ON THE EAST of the river Tiber, within the walls of the present-day city of Rome, are the seven hills of Rome: Avenine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quinnal and Viminal. Our plan was to have seven illustrious indigenous nations descend upon Rome simultaneously: the Maori, the Haudenosaunee, the Trails of Tears Nations, the Maya and Aztecs, the nations of south and central America and the tribes of Africa. We had no money, but we had the vision. There were some who had already succeeded in being received — from the Maya, Cree and Haudenosaunee — but there were no guarantees.
The attack would be on four fronts: a direct approach through the Papal Nuncio of Geneva, a hybrid Canadian front driven by the First Nations resolution at the Special Chiefs Assembly, a grassroots expression of legitimacy by seeking an NAIA statement representing all the tribes of the USA, a sacred element by a maximum number of hereditary chiefs, and a popular movement expressed through a worldwide petition. If any one of the above resulted in an invitation, we’d go with that, but remain faithful to the idea of a single avenue being the final road into Rome, but that anyone who made it there had a fiduciary duty towards the indigenous people of the world.
There were also networks that spanned NGOs, and in Europe particularly, associations which devoted their full time towards assisting indigenous initiatives. In addition to this, we entered into contact with the Sisters of Loretto, and other Catholic and Christian groups working towards revocation of the Papal Bulls.
In the end, the road to Rome would be opened by an incredible and unprecedented synergy — avenues opened up simultaneously but without knowledge of parallel efforts — from the Maya to the Quakers to the political backchannels, European indigenous organisations and historians. No-one held the key to Rome.
When our success became assured, those with vested interests from various quarters attempted, largely without success, to hitch their wagons to our cause. But the drawbridge came down through the efforts of a man who sat on the cusp of the world’s oldest fratricidal war, born of the internecine feud between the Palestinians and the Jews. The man who was the quintessence of the contradiction and who, through his purity, saw the necessity of a solution and held several of the tendrils threading our way to Rome. That man was Bishop Riah Abu-El Essal, the Israeli Palestinian Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. Others would lay claim to the mantle, others would work for the Long March to Rome in furtherance of their own aims. Bishop Riah was the only man who comprehended the full nature of the evil, and the need to address it at source.
Emeritus Judge Ted Strong of the Yakama court had put me in touch with Bishop Riah, and I had spoken to him briefly on Zoom. Bishop Riah wrote back to me by email the day following our conversation:
Dear David,
Greetings from Nazareth, and thank you for the information about the Papal Bulls of Discovery. Sorry for the delay in acknowledging receipt of your email. The reason is simply this: I made a little research and found out that others are on the same track, namely the Loretto Community. They too have called upon Pope Francis to rescind the Bulls of 1452 and 1493. Now that I am better informed, I join with you and all involved in the LONG MARCH TO ROME. Perhaps it may be wise to join hand with the Lorreto community. As promised, I will ask for a meeting with the Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem, discuss the matter with him and the desire to have an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis, and wait to hear from him how best to proceed. It will not be a matter of days, but certainly not months. I will keep you updated.
Until then every good wish,
+Bishop Riah
On January 16th, shortly after our meeting, I fell across this item in the international news:
UNITED NATIONS DECLARES THE HOLY SEE LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FOR EFFECTS AND LEGACY OF RACIST COLONIAL BULLS AND DOCTRINES 14 January 2016 As the result of a comprehensive shadow report and presentations by members of the Apache-Nde-Nnee Working Group submitted to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) for the Committee’s review of the Holy See, the UN CERD Committee has recognized that the Doctrine of Discovery, the Holy See’s Inter Caetera and related Papal Bulls are within the legal scope of racial discrimination under International Law and therefore require redress.
I mention this in passing, because I personally considered this study as the result of another approach. At the time, I considered it to be somewhat significant in that it illustrated that our efforts coincided with those of others worldwide. When I shared it with Bishop Riah, he responded enthusiastically:
Dear David,
Good morning. What better news than what you have kindly shared with me. The way to His Holiness Pope Francis must be wide open now.
Kindly email me your phone number as I need to consult with you on how best to proceed.
Kindest regards,
+Bishop Riah
Our correspondence continued and on Jan 18th I received the following missive:
His Excellency Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto
Apostolic Nuncio & Delegate
Mount of Olives, Box 19199
Jerusalem 91191
Your Excellency,
Re: Audience with His Holiness Pope Francis
Salaam and grace from our Lord Jesus Christ, and greetings from Nazareth.
