Vatican repudiates centuries-old “doctrine of discovery” used to justify seizing indigenous lands

A Vatican statement has repudiated the “doctrine of discovery” - a theory that served to justify seizure of indigenous lands by colonizing powers from the 15th century onwards. The “doctrine”, based on papal bulls of the time, was treated by political powers as a fundamental part of the conceptual structure of colonialism for hundreds of years, even making its way into the legal systems of several countries.

The Vatican Dicasteries of Culture and Integral Human Development have today jointly acknowledged that: “these papal bulls did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples” and led to “acts against indigenous peoples that were carried out, at times, without opposition from ecclesiastical authorities [… ] It is only just to recognize these errors, acknowledge the terrible effects of the assimilation policies and the pain experienced by indigenous peoples, and ask for pardon.”

 The formal repudiation comes after Pope Francis made a penitential visit last year to Canada where many thousands of indigenous children were victims of such policies. 

Indigenous elders, including Stop Ecocide Foundation advisory board member Mindahi Bastida Muñoz (pictured), have been in active and reciprocal communication with the Vatican for a number of years, working tirelessly towards this historic moment of renouncement. 

Stop Ecocide Foundation was privileged to be an active part of that journey.  The foundation’s youth advisory board member Andreas Magnusson and chair Jojo Mehta, as well as End Ecocide Sweden’s co-founder Pella Thiel, were all present with Mindahi Bastida in Stockholm in a meeting that formed a key step in that historic dialogue – a meeting with Swedish parliamentarians and with the Cardinal of the Catholic church in Sweden, in 2020.  

It was an encounter which communicated: the experience of indigenous peoples resulting from the “doctrine of discovery”; the experience of today’s young people in the face of climate and environmental breakdown; the relevance of indigenous wisdom and guardianship of the Earth; and the importance of legal avenues (ecocide law, rights of nature) to realign the modern world with this wisdom.  

 With today’s historic acknowledgement, this realignment comes a step closer.