They will probably win.
From The Hill:
Members of the Assembly of First Nations on Thursday pressed Pope Francis to revoke 15th century papal orders used to justify colonialism.
The decrees, issued in 1455 and 1493, approved of colonial explorers’ seizure of Indigenous land in Africa and the Americas and were used in the Doctrine of Discovery, according to CBC News.
“If you look at our history … what happened since they landed on our shores, then basically it’s genocide,” Gerald Antoine, who is the Assembly of First Nations regional chief of the Northwest Territories, CBC reported. “We need to right the wrong.”
And blah, blah blah, they all talk alike. Your Tatler, an observant mackerel snapper, will freely admit Holy Church has committed regrettable acts over her 2000 year history. People lose sight however, even though she the temple of God, as the Church Militant she is only staffed by humans and subject to their frailties. To attack a papal bull from so long ago is not only preposterous grandstanding, it reveals a truth about the organization behind it.
Let’s take a look at First Nation. At first blush it looks like a well run institution providing helpful services to American and Canadian Indians, such as economic aid and grants to tribes to help them preserve their cultures. Prominently displayed on one of their web pages is the encouraging statement, “Our programs strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native Communities,” which hardly seems objectional. However, are they leaving anything out?
No doubt First Nation does some good things (though possibly creating dependency, the last thing their clients need), but let’s dig deeper by clicking the pull-down on their website labeled “knowledge.” There you’ll find, not seen on the home page, such topics as “economic justice,” “environmental justice,” “reclaiming native truth,” i. e., the usual leftist cant common to all liberal-left organizations and revealing the true mission of First Nation.
It is a sad truth for organizations of that ilk that concealed beneath their seemingly virtuous causes are left-wing political activists whose ultimate goal is ending Western Civilization by bringing down the United States and other capitalist nations as well the institutions within them, especially the Catholic Church. Thence from the ruins they will create a Utopian socialist dictatorship. Whether the people are actually better off in that paradise doesn’t matter in the slightest, as the example of Cuba vividly shows
Your Tatler is hardly the first to point that out. Consider the observation made by the British conservative commentator John O’Sullivan, who back in 1989 in National Review, wrote the following concerning non-profits: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing. I cite as supporting evidence the ACLU, the Ford Foundation, and the Episcopal Church. And a heap more since then.
First Nations ridiculous request the pope cancel a bull from half-a-millennium ago is all of a piece with left-wing organizations. By capitulating to their whines, the Church will set herself up for further demands from First Nation and others. They will comb the archives for papal bulls and encyclicals they consider “offensive” or “problematic.” They will find plenty of them and demand they be expunged.
Your Tatler wonders, if First Nation’s current quest is successful how will it affect the welfare of its charges? Will it alleviate in the slightest the horrible poverty found in Navajo Nation Reservation or in the Wind River Reservation, peopled by the Eastern Shoshone or the Northern Arapaho? Will those tribal members get a moral boost knowing a papal bull from 1493 is no more? Or consider the northern New Mexican tribe, the Tewa. They have a large presence here in Taos and while not impoverished like other tribes, 90 percent of them are Catholic. Will they feel “empowered” knowing First Nation persuaded the Pope to abolish the bull which, for whatever harm it may have caused in the past, ultimately brought their religion to them? Has First Nation considered any of these things?
It is hard for this writer to believe First Nation cares a whit about them. Its mission is political and the rest is window dressing. What is most distressing is Pope Francis, our Biden in the Vatican, is perhaps the most political pontiff since the Medicis, but utterly lacking their brains and sophistication. He will likely fall for the claptrap First Nation is foisting on him and joyfully concede. It will be a political triumph for them, to be followed by many more.
St Joseph, patron of the Universal Church, pray for us.
The Taos Tatler 