VATICAN CITY (AP) 鈥� The Vatican on Thursday responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the 鈥淒octrine of Discovery,鈥� the theories backed by 15th-century 鈥減apal bulls鈥� that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today.
A Vatican statement said the 15th-century papal bulls, or decrees, 鈥渄id not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples鈥� and have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.
It said the documents had been 鈥渕anipulated鈥� for political purposes by colonial powers 鈥渢o justify immoral acts against Indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesial authorities.鈥�
The statement, from the Vatican鈥檚 development and education offices, said it was right to 鈥渞ecognize these errors,鈥� acknowledge the terrible effects of colonial-era assimilation policies on Indigenous peoples and ask for their forgiveness.
The statement was a response to for the Vatican to formally rescind the papal bulls that provided the Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms the religious backing to expand their territories in Africa and the Americas for the sake of spreading Christianity.
Those decrees underpin the 鈥淒octrine of Discovery,鈥� a legal concept coined in a 1823 U.S. Supreme Court decision that has come to be understood as meaning that ownership and sovereignty over land passed to Europeans because they 鈥渄iscovered鈥� it.
It was cited as recently as a 2005 Supreme Court decision involving the Oneida Indian Nation written by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
During Pope Francis鈥� 2022 visit to sa国际传媒, during which he for the residential school system that forcibly removed Native children from their homes, he was met with demands for a formal .
Two Indigenous women unfurled a banner at the altar of the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupr茅 on July 29 that read: 鈥淩escind the Doctrine鈥� in bright red and black letters. The protesters were escorted away and the Mass proceeded without incident, though the women later marched the banner out of the basilica and draped it on the railing.
In the statement, the Vatican said: 鈥淚n no uncertain terms, the Church鈥檚 magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being. 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 鈥渄octrine of discovery.鈥�
The Vatican offered no evidence that the three 15th-century 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 bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, that reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn't be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and were not to be enslaved.
It was significant that the repudiation of the "Doctrine of Discovery" came during the pontificate of history's first Latin American pope. The Argentine Francis, who even before the Canadian trip, had apologized to Native peoples It was issued while he was in the hospital Thursday with a respiratory infection.
Cardinal Jos茅 Tolentino de Mendon莽a, prefect of the Vatican's culture office, said the statement was a reflection of the Vatican's dialogue with Indigenous peoples.
"This Note is part of what we might call the architecture of reconciliation and also the product of the art of reconciliation, the process whereby people commit to listening to each other, to speaking to each other and to growth in mutual understanding," he said in a statement.
Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press
