Rescinding the Doctrine of Discovery - Resources

Indigenous Leaders Want Pope Francis to Rescind Papal Bull Justifying Colonialism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pope-francis-doctrine-of-discovery_56058eb9e4b0dd8503076c17

 

"Pagans In the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Discovery", Steven Newcomb

"Pagans in the Promised Land provides a unique, well-researched challenge to U.S. federal Indian law and policy. It attacks the presumption that American Indian nations are legitimately subject to the plenary power of the United States. Steve Newcomb puts forth a startling theory that U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on Old Testament narratives of the chosen people and the promised land, as exemplified in the 1823 Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. McIntosh, that the first "Christian people" to "discover" lands inhabited by "natives, who were heathens," have an ultimate title to and dominion over these lands and peoples. This imporant addition to legal scholarship asserts there is no separation of church and state in the United States, so long as U.S. federal Indian law and policy are premised on the ancient religious distinctions between "Christians" and "heathens."

http://www.fulcrum-books.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=5923

 

 No Saint Junipero: Ending the Doctrine of Discovery

http://www.nostserra.com/

 

Eleventh Session of the Permanent Forum

7 - 18 May 2012   UN Headquarters, New York

Special Theme: "The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)". 

http://undesadspd.org/IndigenousPeoples/UNPFIISessions/Eleventh.aspx

‘Doctrine of Discovery’, Used for Centuries to Justify Seizure of Indigenous Land, Subjugate Peoples, Must Be Repudiated by United Nations, Permanent Forum Told

http://www.un.org/press/en/2012/hr5088.doc.htm

Papal Bull Rescission Committee - Loretto Community
http://www.lorettocommunity.org/mission-work/justice-and-peace/papal-bull-rescission-committee/

The Call To Rescind the Doctrine of Discovery - National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/call-rescind-doctrine-discovery

Romero Institute
http://www.romeroinstitute.org/projects/petition

"Acquiring Empire By Law"
https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.academia.edu/437323/Acquiring_Empire_by_Law_From_Roman_Doctrine_to_Early_Modern_European_Practice&usd=2&usg=AFQjCNE2ET36M3wqB4Zj467pwPbpe6_apQ

Mennonite group working on dismantling DoD:
"For more than five centuries, the Doctrine of Discovery and the laws based upon it have legalized the theft of land, labor and resources from Indigenous Peoples across the world and systematically denied their human rights. This Doctrine originated with the Christian church in the 15th century.  It is now the church’s responsibility to undo it."
http://dofdmenno.org/

Text of the Papal Bulls of 1452, 1455, 1493 that form "rationale" for Doctrine of Discovery  (facebook Notes w/ URL links)
Dum Diversas 1452:  https://www.facebook.com/notes/ukumbwa-sauti-med/papal-bull-dum-diversas-18-june-1452/10153704284042704
Romanus Pontifex 1455: https://www.facebook.com/notes/ukumbwa-sauti-med/papal-bull-romanus-pontifex-nicholas-v-january-8-1455/10153704359727704
Inter Caetera 1493: https://www.facebook.com/notes/ukumbwa-sauti-med/papal-bull-inter-caetera-alexander-vi-may-4-1493/10153704365327704

CNN, Colonialism and the CaNoNization of Genocide

Watching the Catholic News Network, CNN, "report" on the pope's unethical visit to Turtle Island. jernalissed Chris Cuomo has done more roamin catholic grandstanding in the last hour than the papacy did in 1492.  Constantly stating how people who are present at his circus parade are blessed because they are in the "shadow of Peter". Chris Cuomo just stated that he was a catholic after shouting "Papa Francisco!!" and "Pope Francisco!!" from his "professional" video setup.  This is horrendous reporting.  This is not journalism.  This is not truth-telling. This is validation of colonialism and brutality and conquest. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Africa

This is not only complete disrespect and dismissiveness of Native Americans and indigenous peoples, but also every African affected by the African holocaust and European slavery trade given blessing and support by the papal bulls of the vatican.  We are raising our voices that #BlackLivesMatter today precisely because the roamin catholic church, papacy and vatican created the fantasy of religious and cultural superiority, codifying the religious and European privilege that would usher in the most heinous wave of brutality and exploitation that would ever sweep over the earth. 

Now, as I watch the "faithful" yell and scream (even the giddy CNN reporters) and reach for his clothing a la the British Invasion of the Beatles, my heart breaks that this society is truly doing no better now than when it began.

 We hear and see the effects of evangelization and missionary work and introducing the "European God" (as one reporter clumsily, but truthfully stated) to people who never needed that god and then were summarily subject to genocide and holocaust and we have no moment of grief, no moment of insight, no moment of compassion for a people whose voice has never been silenced, but severely diminished. 

