Critics Accuse Vatican of “Appeasing Wokeism”, Ignoring Anti-Christian Atrocities by Muslims
According to a recent report,
The Vatican has abrogated three papal bulls, claiming that the documents are offensive to indigenous peoples and “have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.”
The bulls Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493) contain the basis for the “doctrine of discovery,” which “is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church,” the Vatican has announced.
“The Church acknowledges that these papal bulls did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples,” the dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development said in a joint statement published Thursday [March 30, 2023].
While the above sounds open-minded and “progressive,” the all-important context is, as usual, missing. The above referenced bulls, or edicts, were primarily focused on neutralizing Muslim powers that were otherwise terrorizing virtually every corner of Christendom.
For example, Dum Diversas was issued the same year (1452) that Sultan Muhammad II laid siege to Constantinople, leading to that ancient Christian city’s brutal fall in 1453. At the same time, Muslims from North Africa were terrorizing Spain and the broader Mediterranean through constant and devastating slave raids. Whether in Christendom’s furthest east (Constantinople), then, or furthest west (Spain), Muslims were massacring and enslaving countless Christians.
As such, these bulls, like so many before them, were designed to inspire Europeans to rise up and defend Christendom against Muslims—to “restrain the savage excesses of the Saracens and of other infidels, enemies of the Christian name,” to quote from the Romanus Pontifex.
Because some of these bulls deal with Christians invading and seeking to conquer North Africa, modern day “enemies of the Christian name” have sought to spin these as unprovoked wars of conquest and colonization. For example, the Romanus Pontifex authorized King Alfonso V of Portugal (1432–1481) to “invade [North Africa], conquer, defeat and subjugate all Saracens and pagans and other enemies of Christ,” and to “enslave their persons perpetually” and seize their possessions for profit.
Again, such ruthless language must not be read in a vacuum. The atrocities Muslims were committing against nearby Christians, especially against the subjects of Spain and Portugal, make Islamic State (“ISIS”) atrocities seem like child play. It was all out war to the death.
Moreover, while expeditions into North Africa were very similar to the Crusades, in that they featured Christians traveling to and seeking to conquer Muslim lands, often left out is that all of these “Muslim lands”—all of North Africa and the Middle East—were Christian centuries before Islam invaded and conquered them in the seventh century.
The popes and other Christians were well aware of this, and, as such, these expeditions were seen as Just Wars, both to quell Muslim aggression, but also to return North Africa and the Middle East to the fold of Christendom—including by liberating the indigenous Christians, who, in the fifteenth century, were experiencing especially severe bouts of persecution. For example, contemporary sources concerning Egypt’s Coptic Christians under the Mamluk dynasty (1250-1517) are riddled with accounts of Christians being slaughtered, immolated, crucified, their women and children raped and enslaved, and their churches razed to the ground.
Most of these bulls were further issued at a time when Muslims made it impossible for Christians to reach the East by land. Any merchant or traveler caught was instantly slaughtered or enslaved in keeping with Islamic law. Indeed, it is often forgotten, but all of the Spanish and Portuguese vessels that set sail and eventually found the New World in the late fifteenth century, including Christopher Columbus’s, did so in the context of their long war with Islam—not in search of “spices,” as is today taught in classrooms.
Editor writes…Are the pontiff’s critics being too harsh? Your thoughts…
Comments (18)
With reports left, right and centre (one example) https://www.cato.org/commentary/christianity-worlds-most-persecuted-religion-confirms-new-report# that Christianity is the most persecuted religion on earth, one would have thought it might be time to learn from the historical contexts of these Papal Bulls, not abrogate them. Even back in 2019 the far-left, woke, anti-Christian BBC (!!!) carried an article stating that persecution of Christians is at ‘near genocide levels’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48146305
I am stunned to read that Jeremy Hunt MP of all people raised the issue of the persecution of Christians in Parliament. That amazes me!
I see the original report came from Church Militant. I thought Michael Voris said they would only criticise the Pope when he spoke against the Church’s moral teaching, nothing religious? He was late to the party to start with so I suppose it’s not surprising that he’s only catching up now, LOL!
It is very shocking that the Pope is doing this, as if he is so ignorant of history that he doesn’t know just how big a threat Islam was/is to Christians. If there was an invasion of the Vatican while he was in office, how would he react then? Hugs all round?
Well, by abrogating the Bulls suggesting that the muslims were not our friends, it rather lets them off the hook. In France, a Catholic Church is desecrated/burned nearly every weekend, apparently. (Macron is today visiting Notre Dame to see how the rebuilding is progressing. And no, it was not a workman’s fag end that started the fire. That is the official story and if you believe that…)
As these properties are owned by the French State one might think the the French authorities might take some action.
Although catching those responsible and putting them in prison might well be regarded as possibly upsetting “social coherence”.
