Doctrine of Discovery on agenda at meeting between Pope, First Nations

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This article was published 26/03/2022 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROME — When delegates from the Assembly of First Nations meet Thursday with Pope Francis, they intend to ask him not just for an apology but to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery issued in 1493.

The papal bull, or edict, which was pronounced by Pope Alexander VI, gave European explorers the right to claim lands not inhabited by Christians for their Christian monarchs. If people living there weren’t Christians, the land was considered terra nullius — empty — and available for conquest.

This doctrine, the AFN says, “led to the genocide of Indigenous peoples in every region of the world.”

AFN regional chief Gerald Antoine, who is leading the delegation in Rome, said: “When European rulers arrived on our shores, their international laws were applied to our lands and denied our existence as human beings.”

Since that time, he added, “We have been the target of relentless attempts to destroy our way of life. We have been uprooted, displaced and relocated out of our original lands. However, we have never given up on our teachings and the way we perceive our existence.”

While not denying the terrible things that happened to Indigenous people as a result of exploration and colonization, Toronto-based reporter Michael Swan wonders if repudiating the doctrine will result in any practical change.

For Swan, a reporter for the Catholic Register and longtime observer of the Roman Catholic Church, a papal injunction against the doctrine will “not be a magic formula” that makes everything right or reverses the course of 400 years of colonial history.

The doctrine has, in fact, already been “contradicted by other statements” made by the Church several times in the past, he added.

This included at the Second Vatican Council, which condemned the idea wars of conquest are justifiable in order to convert non-Christians.

Closer to home, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement in 2016 against the “errors and falsehoods perpetuated, often by Christians, during and following the so-called Age of Discovery.”

Pope John Paul II spoke against it in 1987 in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., when he stated the church affirmed the dignity and freedom of Indigenous people and they could not be deprived of their lands.

“The Doctrine of Discovery is clearly not the teaching of the church today,” Swan said.

At the same time, there is symbolic power in the Pope speaking out specifically against the doctrine during a visit to Canada, if he should choose to do that. What would be more important, Swan believes, is “how Catholics behave towards our Indigenous neighbours.”

Canadian Roman Catholics need “to learn about (the doctrine’s) history and how it impacted Indigenous people,” and then incorporate “sincere reconciliation into their daily lives.”

That, Swan said, “would be more important than all the statements that are repudiated.”

As for this week’s meetings with the Pope, Swan believes one of the most important things is for Indigenous people “to be heard at the very heart of the church. That will be very meaningful.”

John Longhurst is in Rome this week to cover the papal visit by Indigenous people for the Free Press. See coverage of the visit at winnipegfreepress.com/papalvisit

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