SAINTE-ANNE-DE-BEAUPRE, Quebec (Reuters) – Participants at Pope Francis’ Mass in Canada on Thursday unfurled a banner asking him to formally rescind edicts from the 15th century in which the papacy justified taking indigenous land in the New World.
The large banner, protesting the so-called doctrine of discovery, was unfurled near the front row facing the congregation as the pope was starting Mass in a cathedral outside Quebec City. Most of the people in the church were indigenous.
Those who held up the banner, written on a white sheet with red letters, later took it down themselves.
It was not clear if the pope, who was behind the banner, was able to see what it said.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Mark Porter)
