Just before the start of the Divine Liturgy, two indigenous women unfurled a banner at the altar of the National Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré that read: “Abolish the Dogma” in bold red and black letters. The protesters were moved away and the Mass proceeded without incident, although the women later paraded the banner outside the basilica and draped it over the railing. The brief protest highlighted one of the long-standing issues facing the Holy See following Francis’ historic apology for the Catholic Church’s involvement in Canada’s notorious residential schools, where generations of indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from their families and cultures to assimilate in the Christian, Canadian society. . Francis spent the week in Canada trying to atone for the trauma and suffering of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people. Beyond the apology, the indigenous peoples asked Francis to formally rescind 15th-century papal decrees, or bulls, that gave European kingdoms the religious support to expand their territories for the sake of spreading Christianity. These decrees were seen as supporting the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal concept coined in an 1823 US Supreme Court decision that has been understood to mean that ownership and sovereignty of land passed to Europeans because they “discovered” it. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the need for the Holy See to “address the Doctrine of Discovery,” as well as other issues, including the return of indigenous artifacts to the Vatican Museums, in his one-on-one talks with Francis on Wednesday, his office said Trudo. Several Christian denominations in recent years have officially renounced the Doctrine of Revelation. The umbrella organization of U.S. women’s Catholic religious orders, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, formally asked Francis to do so in 2014, saying he should repudiate “the period of Christian history that used religion to justify political and personal violence against indigenous nations and peoples and their cultural, religious and territorial identity’. Murray Sinclair, the First Nations Chair of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, cited the doctrine in a statement this week welcoming Francis’ apology but calling on him to take responsibility for the church’s full role in Canada’s residential school system . “Guided by the Doctrine of Discovery and other church beliefs and doctrines, Catholic leaders not only allowed the government of Canada, but pushed it even further in its task of committing cultural genocide against aboriginal peoples,” Sinclair said. Church officials have insisted that those papal decrees have long since been annulled or replaced by others that fully recognize the rights of indigenous peoples to live on their lands, and say the original bulls have no legal or moral significance today. During the trip, Francis has repeatedly reaffirmed these rights and rejected the assimilation policies that led to the residential school system. However, both the Vatican and organizers of the Canadian trip have confirmed that a new statement is being prepared to address calls for a current, formal repudiation, although it is not expected to be released during Francis’ visit. “The Vatican has clarified that papal bulls associated with the Doctrine of Discovery have no legal or moral authority in the Church,” Neil McCarthy, a communications officer for the papal visit, told The Associated Press in an email. “However, we understand the desire to name these texts, acknowledge their impact, and discard the meanings associated with them.” Asked about the protest Thursday, McCarthy said: “We recognize that there are very passionate feelings about a number of issues, including the Doctrine of Discovery. The brief peaceful protest did not disrupt service and the group had an opportunity to voice their concerns.” The service itself incorporated many indigenous elements and peoples, including an emotional moment when a woman in indigenous clothing wept in front of Francis as she brought him the offering gifts. Francis did not mention the issue of doctrine in his homily, which spoke in general terms about reconciliation and the need for hope. The Vatican clearly expected the issue to arise during the trip. In an essay in the current issue of the Vatican-controlled Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, the Rev. Federico Lombardi acknowledged that the issue remains important to indigenous peoples, but stressed that the Holy See’s position in rejecting the doctrine of discovery is clear. Lombardi, the retired Vatican spokesman, cited the subsequent 1538 bull “Sublimis Deus” which argued that indigenous peoples “must in no way be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they are outside his faith Jesus Christ’s. and that they may and should freely and lawfully enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved.” Felix Hoehn, a professor of property and administrative law at the University of Saskatchewan, said any repudiation of papal bulls or doctrines would have no legal significance in land claims today, but would have symbolic value. “The Vatican is not enacting Canadian law. Courts are not bound by papal bulls or anything like that, but it would be symbolic,” Hoehn said. “It will add moral pressure.” Philip Arnold, chairman of the religion department at Syracuse University in New York, which is on the territory of the Onondaga Nation, said the issue of doctrine is neither new nor “less aggressively invasive today.” “The Vatican’s role in justifying the Doctrine of Christian Discovery in the 15th century is the origin story of the transatlantic slave trade, land theft and colonial extractive economies throughout Africa and the Americas,” he said in an email. For its part, the Canadian bishops’ conference in 2016 released a statement that categorically repudiated the doctrine as well as the related concept of “terra nullius.” This 19th-century term is also understood as a legitimization of indigenous land-grabbing, as European settlers considered land “unusable” if it showed no signs of European agricultural practices.
Winfield reported from Quebec City.
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