Doctrine of Discovery-related Papal Bulls require redress

After the struggle by many Indigenous rights organizations and their allies to halt the canonizaton of Junipero Serra last year, and the disappointment of seeing the Spanish conquistadors’ missionizer-in-chief made a saint despite his brutal and genocidal tactics, this news from the U.N. came as a welcome surprise:

As the result of a comprehensive shadow report by the Apache-Nde-Nnee Working Group submitted to the UN Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) resulted in the CERD Committee recognizing the Doctrine of Discovery, the Holy See’s Inter Caetera and related Papal Bulls are within the legal scope of racial discrimination under International Law and therefore require redress.

More and more it strikes me that the Serra canonization fiasco is having an ironic, unintended and positive effect. Thanks to the perseverance of the native tribes in wake of the Serra canonization, the truth is getting out and getting out in ever fuller ways. Education is happening at many levels!

Learn more about the struggle against the canonization of Junipero Serra here: