From: jeffreydanielrubard@gmail.com   
      
   On Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 10:07:10 AM UTC-7, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   > Vatican rejects ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ justifying colonialism    
   >    
   > After decades of demands by Indigenous people, Vatican ‘repudiates’    
   > theories that backed colonial-era seizure of lands.    
   >    
   > Calls to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery grew louder last year when    
   > Pope Francis made a trip to Canada to apologise for the Catholic    
   > Church's role in abuses at so-called residential schools [File:    
   > Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]    
   >    
   > Published On 30 Mar 2023    
   >    
   > The Vatican has rejected the “Doctrine of Discovery”, a 15th-century    
   > concept laid out in so-called “papal bulls” that were used to justify    
   > European Christian colonialists’ seizure of Indigenous lands in Africa    
   > and the Americas.    
   >    
   > In a statement on Thursday, the Vatican’s development and education    
   > office said the theory (PDF) – which still informs government policies    
   > and laws today – was not part of the Catholic Church’s teachings.    
   >    
   > It said the papal bulls were “manipulated for political purposes by    
   > competing colonial powers in order to justify immoral acts against    
   > Indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition    
   > from ecclesiastical authorities”.    
   >    
   > “In no uncertain terms, the Church’s magisterium upholds the respect    
   > due to every human being,” the statement reads. “The Catholic Church    
   > therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the    
   > inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples, including what has become    
   > known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery’.”    
   >    
   > For decades, Indigenous leaders and community advocates had urged the    
   > Catholic Church to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, which stated    
   > that European colonialists could claim any territory not yet    
   > “discovered” by Christians.    
   >    
   > The papal bulls played a key role in the European conquest of Africa    
   > and the Americas, and their effects are still felt by Indigenous    
   > people.    
   >    
   >    
   > Calls to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery grew louder last year when    
   > Pope Francis made a trip to Canada during which he apologised for the    
   > Catholic Church’s role in widespread abuses that took place at    
   > so-called residential schools.    
   >    
   > Between the late 1800s and 1990s, more than 150,000 Inuit, First    
   > Nation and Metis children across Canada were taken from their families    
   > and communities and obligated to attend the forced-assimilation    
   > institutions, which were rife with physical, psychological and sexual    
   > violence.    
   >    
   > The Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee said at the time of the    
   > pope’s residential school apology that more action was needed from the    
   > church – notably, the revocation of the papal bulls.    
   >    
   > “An apology to Indigenous Peoples without action are just empty words.    
   > The Vatican must revoke these Papal Bulls and stand up for Indigenous    
   > Peoples’ rights to their lands in courts, legislatures and elsewhere    
   > in the world,” the committee said in a July 2022 statement.    
   >    
   > Indigenous leaders welcomed Thursday’s Vatican statement, even though    
   > it continued to take some distance from acknowledging actual    
   > culpability.    
   >    
   > Phil Fontaine, a former national chief of the Assembly of First    
   > Nations in Canada who was part of the delegation that met with Pope    
   > Francis at the Vatican before last year’s trip and then accompanied    
   > him throughout, said the statement was “wonderful”.    
   >    
   > He said it resolved an outstanding issue and now put the matter to    
   > civil authorities to revise property laws that cite the doctrine.    
   >    
   > “The Holy Father promised that upon his return to Rome, they would    
   > begin work on a statement which was designed to allay the fears and    
   > concerns of many survivors and others concerned about the relationship    
   > between their Catholic Church and our people, and he did as he said he    
   > would do,” Fontaine told The Associated Press news agency.    
   >    
   > “Now the ball is in the court of governments, the United States and in    
   > Canada, but particularly in the United States where the doctrine is    
   > embedded in the law,” he said.    
   >    
   > “Today’s news on the Vatican’s formal repudiation of the Doctrine of    
   > Discovery is the result of hard work and advocacy on the part of    
   > Indigenous leadership and communities,” Canadian Justice Minister    
   > David Lametti wrote on Twitter. “A doctrine that should have never    
   > existed. This is another step forward.”    
   >    
   > The Doctrine of Discovery was cited as recently as a 2005 US Supreme    
   > Court decision involving the Oneida Indian Nation and written by the    
   > late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.    
   >    
   > On Thursday, the Vatican offered no evidence that the three papal    
   > bulls (Dum Diversas in 1452, Romanus Pontifex in 1455 and Inter    
   > Caetera in 1493) had themselves been formally abrogated, rescinded or    
   > rejected, as Vatican officials have often said.    
   >    
   > But it cited a subsequent papal bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, that    
   > reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples should not be deprived of their    
   > liberty or the possession of their property, and were not to be    
   > enslaved.    
   >    
   > Cardinal Michael Czerny, the Canadian Jesuit whose office co-authored    
   > the statement, stressed that the original papal bulls had long ago    
   > been abrogated and that the use of the term “doctrine” — which in this    
   > case is a legal term, not a religious one — had led to centuries of    
   > confusion about the church’s role.    
   >    
   > The original papal bulls, he said, “are being treated as if they were    
   > teaching, magisterial or doctrinal documents, and they are an ad hoc    
   > political move. And I think to solemnly repudiate an ad hoc political    
   > move is to generate more confusion than clarity”.    
   >    
   > He stressed that the statement was not just about setting the    
   > historical record straight, but “to discover, identify, analyse and    
   > try to overcome what we can only call the enduring effects of    
   > colonialism today”.    
   >    
   > Michele Audette, an Innu senator who was one of the five commissioners    
   > responsible for conducting the National Inquiry into Missing and    
   > Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada, told the Canadian    
   > Broadcasting Corporation that the announcement left her in disbelief.    
   >    
      
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