I turn again to Your Excellency, kindly, seeking your guidance and your support in the following matter.
The International Tribunal For Natural Justice, formally instituted and publicly announced on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta at Westminster Hall in London on June 15, 2015, entrusted me with one of its divisions, namely, the “Truth & Reconciliation Commission.”
As Chair of the Commission I write on behalf of the “Long March To Rome,” a group I strongly support, as well as on behalf of the indigenous leaders in our Global Village, kindly requesting an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis, at which time a petition, seeking the revocation of the two papal bulls Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493), otherwise known as the Papal Bulls of Discovery, will be presented for His favourable consideration and further action.
I will be happy, in fact honoured to personally present and discuss with you a copy of the petition. However, should you wish that I email it to your personal address I will gladly do so.
I wait to hearing from you, with my thanks in advance, and every good wish,
In Christ,
+Bishop Riah Abo El-Assal
On March 3, this arrived:
Dear David,
Thank you for the update. In response please note:
a- Between now and early May most of those within the Church will be busy with the Easter activities. I doubt whether I will be able to have another meeting with the Apostolic Delegate soon.
b- The idea was to have ten to twelve Heads to meet with the Commission at the Vatican, and/or have an audience with the Pope. Now we seem to have double if not more. Had this been left to me I would welcome all who are able to join, not only from the Heads and dignitaries, but also from the common people.
c- I wonder whether the Apostolic Delegate will succeed in setting up the meeting in early May. My previous experience: a request for such a meeting is made and then wait for the Vatican to propose dates etc.
I never lose hope. The age of miracles is not over.
Kindest regards and every good wish for Easter.
+Bishop Riah
In March, Bishop Riah forwarded a copy of the Apostolic Delegate’s message:
Dear Bishop Riah,
This comes as a reply to your message of 4 March last, concerning the request on behalf of the aboriginal leaders.
As I pointed out in our conversation in Nazareth, the two Vatican documents to which they refer cannot, properly speaking, be “revoked.” On the other hand, it should be clear to everyone that the Catholic Church action today is not based on those two documents any more. We have many texts of Vatican Council II that clearly state the line of action that the Church intends to follow in these matters.
As I explained to you, the schedule of the Holy Father is a very heavy one in this Jubilee Year and I am not sure that we will be able to arrange a special meeting with him for the group of leaders. Of course, I can forward the request without promising anything.
A meeting could more easily be arranged with Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace” (Cardinal Appiah Turkson). To this effect, I would need the complete list of people who would travel to Rome and the dates when they can do this.
I renew my deepest sympathy on the passing away of your cousin and in communion of prayers I am
Cordially yours in Christ
+G. Lazzarotto
Apostolic Nuncio
Bishop Riah, however, was not to be put off so easily. He had other contacts in Rome, and pursued matters right up until our arrival in Florence.
I didn’t know he had his own problems, having been illegally expelled from the Diocese by his successor, Bishop Dawani, and dealing with the hostility of groups such as the Anglicans, friends of Israel. I liked him, and I liked talking to him.
Bishop Riah became for me the symbol of the Long March to Rome. I recall that, as the final weeks were approaching, two men — an Apostolic Delegate from Rome, and an Israeli Palestinian — were sitting in Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, to discuss the impact of the Papal Bulls of Discovery. Interestingly, the Apostolic Delegate basically took the same position as the Diocese of Phoenix in 1984 — it was all ancient history. Except it wasn’t for the simplest of all reasons. The Papal Bulls of Discovery were a sort of corporate playbook, and it continues to serve as the blueprint for people who are in the dubious enterprise of stealing what belongs to others — from Rio Tinto to Chinese state ventures to Pension funds investing in African mining ventures.
The Borgias were the world’s first globalists. Genghis Khan had indeed covered a lot of territory, but the Borgias were the first to conceptualize the notion of creating a sub-caste of humanity to justify conquest. There was a sense among us that this was inevitable, and that even better, it was a win-win situation. It wasn’t in the Church’s interest to deny the confrontation of its own history. In fact, there was a parallel that would allow for an understanding of an event involving one of the other two Abrahamic religions.
