Canadian indigenous leaders call on Pope Francis to repudiate 1493 papal bull
March 24, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: Ahead of their upcoming meeting with Pope Francis, Canadian indigenous leaders said that they will call on the Pope “ to repeal the Papal Bull of 1493 issued by his predecessor Pope Alexander and all other Papal Bulls that enshrined the doctrine of discovery that led to the genocide of Indigenous peoples in all regions of the world.”
In the 1493 bull Inter Caetera, Pope Alexander VI granted to Spain “all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered” west and south of a particular line of longitude, as long as the lands were not ruled by Christian princes.
In 2016, leaders of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council, and other Canadian Catholic organizations discussed the bull in their Catholic response to the doctrine of discovery.
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