Friday, June 13, 2014

Papal Bulls

"Racism has historically been a banner to justify the enterprises of expansion, conquest, colonization and domination and has walked hand in hand with intolerance, injustice and violence."- Rigoberta Mench Tum, Guatemalan Indigenous Leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from "The Problem of Racism on the Threshold of the 21st Century"
United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2001

In the arsenal of claiming legitimacy for invasion, the monarchs of the Iberian Peninsula held another secret weapon other than the Requerimento.  This time it came from a higher source.  It came from their highest spiritual leader of their faith; the Pope.  The documents were called Papal Bulls and it was yet another armor of self justification.  A Papal Bull is a historical document issued by the Catholic Popes to define a spiritual issue or grant special privileges.  There have been many Papal Bulls issued throughout the course of Catholic Church history but there are 3 which are specific in the formulation of human ignorance that leads one to believe they have the right to invade and subdue the world.

List of Papal Bulls

The reigning Monarchs of Europe, the nobles of the land and those seeking personal fortunes used both the law and the bible to justify their illicit actions against native peoples.  These two components combined; the law and spiritual authority, gave rise to a twisted fanatical concept called legalism.  However, the bible never promoted the abuse of the scripture to justify a means.

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“I declare unto you the gospel ... that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day.”1 Corinthians 15: 1,3,4 "

The gospel or good news was to be spread by sharing the words of love not through condemnation or conquest.  Love your neighbor as yourself were the powerful instructions Jesus commanded his followers to obey.  The Bible records Jesus’ relationship with the spiritual authorities of his time, the Pharisees.  Jesus condemned their hypocritical behavior of twisting the spiritual laws to their political gain by pretending to do what is right but neglecting showing mercy and compassion to others which is the summation of the law. (Mathew 23).  Jesus called them religious and despised their legalistic attitudes.

On June 18, 1452 Pope Nicholas V issued “Dum Diversas” or Until Different.  It granted King Afonso V of Portugal to conquer the Saracens and pagans and reduce them to perpetual servitude. 

"We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property ... and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum_diversas

Two years later in 1454 Pope Nicholas V wrote “Romanus Pontifex” or The Roman Bishop to King Afons V of Portugal granted him exclusive rights to all the lands discovered by his countrymen.

“since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso – to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit – by having secured the said faculty, the said King Alfonso, or by his authority, the aforesaid infant, justly and lawfully has acquired and possessed, and doth possess, these islands, lands, harbors, and seas, and they do of right belong and pertain to the said King Alfonso and his successors, nor without special license from King Alfonso and his successors themselves has any other even of the faithful of Christ been entitled hitherto, nor is he by any means now entitled lawfully to meddle therewith.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanus_Pontifex

Although the bull's primary purpose was to forbid other Christian nations from infringing the King of Portugal's rights of trade and colonization in these regions it set the stage of invasion and conquest of all unknown lands for the profit of the Catholic Monarch. 

In the year 1493 on May 4th, Pope Alexander VI issued “Inter Caetera” or Among other Works which granted to Spain (the Crowns of Castile and Aragon) all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands.
The purpose of the papal bull along with The Treaty of Tordesillas was to divide the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain and was set at the meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands of the west coast of Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera

Consequently “the Dum Diversas, the Romanus Pontifex and the Inter Caeera came to serve as a justification for the Discovery Doctrine and the Age of Imperialism.  They were also early influences on the development of the slave trade of the 15th and 16th centuries, even though the papal bull Sublimus Dei of 1537 forbade the enslavement of non-Christians.  The executive brief for Sublimus Dei was withdrawn by the Pope after protests by the Spanish Monarchy.  Pope Paul III publicly sanctioned slavery in Rome in 1545…”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanus_Pontifex

The Papal Bulls have never been revoked.  However, the Catholic Church through Pope John Paul II has apologized for individual roles within the Catholic community for abuses in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apologies_made_by_Pope_John_Paul_II#cite_note-BBC_News_1-3
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/14/world/pope-apologizes-to-africans-for-slavery.html
http://www.whitebison.org/boarding-school-apology/history-of-apology.php

Historians and academics agree that the colonization of the New World saw extreme expressions of racism - massacres, forced-march relocations, the "Indian wars", death by starvation and disease. Today, such practices would be called ethnic cleansing and genocide. What seems even more appalling for contemporary minds is that the subjugation of the native peoples of the New World was legally sanctioned. "Laws" of "discovery", "conquest" and "terra nullius" made up the "doctrines of dispossession", according to Erica Irene Daes, chairperson/rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, in a study on indigenous peoples and their relationship to land.

These "doctrines of discovery" provided the basis for both the "law of nations" and subsequent international law. Thus, they allowed Christian nations to claim "unoccupied lands" (terra nullius), or lands belonging to "heathens" or "pagans". In many parts of the world, these concepts later gave rise to the situation of many Native peoples in the today - dependent nations or wards of the State, whose ownership of their land could be revoked - or "extinguished" -- at any time by the Government.

Indigenous leaders today contend that it is essentially discriminatory that native title does not confer the same privileges as ordinary title. According to Mick Dodson, an Australian Aboriginal lawyer, the concept of extinguishment "treats indigenous rights and interests in land as inferior to all other titles". According to indigenous law and custom, indigenous interests can only hold native title, and, according to the law put into place since then by the European immigrants, native title can be extinguished.   http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous.htm

Summation of United Nations World Conferences on Racism 2001 and 2009
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