THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY in an ink-on-paper drawing. The title and the image address the history of how the Catholic Church defined how European explorers to the Americans treated indigenous Americans. Christopher Columbus wanted to find his fortune, and the only way to do it was to conquer the native people he encountered with the total weight of the Church behind him. Since these Americans were not Christian, there was no need to consider them as fully human—a perspective still embedded in today’s culture. We are fine dehumanizing others who are non-believers—it has even become a political strategy for those who need to divide and conquer. Dehumanization is easy for any religion that can only see its own reflection. When conservative Christians say that we are a Christian nation, it is this ideology that makes them correct.

This idea of having an absolute, unquestionable truth is the most violent ideology in the history of humanity, and Christianity makes no apologies for it. One can categorize people into two separate, distinct groups of believers and non-believers, equal human and non-human. The Catholic Church has regrets for what this ideology has done but still will not concede to its destructiveness and change its perspective. I suppose the reforms of Vatican II tried to address this rigid stance on truth through its social justice doctrine. Still, sadly, many American Catholics want nothing to do with it and continue their march toward injustice and death to the non-believers.