The Doctrine of Christian Discovery
The “Doctrine of Christian Discovery” is a series of papal bulls, decrees issued by the Catholic Church, which legalized the taking of land from Native Peoples by Christians.
Papal Bulls of the 15th century gave Christian explorers the right to claim lands they “discovered” and lay claim to those lands for their Christian Monarchs. Any land that was not inhabited by Christians was available to be “discovered”, claimed, and exploited.
If the “pagan” inhabitants could be converted, they might be spared. If not, they could be enslaved or killed. The Discovery Doctrine is a concept of public international law expounded by the United States Supreme Court in a series of decisions, initially in Johnson v. M’Intosh in 1823. The doctrine was Chief Justice John Marshall’s explanation of the way in which colonial powers laid claim to newly discovered lands during the Age of Discovery. Under it, title to newly discovered lands lay with the government whose subjects discovered new territory.
The doctrine has been primarily used to support decisions invalidating or ignoring aboriginal possession of land in favor of colonial or post-colonial governments.
The Papal Bull "Inter Caetera,"
The Papal Bull "Inter Caetera," issued by Pope Alexander VI, May 4, 1493, played a central role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. The document supported Spain’s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year.
It established a demarcation line one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and assigned Spain the exclusive right to acquire territorial possessions and to trade in all lands west of that line. All others were forbidden to approach the lands west of the line without special license from the rulers of Spain. This effectively gave Spain a monopoly on the lands in the New World.
The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered," claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that "the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself."
Gilder Lehrman Institute of History
Vatican formally rejects ‘Doctrine of Discovery’
WISH’S Statement
Women of Syracuse and Italian Heritage (WISH CNY) acknowledge that the recent statement from the Vatican’s office repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery is a baby step in the moral and just direction. Their statement, “The Catholic Church rejects colonizer mentality,” clearly places responsibility on Catholic leaders and practitioners to remove colonizer commemorations in public spaces. Further, The Vatican must take accountability for the profound impact of the Papal Bulls, which resulted in violence against indigenous peoples and lands throughout the world.
This trauma is ongoing, as it is embedded in US Indian Law and land rights today. We stand with Syracuse's Bishop Lucia, the first American Bishop to deny the Doctrine of Discovery and WISH believes a show of real support by our Local Catholic Diocese would be a call for the removal of the Columbus Monument from public property on the ancestral land of the Onondaga.
Watch TRT’s The Newsmakers feature story on the Doctrine of Discovery here featuring WISH founding member Cindy. The Newsmakers is a current affairs program offering unfiltered debates that disrupt conventional perspectives on international affairs.
200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh:
Law, Religion, and Native American Lands
A Canopy Forum Thematic Series
March – April 2023
Produced through a partnership between Canopy Forum on the Interactions of Law and Religion, the Indigenous Values Initiative (IVI), and Syracuse University, this series of essays brings together religion scholars, legal scholars, and Indigenous activists to explore the problematic legacy of Johnson v. M’Intosh (1823) and the 15th century Doctrine of (Christian) Discovery – a legal and religious rationale by which European powers claimed the right to discover and claim lands inhabited by non-Christian peoples.
Focusing primarily on the 19th through the 21st centuries, these essays illustrate how Johnson and the Doctrine of Christian Discovery have global import to Turtle Island (especially the United States and Canada) and Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Grounding this conversation in the Two Row Wampum method, the editors of this series have worked to include both Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices so we can journey side by side without violating the waters down the river of life.
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When the Vatican finally comes to the realization it is mired in the genocidal mud of centuries of racist exploitation of Indigenous peoples around the world, a step towards acknowledging the need for reconciliation is welcome.
The statement by the Vatican repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, issued March 30th, is important and is representative of decades of work by Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists who have fought an often-lonely battle across the globe to bring attention to the racist underpinnings that still define so much of the legal mechanisms used to deny Indigenous peoples their rightful standing among the nations of the world.
Recent Articles
“Introduction to the 200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh: Law, Religion, and Native American Lands Series” by Philip P. Arnold, Sandra L. Bigtree, and Adam DJ Brett
“The Legacy of the Right to Control Land and Dependency” by Kerri J. Malloy
“The International Law of Colonialism: Johnson v. M’Intosh and the Doctrine of Discovery Applied Worldwide” by Robert J. Miller
“Johnson v. M’Intosh, Plenary Power, and Our Colonial Constitution” by Alexandra Fay
“However, Extravagant The Pretensions of Johnson V. M’Intosh“ by Betty Lyons and Adam DJ Brett
“Did Pope Alexander VI Authorize England’s Colonization of North America?” by Matthew P. Cavedon
“Haaland v. Brackeen and the Logic of Discovery” by Dana Lloyd
The Contemporary Presence of Discovery’s Assertion in Canada” by Mark Tremblay
“Order, Economy, and Legality: Johnson v. M’Intosh after Two Hundred Years” by Andrew Little
“Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous Peoples” by Peter d’Errico
Philip P. Arnold, Sandy Bigtree, & Betty Lyons
Catholic bishop of Syracuse decries Doctrine of Discovery, suggests pope do the same
July 1, 2021
By Jack Jenkins
(RNS) —Bishop Douglas J. Lucia said he hopes to meet with the Vatican to discuss a series of 15th-century papal proclamations used by European Christians to rationalize the subjugation of Indigenous peoples.
The Catholic bishop of Syracuse, New York, is speaking out against the Doctrine of Discovery and revealing plans to ask Pope Francis to repudiate theological teachings used for centuries to justify the subjugation of Indigenous peoples.