THE BURNING OF THE PAPAL BULLS
The Papal Bulls are edicts that were issued by Roman Catholic popes beginning in the 15th century.
These edicts gave European “discoverers” like Christopher Columbus, Cortez, DeSoto, daGama, Hudson, Drake, etc. the church’s blessing and license to colonize and subjugate people, take possession of their lands and plunder their wealth and resources.
This resulted in genocide, widespread looting, the slave trade and many other horrible practices of colonialism.
Twenty-four years ago, Hawai`i activists started to call attention to the fact that the offensive Papal Bulls are still ʻon the booksʻ.
We gathered in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace and the Headquarters of the Catholic Diocese in downtown Honolulu, and burned copies of the Papal Bulls to demand whichever Pope was in office, to rescind this remaining vestige of colonialism.
This became an annual event. Due to the covid restrictions, this year we will not have a physical gathering, but will be observing the Burning of the Papal Bulls online with shares from past events.
