Pope Francis Mass interrupted by protest over 15th-century doctrine justifying land grab

Participants at Pope Francis's 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.

The large banner protesting the 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.

Two women held up the banner, written on a white sheet with red and black letters, and later took it down themselves.

It was not clear if the pope, who was behind the banner, was able to see what it said.

The doctrine of discovery was enshrined in 15th-century papal bulls, or edicts. Indigenous people in Canada have been calling for its rescinding for years. In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which spent six years investigating residential schools, listed its repudiation as one of 94 calls to action that it laid out.

Francis is on a week-long tour of Canada to apologise for the church's role in the abusive residential schools system, which removed indigenous children from their homes in a forced cultural assimilation program.