We have no general moral outcry about the abuser narrative that pope Francis represents, a retraumatizing visit to all the victims of roamin catholic molestation and abuse, a patent disrespect to the legacies of predation that the roamin catholic missionary evangelization process/colonialism represents, the dismissiveness for Africa and Africans in the ongoing circus horror show of papal criminal permissiveness...every enslaved African was branded with a red hot cross.

How much time will Catholic News Network/CNN give to the voices of indigenous peoples and Africans whose narrative crushes the lie of the sanctity and righteousness of evangelization and the vaunted, martyred noble missionary and the universal, nay globalized, "moral good" of the roamin catholic papal criminality to dust.  We listen less to the liberating voices of the indigenous peoples, who are still under attack by the papally blessed colonizers of past and present, less to the voices of Africans struggling dutifully to have our lives validated and secure albeit on the lands of those that the roamin catholic papacy gave brutal colonial and genocidal conquerors holy, "sacred" permission to steal and exploit.

I ask people of good conscience to take this moment in history, this moment in European-led settler colonialism on Turtle Island, as a European classical music ensemble plays a rousing Serra anthem to his unethical canonization as a colonial pope totters up the steps of a catholic university cathedral to commit a spiritual misdeed in front of the whole world, to take this profane moment as an opportunity for insight and contemplation, not discompassionate adulation of some distorted status quo.

Are we truly unaware of the glaring dissonance, contradictions and tragic colonial retrenchment of exploitation in one of its worst expressions?

"RESIST The Unist'ot'en's Call to the Land"

Please watch this half-hour video produced by Simple Matters Films to support the Unist'ot'en camp's work to protect the land and waters and their people's national and international security and sovereignty.



And another where the Unist'ot'en kick out TransCanada crews who did not get proper authorization to be on their land, about 2 min.:


For more info, visit: UNISTOTENCAMP.COM

from www.unistotencamp.com

Canonizing A Predatory Missionary: Validating the Genocidal Mission System of Junipero Serra

This September 23rd, 2015, roamin catholic pope Francis is scheduled to canonize Junipero Serra, a predatory missionary that is gaining increased ire from indigenous peoples across Turtle Island, especially those like the Kizh whose Ancestors were directly and mortally impacted by the violence and brutality of the likes of Serra, other christian missionaries and the Spanish conquistadors.

 The catholic cable tv channel, Eternal Word Television Network/EWTN and the Knights of Columbus have been running promotional programming to support the roamin catholic church's plan to canonize Serra and to promote his great legacy of evangelization, as they like to call it (the Knights of Criminal Columbus said the same about Criminal Columbus on their website in the past, but that statement has seemingly been removed from their website).  EWTN is currently running a documentary over five days in half hour segments called “Serra: Ever Forward, Never Back”,  an arrogant fantasy of small screen cinematic proportions.  The Knights have posted a short, but equally misleading and culturally insulting promotional video entitled, “Blessed Junipero Serra: Apostle of California, Exemplar of Evangelization”.


Click link to see KoC video:    https://youtu.be/lhl9ePF8Gy8


Organizer and activist, Toypurina Carac, has been answering the roamin catholic church’s validation of indigenous genocide by creating and sharing a powerful statement in the form of a moveon.org petition that is very near its goal of 10,000 signatures to convince the vatican and pope to reconsider their (in)sightless and discompassionate plan.  Ironic that the vatican is calling the papal visit a “Mission of Love”.  If you were to speak to those who are the offspring of those who were brutalized by Serra’s predatory mission system, they have a much different story to tell.

From the petition:   http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/urge-pope-francis-to   
 (please share widely; organizers are planning protests in DC and NYC)

“Urge Pope Francis to abandon the canonization of Junipero Serra

To be delivered to His Holiness, Pope Francis 

Pope Francis is coming to Washington, D.C. to canonize Junipero Serra as a Saint. It is imperative he is enlightened to understand that Father Serra was responsible for the deception, exploitation, oppression, enslavement and genocide of thousands of Indigenous Californians, ultimately resulting in the largest ethnic cleansing in North America.” 

Tweet the Knights at @KoC, EWTN at @EWTN and the pope at @Pontifex to let them know your perspectives on this important issue.

 

 
UPDATE:
The petition was sent to pope Francis today Sept.17 at about 12noon. Toypurina Carac and others have organized and will speak at two press conferences in NY and Washington DC on the 21st and 22nd of Sept. respectively. Please let your networks know so that we can be of substantial support during the press conferences to help send a powerful message of support to our indigenous sisters and brothers and their blessed Ancestors who suffered tremendously at the hands and whims of Junipero Serra and his brutal system of land theft, exploitation and slavery.

New York, Monday, September 21, 2015,
10:00 am- 12:00 noonSaint Peter’s Church…619 Lexington Avenue, NY 10022-4610. www.saintpeters.org
Balcony Room

Washington D.C., Tuesday, September 22, 2015
11:00 am- 1:00 pm
Plymouth United Church of Christ, Washington D.C.; 5301 North Capitol St NE, Washington, DC 20011