Banner against 'doctrine of discovery' raised at papal Mass

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Jul 2022 23:00

As the pope began Mass in a cathedral outside Quebec City, a large banner protesting the "doctrine of discovery" was unfurled near the front row facing the congregation.

People display a banner during Pope Francis' mass at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré in Quebec City. (AP)

Participants at Pope Francis' Mass in Canada on Thursday held a banner requesting that he formally rescind edicts from the 15th century in which the papacy justified taking indigenous land in the New World.

As the Pope began Mass in a cathedral outside Quebec City, a large banner protesting the so-called "doctrine of discovery" was unfurled near the front row facing the congregation. The majority of those in the church were indigenous.

It is worth noting that the Doctrine of Discovery is a colonial-era doctrine that claims white European nations "discovered" North America during the age of exploration.

Those who hung the banner, which was written on a white sheet with red letters, later took it down.

It was unclear whether the Pope, who was standing behind the banner, could see what it said.

This comes just three days after Pope Francis apologized for the "evil" inflicted on the Indigenous peoples of Canada on the first day of a visit focused on addressing decades of abuse at Catholic-run residential schools.

The visit to Canada is a significant step forward in the Pope’s efforts to address the global scandal of clerical sexual abuse of children and decades of cover-up.

More than 1,300 unmarked graves uncovered since last May

It is noteworthy that in late March, Indigenous delegations met Pope Francis and pressed him for an apology for church-run residential schools in Canada.

Since last May, more than 1,300 unmarked graves have been uncovered at church-run schools attended by Indigenous children in Canada as part of a government program of forced assimilation. Systemic violence affected 150,000 Indigenous children between 1883 to 1996.

They were separated from their families, language, and culture for months or years, and many were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers.

The Catholic Church in Canada apologized in September to the Indigenous community for a century of abuse at Church-run residential schools set up by the government.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission labeled the almost-century-long legacy a "cultural genocide". Children were beaten for speaking their native language, which violently compelled the Natives into cultural isolation, then genocide.