January 31, 2016

Indigenous Peoples, UN, Holy See And The Racist Doctrine of Discovery

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer



The International Organization for Self-Determination and Equality recently posted a blog post titled, United Nations Declares The Holy See legally Responsible and Accountable To Indigenous Peoples For Effects and Legacy Of Racist Colonial Bulls And Doctrines. The post presents a press release about the Apache-Ndé-Nneé Working Group Shadow Report / UN CERD 88th Session: Review of the Holy See.

A statement in the Shadow Report reads: The Holy See's Inter Caetera not only blessed policies and practices of colonialism that caused what is expressed by Indigenous Peoples themselves as genocide, cultural genocide, and generations of suffering, slavery and loss, but it also put policies and practices into action, such as, but not limited to, through its own missionaries and missions, churches and subsequent schools, that operated and continue to operate in alliance with Kingdoms and subsequently States for own mutually-collective world dominance and at the cost of Indigenous Peoples and their lands, lives, self-determination and cultures.

The Shadow Report asks: "How will the Holy See work to recognized, as well as to assist to actualize, true and inherent Ndé- Nneé and Indigenous Peoples', Tribes' and Nations' restored sovereignty and full and equal participation in political affairs therein at the international, regional and local levels, including as own traditional leaderships, territories, cultures and religions?"

Two UN CERD Committee statements to the Holy See read:

(1.) "While welcoming the statement made by Pope Francis in the Plurinational State of Bolivia in July 2015, in which he apologized for the Catholic Church in the context of colonialism against indigenous peoples in the Americas, the Committee notes the concerns expressed by indigenous peoples regarding the current legacy and effects of the Doctrine of Discovery endorsed in the Inter Caetera from 1493 and its related papal bulls, as well as other issues."

(2.) "The Committee recommends that the State party [the Holy See] engage in meaningful dialogue with indigenous peoples with the aim of effectively addressing their concerns. In this regard, the Committee takes note of the information provided by the State party [the Holy See] delegation concerning a high-level dialogue that is scheduled to take place in Rome to address the concerns expressed by indigenous peoples, and recommends that the State party [the Holy See] ensure that its interlocutors in this dialogue include appropriate representatives designated by indigenous peoples. The Committee requests the State party [the Holy See] to provide information in its next periodic report on the outcome of the meeting and concrete follow-up measures taken."

Continental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples: There will be a Continental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples to prepare for Pope Francis' Mexico visit now scheduled for February 13-15, 2016.

Four statements included in the continental meeting invatation read:

(1.) "We are proposing to realize our meeting of Indigenous Peoples four days before the arrival of Pope Francis with the objective to declare and make visible our demand that Pope Francis clarify his position as head of Vatican State and make a commitment to rectify the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the establishment of the "Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom" for over five hundred years in this continent of Abya Yala. This doctrine is the philosophical-political-legal and ideological principle upon which the ongoing illegal and immoral Continental Colonial Regime came to be established which was first introduced by the Spanish Crown and then succeeded by all of the nation states of the Americas when they emerged as independent republics."

(2.) "The primary objective of this gathering of Indigenous Peoples is to produce a document that will be presented to Pope Francis and disseminated through all channels of information and communication in Mexico and worldwide."

(3.) "Recalling that the request for forgiveness by his Holiness Pope Francis as head of the Vatican is not sufficient, if there is no justice, reparation and guarantees for the international recognition of the full and effective exercise of our right to self-determination as Nations of Indigenous Peoples."

(4.) "Request a direct dialogue in urgent manner with His Holiness Pope Francis in the Vatican to address our concerns and proposals for rectification of the violations of our collective human rights and territorial rights, including the right of Self Determination as Peoples, equal to all other peoples."

United Nations: The UNPFII 9th session titled the UNPFII's preliminary study on the doctrine of discovery: Impact on Indigenous Peoples of the International Legal construct known as the Doctrine of Discovery, which has served as the Foundation of the Violation of their Human Rights.

Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) is a world renowned expert on the Doctrine of Discovery. His newest article is titled, U.S. Federal Indian Law and Mind Control. Indian Country Today Media Network, the world's largest Indian news source, published this article by Newcomb. My comment on this article (it's the first of four comments) reads:

"Good article Mr. Newcomb. Delusional White Christian supremacy ideas and beliefs dominate and control the current American legal system that subjugates pagan Native peoples in this land which was once solely occupied by Native nations."

"Native peoples of the many tribes living in the invalid nation state of the U.S.A. have to want their tribes to be free and independent nations once again before the current educational system will change in a way that promotes the establishment of free and independent Native nations."

"And the delusional White Christian supremacy, imperialistic world domination, agenda of the American Christian political ethic will also have to come to an end before this change can occur. The Roman Catholic Church is the source of this problem."

"Many of the early century 'Christians' were called Gnostics. Their religious beliefs were similar to Hindu and Platonic pagan beliefs, but they and their religious texts (with the exception of some of them that were buried/hidden in a sealed jar) were destroyed by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1945, the hidden Gnostic texts were discovered. This is now causing a profound revisionism of Christian history leading to a major theological revolution. It, along with new scientific discoveries, are exposing traditional Christian orthodoxy as a false religious system. Therefore, there is hope that these changes will soon occur. My on-line article Native Rights, Pope Francis and the New World Order presents more information on this topic."