Pope apologizes for ‘catastrophic’ school abuses in Canada

 

The Catholic Church's complicity in Canada's "catastrophic" policy of Indigenous residential schools was the subject of a historic apology from Pope Francis on Monday. He claimed that the forced integration of Native Americans into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families, and marginalized generations in ways that are still felt today.

 

At the start of his week-long "penitential pilgrimage" to Canada, Pope Francis apologized to a crowd of school survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta.

 

Francis visited the territories of four Cree nations the morning following his arrival in order to pray at a cemetery. Four chiefs then escorted the pontiff in his wheelchair to powwow ceremonial grounds where he delivered the long-sought apology and was given a feathered headdress.

 

“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said near the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, now largely torn down.

 

His words went beyond his earlier apology for the “deplorable” acts of missionaries and instead took responsibility for the church’s institutional cooperation with the “catastrophic” assimilation policy, which Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission said amounted to a “cultural genocide.”

 

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 native children in Canada were compelled to attend state-funded Christian schools in an effort to keep them away from the influence of their families and cultures. Prior Canadian governments believed that assimilation into mainstream society and Christianization were greater goals.

 

The Canadian government has acknowledged that there was widespread physical and sexual abuse at the schools, with pupils being physically punished for using their native tongues. Indigenous elders have pointed to the history of abuse and separation from family as the main reason for the pandemic levels of alcohol and drug addiction that are currently present on Canadian reserves.

 

Many in the crowd Monday wore traditional dress, including colorful ribbon skirts and vests with Native motifs. Others donned orange shirts, which have become a symbol of residential school survivors, recalling the story of one woman whose favorite orange shirt, a gift from her grandmother, was confiscated when she arrived at a school and replaced with a uniform.

 

Despite the solemnity of the event, the atmosphere seemed at times joyful: Chiefs processed into the site venue to a hypnotic drumbeat, elders danced and the crowd cheered and chanted war songs, victory songs and finally a healing song.

 

One of the hosts of the event, Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, said some had chosen to stay away — and that that was understandable. But he said it was nevertheless a historic, important day for his people.

 

“My late family members are not here with us anymore, my parents went to residential school, I went to residential school,” he told The Associated Press as he waited for Francis to arrive. “I know they’re with me, they’re listening, they’re watching.”

 

Felisha Crier Hosein made the trip from Florida to attend in lieu of her mother, who had intended to go but passed away in May and had contributed to the creation of the museum for the neighbouring Samson Cree Nation.

 

Hosein, who was dressed in one of her mother's vibrant ribbon skirts, said: "I came here to represent her and to be here for the elders and the community."

 

She said, "Saying I'm sorry won't make what happened go away. But the seniors value it greatly.

 

Along with the governor general and other authorities, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who last year expressed regret for the "very damaging government decision" in setting up the system of residential schools, attended.

As part of a lawsuit settlement involving the government, churches and approximately 90,000 survivors, Canada paid reparations that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to Indigenous communities. Canada’s Catholic Church says its dioceses and religious orders have provided more than $50 million in cash and in-kind contributions and hope to add $30 million more over the next five years.

 

While the pope acknowledged institutional blame, he also made clear that Catholic missionaries were merely cooperating with and implementing the government policy of assimilation, which he termed the “colonizing mentality of the powers.”

 

“I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools,” he said.

 

According to him, the program "indelibly impacted connections between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren." It also disenfranchised generations, suppressed Indigenous languages, tore families apart, and caused physical, verbal, psychological, and spiritual abuse. In order to determine who was responsible for the atrocities, he asked for greater investigation, maybe making reference to Indigenous demands for additional access to church archives and the personnel files of the priests and nuns.

 

“Although Christian charity was not absent, and there were many outstanding instances of devotion and care for children, the overall effects of the policies linked to the residential schools were catastrophic,” Francis said. “ What our Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

 

The first pope from the Americas was determined to make this trip, even though torn knee ligaments forced him to cancel a visit to Africa earlier this month.

 

The six-day visit — which will also include other former school sites in Alberta, Quebec City and Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the far north — follows meetings Francis held in the spring at the Vatican with delegations from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit. Those meetings culminated with an April 1 apology for the “deplorable” abuses committed by some Catholic missionaries in residential schools and Francis’ promise to deliver an apology in person on Canadian soil.

 

Francis recalled that during in April, one of the delegations gave him a set of beaded moccasins as a symbol of the children who never returned from the schools, and asked him to return them in Canada. Francis said in these months they had “kept alive my sense of sorrow, indignation and shame” but that in returning them he hoped they could also represent a path to walk together.

 

The organizers of the event promised to do all in their power to ensure that survivors could attend, including busing them there and providing mental health counselors to be on hand because they understood that the event would be painful for some people.

 

Francis said remembering was crucial to avoid indifference, even if he understood that the recollections could reopen old traumas and that even his very presence there could be traumatizing.

 

"It is important to recall how disastrous for the people of these territories the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were," he stated.

 

Francis was due to visit Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, an Edmonton-based Catholic congregation focused on Indigenous people and culture, later on Monday.

 

The church, whose sanctuary was dedicated last week after being restored from a fire, incorporates Indigenous language and customs in liturgy.

Source: AP