As the Catholic world turns its eyes on Canada with the week-long papal visit beginning next week, every conceivable stakeholder agrees on the need for the pope to apologize to the indigenous survivors of the designated residential schools. to wipe out their culture, a system derided as “cultural genocide” by a high-profile Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in 2015.
But that’s where the consensus between First Nations survivors and Catholic bishops in Canada hits a dead end.
In April, when a group of survivors visited the Vatican, the pontiff surprised many of them by apologizing during a private audience.
Francis expressed the “pain and shame” he felt “for the role that various Catholics have had, particularly those with educational responsibilities, in all these things that hurt you, in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values.”
Then he qualified his words with remorse.
“For the deplorable behavior of these members of the Catholic Church, I ask God for forgiveness and I want to tell them with all my heart: I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking for their forgiveness.”
Survivors who were in Rome in April hope the pope will go further when he arrives in Treaty Six territory, the name of the numbered treaty reached between First Nations and the Canadian government in 1876 over land that now comprises parts of today’s territory. provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
After their trip to Rome, the committee of survivors submitted a draft apology to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops that clearly placed the blame for the residential schools on the church itself, not just those who ran the institutions.
The proposed text would also see the pope rescind the doctrine of discovery, a worldview fueled by 15th-century edicts known as Papal Bulls that denied sovereignty to non-Christian peoples as Europeans explored and claimed new lands.
Scholars draw a direct line between that doctrine and the well-documented dehumanization of indigenous children in residential schools.
Kenneth Young, a survivor who is part of the committee that proposed the text of an apology, said the bishops would not commit to discussing the draft with the Vatican.
Still, he is hopeful Francis will take full responsibility on behalf of the church.
“I’m optimistic that it will,” Young said. “But if he doesn’t, I’ll be very disappointed. I would consider his trip a waste of time.
Phil Fontaine, twice national head of the Assembly of First Nations, was in the room when the Pope apologized this spring. That was Fontaine’s second trip to the Vatican. He was also there in 2009 when Pope Benedict XVI did not apologize.
If Francis expresses regret on behalf of the institution he heads, Fontaine says those words will have deep meaning. “He’s like a rock star. What you have to say, people listen. Analyze every word, every phrase. Not to exaggerate, because he is not a mythical figure,” Fontaine said. “But he can be like that.”
If the pope doesn’t go far enough, Campbell said, it will “further reinforce mistrust” with people who are still experiencing the impact of residential schools.
The Indian Residential Schools Conciliation Agreement fixed the number of federally funded, church-run institutions in Canada at 139. They first opened in the 1870s and the last school closed in 1997. More than 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend them, and more It is estimated that more than 6,000 have died as a result of disease, malnutrition and suicide, among other causes. The children often suffered physical and sexual abuse.
Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair of Truth and Reconciliation at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, said a papal apology at least changes the stories indigenous peoples can pass on to future generations.
“People will now have a story to tell their children, their grandchildren, about the Pope’s visit and about his acknowledgment that this damage has already been done,” he said. “It will also help explain to Canadians in general that this is the truth of the reconciliation story.”
But the apology itself won’t chart a path forward, Wesley-Esquimaux said. Seven years after the TRC report hit the desks of lawmakers and the front pages of Canadian newspapers, he said it’s hard to know how to finish the job.
“I work on reconciliation every day. And I just call it the reconciliation paradox,” she said. “We say all these things, but what are we doing? What is the end goal? How will we know when we get there?
Indre Cuplinskas, associate professor and associate academic dean at St. Joseph’s College at the University of Alberta, said the trip offers Catholics a renewed opportunity to engage with indigenous people on a spiritual level.
