Melissa Ross
Amidst all the celebration and revelry of St. Augustine’s 450th commemorations this week, some are planning to protest the way the nation’s oldest city was founded.
A coalition of Native American groups is calling for a boycott of the 450th, saying it “shamefully celebrates and honors the Doctrine of Discovery and Spain’s crimes against humanity.”
The Doctrine of Discovery was a series of Papal Bulls dating from the mid-1400s that gave authorization to Spain and Portugal to “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and Pagans” they encountered, and “possess these islands, lands, harbors, and seas.”
That included not just Florida, but also islands of the Caribbean; North, Central and South America; the west coast of Africa; and into the Indian and Pacific Ocean territories.
In a recent letter to the St. Augustine Record, the Rev. Ted Voorhees of St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church weighed in on the undercurrent of discontent around the 450th:
“When Pedro Menendez set foot on land 450 years ago he claimed the territory for Spain. As we all know, the City of St. Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in our United States. However, it was occupied by indigenous native people for thousands of years before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ a New World, and Juan Ponce de Leon ‘discovered’ Florida. And as we celebrate this amazing anniversary, I believe we need to acknowledge those whose land was invaded by Europeans in pursuit of commercial gain.”
“The United Nations addressed the Doctrine of Discovery in its 2007 Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Many faith communities have made statements of repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery including the World Council of Churches, the Friends General Conference (Quakers), the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the Unitarians Universalists.
A growing number of Catholic groups have petitioned Pope Francis to revoke the Papal Bulls of the 15th century. And in a landmark speech on July 16 of this year, during his visit to Bolivia, Pope Francis apologized for the ‘grave sins’ of colonialism against Indigenous Peoples of America,” Voorhees wrote.
Adding to the slew of cultural events going on during the 450th, the film Doctrine of Discovery will screen at the Corazon Theatre in downtown St. Augustine on Labor Day.
Meanwhile, protests and partying aside, the big bash is attracting global interest, with a visit scheduled this month from the King and Queen of Spain.
