“The content of these documents was manipulated for political purposes by competing colonial powers to justify immoral acts against indigenous peoples that were committed, sometimes, without the opposition of ecclesiastical authorities”, indicates the text.

The statement comes after decades of demands by indigenous peoples for the Vatican to formally rescind papal bulls that provided European kingdoms with support from the Catholic Church to expand their territories and eliminate indigenous cultures.

The Doctrine of Discovery has its roots in the early Age of Exploration, which began in the early 15th century.

Supported by a series of papal decrees, the doctrine laid the legal foundations for the conquest of the New World by the monarchies of Spain and Portugal, which later supported other European monarchies.

The decrees established religious, political, and legal justification for the settlement and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians.

In addition to legalizing the conquest of land, the decrees also opened the door to the elimination of many indigenous cultures in the name of Christianity.

In decrees, known as papal bulls, popes granted European crowns the right to take control of lands, subjugate the peoples already living there, and convert them to Christianity.

The bulls included sanctions, executions, clearances, expulsions, reprimands, excommunications, denunciations, and expressions of territorial sovereignty for Christian monarchs supported by the Catholic Church.

Especially, two papal bulls stand out.

One is the Roman Pontiff”which Pope Nicholas V issued in 1455, giving the Portuguese the monopoly of trade with Africa and authorizing the enslavement of the local population.

And the second is the bull Inter Caetera which Pope Alexander VI published in 1493 to justify the claims of Christian European explorers to “discover” lands and waterways in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and to promote Christian domination and superiority.

The decrees not only gave carte blanche to claim lands in the New World, but also bound the exploration and colonization with Christianity and conversion.

As Pope Alexander VI requested in his bull, the priority was to ensure “that in our time, in particular, the Catholic faith and the Christian religion may be exalted, increased and spread everywhere, that the health of souls be healed and the barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to faith itself”.

The reasoning of the popes was based on the new concept of zero earth (empty land in Latin).

This meant that any place not occupied by Christians was considered free for Christian Europeans, regardless of how many people already lived there or how advanced their civilizations were.

As explorers traveled deeper into the New World, the papal bulls merged with the legal concept that came to be known as the “Doctrine of Discovery” as it interpreted land ownership and sovereignty. as passing to the Europeans. because they “discovered” them.

The concept spread from the 15th to the 19th century and the practices of the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors were replicated by other nations such as France, England and the Netherlands.

Over time, the doctrine was applied around the world.

In 1823, it was incorporated into United States law when, in a Supreme Court case, the doctrine was used to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their lands.

Although Thursday’s Vatican statement reaffirms the Church’s “rejection of the colonizing mentality,” it does not speak of revoking the bulls or acknowledge its responsibility for colonial-era abuses.

Philip P. Arnold, professor of religious studies at Syracuse University in the United States, told the newspaper New York Times that the Vatican’s statement is a “good first step”, but it does not speak of “its responsibility in the vision of the world” which supports the doctrine: that of the superiority of Christianity.

“It is not just a legalistic formulation that we are trying to clarify, it is a worldview set in motion in the age of discovery that we still have to deal with in these urgent times,” he said. he declares.

He added that while the Vatican’s statement is “encouraging”, it does not reflect how this worldview “She is still active in the Church.”

Demands from indigenous peoples for the Vatican to reject the Doctrine of Discovery increased last year when Pope Francis visited Canada to apologize to indigenous communities for the church’s role there.

In particular, the role of the Church in the infamous residential school system where thousands of Indigenous children were physically and sexually abused and, in some cases, killed.

It was not the first time the pope had apologized. In 2015 during a trip to Bolivia, the Pope spoke of the “crimes” committed by the Church in America.

“I say to you, with regret: many serious sins have been committed against the indigenous peoples of America in the name of God,” the pontiff said.

And he added: “I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church itself, but for the crimes against the original peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

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