I’ve never heard the official story about the Notre Dame fire – I’d love to hear it.
I’d say this is part of the “cleansing” of Tradition to help make way for the new “Abrahamic” religion, as represented by the new “Abrahamic Family House” that celebrates, fraternizes with and confirms false religions. I’d also guess these bulls were targeted by Muslim scholars – or militants – or both – as conditions for their participation in what should be, to us, a place of sacrilege and scandal.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2021-06/abu-dhabi-abrahamic-family-house-2022-human-fraternity.html
https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-spencer/2023/02/24/catholic-cardinal-opens-abrahamic-family-house-with-muslims-praying-prayers-denouncing-jews-and-christians-n1673581
RCA Victor,
That is exactly my opinion as well – these Muslims have uncovered those bulls and gone all out to have them deleted from history, and this pope is the obvious choice to do just that. I wonder how he can sleep at night because somehow he must know that he faces a terrible judgment, if he believes in God at all, that is.
Margaret Mary,
I don’t see any sign that Francis believes in God, not the God of the Trinity.
Nor do I. Not the slightest sign.
Margaret Mary,
Sometimes people are so convinced that they’re not doing anything wrong that you can’t reason with them. An alcoholic may hear from friends, family et al begging him to give up drinking but until the grace of God touches his heart he won’t give it up.
The same principle sadly applies here imo. Pope Francis is so convinced that he’s doing the right thing that he can’t see that he’s scandalizing the faithful and giving spiritual ammunition to the enemies of the Church (visible and invisible).
Does he even realize that one of his namesakes, St. Francis Xavier, brought the Catholic Faith to what is now India and other places in Asia ?
Most of all, does he even realize that he is not just demolishing the work of his predecessors but of the Jesuit Saints as well – St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Borgia et alia ?
All of us have to go before the judgement seat of God at some point. Our Lord said in the Gospel that he to whom much has been given, much more shall also be required. Pope Francis has the most important job on earth. Most of his predecessors feared for their immortal souls and didn’t even want to be pope, yet when they were elected, they did everything humanly possible to preserve the Catholic Faith.
Honestly I’m afraid for him, I really am.
From a sudden and unprovided death, deliver us, O Lord.
RCA Victor,
You highlight – rightly – the scandal of the “Abrahamic Family House”.
The entire ecumenical and inter-faith movement is designed, precisely, to take souls away from the Church. And it seems to be working like the devil, so to speak…
Let’s face it The Muslim House is a Muslim House am not calling it anything else. When have the Moslems ever gave way to anything that is Catholic and good Popes of course knew this . As we also know it. The only surprise in the above Photo is that The Pope isn’t kissing His feet.
I may of course be wrong but had he not done that somewhere else.
Dear Madame Editor,
John 15: 1-20. The Church is being pruned.
Some of the Saints say that the Church must undergo mystically what Our Lord went through during His earthly life.
The Church has had its Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and is now undergoing its Good Friday, even though according to the calendar it’s Paschaltide.
The Church will mystically undergo its own death in the sense that it will not be visible at some point.
And just as we now sing “Christ is Risen” so at some point the Church will rise again.
May Our Lord keep us with Him and His Immaculate Ever-Virgin Mother in this life so that we may be worthy of being with Them in Heaven.
CHRIST IS RISEN !
Margaret 🇺🇲
It’s a disgrace that those bulls have been abrogated, and how can they never have been considered expressions of Catholic faith – is the Pope saying then that one religion IS as good as another, that there’s nothing special about the Catholic faith? That would mean that Jesus was NOT the way, truth and life, but just one religious leader in a line of other religious leaders. It’s all shocking stuff, but the one good sign is that, as far as I know, there is nobody left standing who is supporting Francis.
Bernie we of course read the Real News or at least try .
As for Pope Francis I see nothing ,no real dissent against Him at all except from a very few of the Higherarchy and Cancelled Priests. Going back to the Eds last Topic on the Flourish Magazine . They are full of praise for Pope Francis, lauding His 10 Years as Pope.
Faith, yes, the bishops praise him but I think most priests and people can’t stand him, or at the very least they know he’s a bad pope.
Bernie you maybe correct on that point as Francis shows that He and His Hatchet Men are certainly Bullies . Most Priests have got to watch what they say or they will find themselves out on the Street. The classic example to me was Fr Altman. It wasn’t just Him who was ejected from His home but also His Mother and Father. You probably like me know of Priests with Family I E Mother Father Sister or Brother staying with them. So unlike just ONE person losing a Home it’s 2 or 3 .
That headline picture of Francis and the Imam kissing reminds me of the kiss of Judas in the Garden…
Here is an article quoting Abp. Lefebvre on the response to Catholic truth vs. the response to gutless Catholic ecumenism:
https://padreperegrino.org/2023/04/resscomp/