Pope Francis faces calls to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery

there are many indigenous people who want pope francis to go beyond any apology for the church's role in residential schools they're calling for the renunciation of the doctrine of discovery centuries-old pronouncement from the catholic church that was used to justify colonization john northcott is with us this morning and john we're very likely to hear that phrase today doctrine of discovery or to hear papal bulls so help us understand what the doctrine is and why there are calls for its repudiation well we begin with another term heather a latin term terra nullius the empty land this in a series of papal bills that came out in the late 1400s effectively saying that empty lands discovered by explorers if they were claimed could be and as of right given by this power in the papal bulls from the papacy itself to be able to claim to settle to colonize and to christianize anyone that you happen to find there and that has been used by many as an underpinning for the idea that this is what underlies much of what was colonialism and something that needs to be addressed before true reconciliation can go forward in terms of the comments made around it and the calls they've been coming for years more recently in 2018 and this is a six-page document dismantling the doctrine of discovery this coming from the assembly of first nations and i'm going to quote briefly from it here in which uh then ahead of uh perry belgaard saying in all of this how is it possible that any pope or king or queen or explorers from europe could quote discover lands if the new world if indigenous peoples were already occupying such lands according to our own laws and legal orders so that was the document that came out several years ago calls still being made including by the now head of the afn speaking to our david cochran on power and politics have a listen we have god-given rights we have creator given rights with respect to the lands and resources and waters of this of this country of turtle island and i think that that's really important to note that it's not just a document to be sort of torn up and thrown away it's a construct that needs to be dismantled because what we're really talking about is colonialism we're talking about the colonization of this country and how that has been destructive to indigenous people in canada in places like australia in the us and in places around the world it's a larger issue and so it really must be revoked larger in terms of it being for many the underpinning of what was colonialism for centuries around the world now the revocation uh is the argument that's being made and that's being pushed for uh one archbishop and speaking to cbc and others making the comment that in fact the papal bulls referred to here were in fact rescinded in 1537 and the idea being that there might be some clarification and to watch potentially for that clarification uh coming up during the pope's visit but arguably those especially many indigenous groups that is not enough that the the sentiment continues the justification continues and the effects of colonialization uh continue as well another point to clarify this morning that we're hearing in this report in the globe and mail the reference to an investigation into residential schools made by the pope earlier in the week now again we quote the globe and mail on this but the sources are telling them that there was a misunderstanding a mistranslation of the term investigation it was more of a looking forward and looking towards rather than a formal investigation of course many indigenous uh organizations have said that uh the trc the truth and reconciliation commission was the investigation and was the only investigation that's needed and they are pushing for the church to search their own documents and to release those heather john thank you very much

Channel: CBC News

Views: 13,845

Keywords: pope francis, pope apology, reconciliation, Indigenous people, residential schools, doctrine of discovery, canada, cbc, cbc news

Id: DRaFCQfhgL4

Length: 4min 2sec (242 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 28 2022