The Sovereign Voice ITNJ Commemorative Issue | Page 100

(1484 CE) Pope Innocent VIII deliberately Thus we’ve surveyed the foundation for five centuries
and deceptively issued the Papal Bull Summis of false ownership of lands and violent injustices to
desiderantes affectibus reinforcing the standing all the indigenous peoples of the world. Papal Bulls:
church law of allowing marriage annulment and Romanus Pontifex and Inter Caetera have set the
seizure of assets of any person (almost exclusively stage for total domination of all non-Christian lands,
women) found to be a heretic. His false legal and have served as the legal foundation for slavery
arguments were used by many to justify the and genocide. These Bulls are the foundation for the
suppression of women’s rights, starting witch-hunts Roman Catholic Church’s ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ –
that lasted 300 years. (This pope created weird and it’s time to abolish them, setting into motion a
fictitious claims to justify the reality of witches complete restoration of the land and all of her people
including appalling proclamations that witches can into a new earth.
fly, change shape, and have intercourse with the
Many of us are calling for revocation of these fifteenth
Devil.)
century Papal Bulls to spark worldwide dialogue for
(1486 CE) Pope Innocent VIII subsequently Indigenous advocates, policy-makers, and all denizens
published Papal Bull Malleus Maleficarum claiming of this planet to address the Doctrine’s unnatural
that belief in witchcraft is heresy and that women policies toward sacred ancestral lands and their
are more likely to become witches than men people. Let us envisage this beneficial breakthrough
“...because the female sex is more concerned with for the sake of all sentient beings. May all be happy!
things of the flesh than men.” This false and unholy So be it!
determination supported suppression of women’s
rights up until the 20th Century. Even today the RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY:
Roman Catholic Church continues to repress English translation of Romanus Pontifex, as published
women’s spiritual equality. in European Treaties bearing on the History of the
United States and its Dependencies to 1648, Frances
(1493 CE) Upon explorer Christopher Columbus’ Gardiner Davenport, editor, Carnegie Institution of
return to Europe having made “great discovery Washington, 1917, Washington, D.C., at pp. 20-26.
of new land,” Pope Alexander VI issued the next The original text in Latin is in the same volume, at
significant Papal Bulls in this quest for power. Inter pp. 13-20. https://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/
Caetera of May 3 and 4, 1493, ‘granted’ to Spain (at indig-romanus-pontifex.html
the request of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella)
the right to conquer the lands which Columbus
had already discovered, as well as any territory that
Catholic Encyclopedia. Bulls and Briefs
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03052b.htm
Spain may ‘discover’ in the future. Months later, Papal Encyclicals Online
Bull Dudum siquidem dated September 25, 1493, http://www.papalencyclicals.net/
declared the Roman Catholic Church (‘under’
King Ferdinand) was entitled to all land in South
America: “If the Indians refuse, he may quite legally
Ucadia.com
http://ucadia.com/
fight them, kill them, and enslave them, just as
Joshua enslaved the inhabitants of Canaan.”
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