The Vatican condemned this Thursday the colonial past of the Catholic Churchby rejecting the “doctrine of discovery” of America and repudiating the papal edicts of the fifteenth century that authorized the enslavement of indigenous people.

In a document prepared by the Dicastery (ministry) for Culture and Education and the Integral Human Development Service, the Vatican takes clear position once morest forced conversion campaigns carried out by the church following the arrival of Europeans to the American continent in 1492.

The Holy See repealed papal “bulls” — official documents signed by a pope — which gave rise to the “doctrine of discovery,” which authorized European powers to colonize non-Christian countries, lands and peoples.

What were the papal “bulls” repealed by the Vatican

In the note, the Vatican refers to the ‘bulls’ issued in the XV century by Nicholas V and Alexander VI.

These were papal documents that authorized the King of Portugal to conquer Saracens and pagans to reduce them to indefinite slavery and gave the kingdom of Castile the right to conquer America and claim the discovered territories as their own as well as send men to evangelize.

“Historical research clearly shows that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and related to political issues, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith,” the text underlines.

The content of these documents “has been manipulated for political purposes by colonial powers (…) to justify immoral acts once morest the indigenous populations, sometimes carried out without the opposition of the ecclesiastical authorities”, the text maintains.

“It is fair to acknowledge these mistakes, to acknowledge the terrible effects of assimilation policies and the pain experienced by indigenous populations, as well as to ask for forgiveness,” admits the Vatican, just as Francis has done during his trip to Canada.

“The Catholic Church repudiates concepts that do not recognize human rights intrinsic to indigenous peoples, including what has been legally and politically known as the ‘doctrine of discovery'”, summarizes the text.

By officially repudiating that colonial past, the current Catholic Church hierarchy commits itself to “abandon the colonizing mentality” and to promote “reciprocal respect and dialogue, recognizing the rights and cultural values ​​of individuals and peoples.”

The text quotes Pope Francis, who urged the Christian community “never once more to be contaminated by the idea that there is one culture superior to another and that it is legitimate to use means of coercion once morest others.”

The Pope’s experience in Canada

The first Latin American pope in history, extremely sensitive to these issues, delivered in July 2022 a historic request for forgiveness to the indigenous people of Canada for the “cultural destruction and forced assimilation” they suffered.

Canada’s indigenous school system subjected hundreds of thousands of children to physical and sexual abuse from the 19th century to 1996 with the purpose of isolating them from the influence of their homes and their culture.

“This mentality that we are superior and that the natives do not matter is serious. We have to work on it. Go back and clean up everything that has been done wrong, but knowing that the same colonialism also reigns today,” the pope commented during the return flight from your visit to Canada.

In his seven trips to Latin America, the Pope has exhorted to recognize the pain of the indigenous people of that region, denouncing the voracity for natural resources and praising their key role as “caretakers” of the planet.

In 2015, during his tour to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, he apologized for the church’s complicity in the oppression of Latin America during the colonial era and called for a global movement to destroy the “new colonialism.”

Fuente: AFP

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