product of the art of reconciliation, a process where people are committed to listening to each other, talking to each other and growing in mutual understanding,” he said. in the statement.
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