Warbler said:
RicOlie_2, I'm curious what your take on this is.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20150908_Pope_should_rescind__Doctrine_of_Discovery_.html
Firstly, papal bulls are not infallible per se. They can contain infallible teaching if they meet the criteria I mentioned a few posts up the page, which Inter Caetera (the bull supporting the Doctrine of Discovery) does not.
The document must be read in context. In that time period, people were thought to get to heaven only be being good, baptized Catholics. Thus, it was thought that these people could not get to heaven without converting to Catholicism, and it was of the utmost importance to the Church of that time to have them do so. They were human beings with a soul, and many felt that it was the duty of good Christians to bring them into Christianity.
The methods to do this varied. Certain missionaries made great efforts to learn the language and adapt their religion to the culture of the natives. Others (wrongly) thought that it was worth it to forcibly convert them, not considering that interior conversion didn't necessarily come with exterior conversion, and that both were necessary.
These zealous desire to convert the natives was in a sense compassionate. It was done with the intent of preserving these people's souls for eternity; the body not being as important.
That isn't to say there was political motivation involved, and that Alexander VI was entirely in the right when he wrote the bull. It led to much damage, but I believe it was done with largely good intentions.
Going back to the present day: should it be officially revoked? Well, it isn't completely necessary, being that the papal bull no longer has an relevance and therefore no authority, though I do think it would be good for an official statement about that to be made. An official apology for the damage that resulted from it would be good as well.
I don't, however, think that it should be criticized as if it were something evil. It is outdated and misguided, but it was not written so that harm would be done. It was written so that souls could be saved (I'm speaking here of the intentions of the author, not of what resulted from it), which isn't a bad thing. In the context it was written in, it seemed appropriate and good, and just because hindsight has shown us that that was not the case doesn't mean that we should condemn it entirely.