The negative impact of colonization on Indigenous people in the Americas is known only too well. So is the role the Roman Catholic Church played in it. That includes what became known as the Doctrine of Discovery — the idea that by “discovering” the Americas, colonizing countries like Spain and Portugal could claim Indigenous land as their own.
But the story is more complicated than most people realize — and also incomplete without noting opposition from those in the Church during that age of discovery and conquest from Dominican priests and the Vatican itself.
That included a Papal Bull issued in 1537 that declared Indigenous people must not be deprived of their freedom or lands. This remains the official position of the Roman Catholic Church — it was affirmed in 1987 by Pope John Paul II when he visited Canada.
Read my recent column on this topic in the Winnipeg Free
Press.
