WARNING: This story contains distressing details
Pope Francis’s apology for the Catholic Church’s role in Indigenous residential schools in Canada has raised questions about whether he would formally rescind the church’s Doctrine of Discovery.
The doctrine, dating back to the 15th century, included a series of edicts known as papal bulls, that were later used to justify colonizing Indigenous lands.
But any hesitation by the Pope to renounce it may stem from the Vatican’s view that the church has already done away with and replaced those edicts, some observers suggest.
“In some sense, from the church’s point of view, it doesn’t need to be rescinded because it is,