The Catholic Church had in fact been hijacked in the fifteenth century by the Borgias. They were a Spanish house that used simony, bribery and murder to take control of the Holy See. And, although we’re not really listening very much, in the heyday of ISIS, there was a similar pattern — intimidation, violence and the promise of gain to take control of Islamic mosques by Salafists hell-bent on world domination.
Bishop Riah was far from our only road to Rome, but our success was attracting long-time professionals in the game. In December of 2015, Bob Rae wrote to say that we needed to “engage the Canadian government in our process.” I sent him a quick answer the same day:
There are many developments at my end, and I was about to write you on this — I am engaged in ongoing discussions this week with an international indigenous caucus that is gaining in support at high levels — including Maori, other South Pacific leaders, possible participation of sub-Saharan nations, prestigious representatives of Caribbean and Central and South American indigenous and numerous US native leaders.
I think there is a real opportunity here and am open to this development subject to a vital condition — the Long March to Rome has to be indigenous-led and it has to be publicly seen that the animus comes from the indigenous world. I don’t want the Long March to Rome to become the equivalent of a Bob Geldof/Sean Penn show. But Justin Trudeau joining in with his heart as part of the Long March to Rome, perhaps alongside Perry Bellegarde, Justice Murray Sinclair, the new Justice Minister, and other leaders such as the Haida, with whom I am in contact, and other world indigenous leaders, would of course, be powerful.
But then, a day later, I had second thoughts, and sent a follow-up missive on December 18:
I had two lengthy conversations with the Right Honourable Paul Martin last year, and another with his close friend, Archbishop Durocher of Gatineau, and can sense their hands behind this entire initiative. I anticipated that something of the sort of the Justin Trudeau announcement would be attempted. Mr. Martin asked me early on whether I knew Perry Bellegarde, so he was aware of the Special Chiefs’ resolution endorsing the Long March to Rome. But the irony of the Canadian government purporting to lead this initiative will not be lost on indigenous peoples inside and outside Canada, if Trudeau insists on making it his own show.
By the way, we are receiving several enquiries per day through our website from indigenous leaders, chiefs and elders, associations, NGOs, even renegade Catholic priests. The Long March to Rome has already begun. We just established a Northern Canada support group in NWT, including members of several first nations and a CBC media figure. I have been corresponding, just over the course of the last days, with Lakota, Haida, Ojibway, Metis, Cree, South American groups and Navajo/Dine and their participation isn’t being steered by the backroom, but by their hearts. I can assure you that it is very powerful to witness firsthand. I am deeply impressed by the leaders and elders with whom I exchange in the days leading up to the Long March to Rome. New York’s WNBC, APTN and other people are waiting to provide coverage.
There is tremendous enthusiasm here in Europe as well.
I will be in touch as soon as we are ready to go with the formal request.
By the way, I deeply appreciate your support, and enjoy talking with you.
All of this was of course coming from every direction, and we were at the epicentre. It was making our lives in the Netherlands perfectly hellish. My business had come to a halt as I was spending hours throughout the day on Zoom speaking with leaders, legitimate, self-appointed, hereditary from around the world, NGOs, funders, and fielding an incredible array of offers to house the mission, which as far as the world via our website was concerned, was walking to Rome. But the core mission was moving along. It looked like the NAIA would be in our sights, and a national resolution from America to accompany the resolution of the First Nations would be powerful and impossible to ignore. But that was to ignore human nature, and the inability of some, when faced with certain success, to do everything in the power to make sure that everything implodes.
We were weeks away from the Gathering of Nations in Florence, and Hannah and I survived by going out for a daily walk in the forest nearby our home in the suburbs of Amsterdam. She had remarked that my posture was bad. We had found Enio, and Enio would make the Gathering of Nations a success.
“There’s something I have to say.”
“Go ahead.”
“I know we’re three weeks away, but I honestly don’t think I can do this anymore.”
“Trust me, I understand.”
“It’s too crazy. People are too unpredictable. They’re coming at us from all directions.”
“I’ll just see what I can do. It’s probably too dangerous for the kids.”
“I’m sorry, David.”
Of course, I concluded that she just was having a bad moment. She’d regret missing the trip. But now was no time to deal in hypotheticals. Not with disaster threatening on all fronts, and the near-certain prospect that there could be a crucifixion in Florence, and only one candidate for the cross.