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VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican City on Thursday responded to the demands of indigenous peoples by signing a 15th-century “Papal Bull” that justified and formed the basis for the seizure of colonial-era Indigenous lands. It formally rejected the “doctrine of discovery,” a theory that was based on Some property laws today.
A Vatican statement said the papal edict “does not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples” and has never been considered an expression of the Catholic faith.
A statement from the Vatican’s Department of Development and Education marks the Vatican’s historical admission of complicity in colonial-era human rights abuses by European powers, and is the first time in history that it has made a conspicuous apology to an indigenous people. It was issued when the Pope of Latin America was hospitalized.with respiratory infections.
Indigenous leaders welcomed the statement, although they were far from acknowledging the Vatican’s actual culpability. It was done “without objection from church authorities to justify acts of immorality against indigenous peoples.”
He said it was right to “acknowledge these mistakes” and the horrific impact colonial assimilation policies had on indigenous peoples and ask their forgiveness.
The statement was a response to decades of indigenous demands The Vatican officially withdraws the papal bull that provided religious support to the Kingdoms of Portugal and Spain to expand their territories in Africa and the Americas to spread Christianity.
These statutes underpin the “discovery doctrine,” a legal concept coined in an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, that land ownership and sovereignty was “discovered” by Europeans. It has come to be understood to mean transferred.
It was cited as recently as a 2005 Supreme Court decision on the Oneida Indian Nation, written by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Pope Francis apologizes to indigenous peoples during his visit to Canada in 2022 He responded to the Pope’s call for formal denial of the bull for a boarding school system that forcibly removed native children from their homes.
Two indigenous women unfurled a banner on the altar of the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré National Shrine on July 29 that read, “Withdraw the Doctrine” in bright red and black letters. The protesters were escorted and the mass proceeded without incident, but the women later marched banners out of the cathedral and hung them on railings.
In a statement, the Vatican said: The Catholic Church therefore rejects notions that deny the human rights inherent to indigenous peoples, including what has come to be known as the legal and political “discovery doctrine”. “
Phil Fontaine, a former representative of the Canadian Indigenous Congress, who was part of the delegation that met Francis at the Vatican prior to his trip and accompanied him throughout, said the statement was “wonderful” and the outstanding I leave this matter to the administrative authorities to settle the matter and amend the property laws that cite current jurisprudence.
“Once he returns to Rome, the Pope said he would begin working on a statement aimed at alleviating the fears and concerns of many survivors and others concerned about the relationship between the Catholic Church and our people. I promised, and he will,” Fontaine told the Associated Press.
“The Church did one thing for the Pope, as it was told it would do it. Now the ball is in courts in governments, the United States and Canada, but especially in the United States, where the doctrine is enshrined in law.
The Vatican, as Vatican officials often say, has officially repealed, revoked, or rejected three papal bulls (Dum Diversas of 1452, Romanus Pontifex of 1455, and Inter Caetera of 1493) themselves. did not provide any evidence that it was. However, Sublimis Deus of 1537 cites the bull which reaffirmed that the natives should not be deprived of their liberty or property possession and should not be enslaved.
Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, a co-author of the statement, said the original bull had long since been abolished and that the use of the term “doctrine” is a legal rather than a religious term. emphasized. It has caused confusion for centuries about the role of the church.
The original bull “is treated as if they were teaching, instruction or doctrine documents, and they are makeshift political movements. I think denying it creates more confusion than clarity.”
He said the statement not only sets the historical record straight, but “seeks to discover, identify, analyze and overcome what can only be called the lasting effects of colonialism today.” emphasized.
It was significant that the “discovery doctrine” was rejected during the reign of the first Latin American pope in history. Even before his visit to Canada, the Argentinian pope said he apologized to the indigenous people of Bolivia in 2015. For the crime of colonial conquest of the Americas. It was issued while he was hospitalized with a respiratory infection on Thursday.
Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonza, director of the Vatican’s Department of Culture, said the statement reflected the Vatican’s dialogue with indigenous peoples.
“This memo is part of what we can call the structure of reconciliation, it is also a product of the art of reconciliation, the process by which people listen and speak to each other and commit to the growth of mutual understanding.” he said. in a statement.
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Rob Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto.
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