the Doctrine claims that European civilization and western Christianity are superior to all other cultures, races, and religions.

The question of reparations for these massive, multigenerational losses remains unanswered.

How can we meaningfully respond to being beneficiaries of a crime so plain it cannot be denied and so large it can never be fully righted?

Dum Diversas, the initial edict that laid the theological and political foundations for the Doctrine, was issued by Pope Nicholas V on June 18, 1452. It explicitly granted Portuguese king Alfonso V the following rights:

is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who do nothing.”

In essence, the Doctrine provided that newly arrived Europeans immediately and automatically acquired legally recognized property rights over the inhabitants without knowledge or consent of the Indigenous peoples. When English explorers and other Europeans planted their national flags and religious symbols in “newly discovered” lands, as many

The “doctrine of discovery” is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith. At the same time, the Church acknowledges that these

dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.

Authentic healing flows from, and true repentance is built on, the twin pillars of truth-telling and repair.