Late-breaking news: Apology hoped for when Pope visits Canada

(Staff) POPE FRANCIS has agreed to visit Canada on a date yet to be set. If he apologizes for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in abuses at the Indian Residential Schools, it will fulfil a recommendation of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which asked the Pope himself to apologize on Canadian soil.

Approximately 16 out of 70 Catholic dioceses in Canada were associated with the schools, in addition to about three dozen Catholic religious orders. They ran 60 per cent of the schools for the federal government.

In a brief statement on Oct. 27, the Vatican said that Pope Francis, who is 84, had been invited by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and that he “has indicated his willingness to visit on a date to be set in due course.”

The TRC’s 2015 recommendation for a one-year time line for the apology was made in consideration of aging survivors.  

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald said, “I’ll welcome Pope Francis when he arrives on Turtle Island to issue a long-overdue apology to survivors and intergenerational trauma survivors.” Turtle Island is an Indigenous name sometimes used for the continent of North America. 

In 2015, Pope Francis travelled to Bolivia where he apologized “for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

This past June, the CCCB announced that a delegation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit will meet with the Pope separately at the Vatican between Dec. 17 and 20.   TAP

 

Roman Catholic bishops apologize for abuses in IRS

(Staff) The CCCB apologized formally and “unequivocally” to Indigenous peoples for the suffering endured in Indian Residential schools – just days before the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. 

The bishops agreed unanimously to the wording of the one-page statement during a meeting Sept. 24. It says along with the church entities that were directly involved in running residential schools that the bishops express their “profound remorse and apologize unequivocally.” They also spoke of being “fully committed to a process of reconciliation and healing.”

The statement read in part: 

“Many Catholic religious communities and dioceses participated in this system, which led to the suppression of Indigenous languages, culture and spirituality, failing to respect the rich history, traditions and wisdom of Indigenous peoples. We acknowledge the grave abuses that were committed by some members of our Catholic community; physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural and sexual. We also sorrowfully acknowledge the historical and ongoing trauma and the legacy of suffering and challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples that continue to this day. Along with those Catholic entities which were directly involved in the operation of the schools and which have already offered their own heartfelt apologies, we the Catholic Bishops of Canada, express our profound remorse and apologize unequivocally.

They also promised:

“…to listen to the experience of Indigenous Peoples, especially to the survivors of Indian Residential Schools, and to educate our clergy, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful, on Indigenous cultures and spirituality. We commit ourselves to continue the work of providing documentation or records that will assist in the memorialization of those buried in unmarked graves.

“We pledge to work with the Holy See and our Indigenous partners on the possibility of a pastoral visit by the Pope to Canada as part of this healing journey.”

They are also promising to raise money to help fund initiatives recommended by local Indigenous partners.  

The church has been heavily criticized for neglecting to provide all documents on the schools that were requested by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and for raising less than one-sixth of a $25-million fund promised for reconciliation and healing as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2006.

Under the Agreement, a group of Catholic Church entities agreed to make three forms of restitution: they would pay $29 million in cash, provide $25 million of in-kind services for healing and reconciliation, and lead a national, $25-million fundraising campaign to benefit survivors. That campaign only raised $3.7 million.  

Moreover, experts in reconciliation are questioning whether the Catholic Church adequately provided “in-kind services.” Aideen Nabigon, former director general of policy and partnerships for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, who reviewed the “in-kind” log, said many entries looked like charity work the church would have been performing anyway, rather than efforts directly tied to reconciliation.       

Bishop William McGrattan of the Archdiocese of Calgary and the newly elected vice-president of the CCCB said the 90 Catholic bishops “wanted to make this statement as a step of healing — one of beginning, hopefully, a new path of hope. And it’s a sign, I hope … of our recognition of the pain and the suffering the residential schools have caused and our participation as a church.”

McGrattan said individual dioceses across Canada had already made similar statements but this was the first time an apology came from the bishops nationwide. He said the bishops are committed to continuing to educate themselves on the history and legacy of residential schools and how their own church was involved. 

“The understanding of this history is important. And maybe we have not necessarily really understood the voice of [Indigenous people],” he said.

The bishops are also committed to sharing church records with communities looking to identify and memorialize children who died while being forced to attend residential schools, McGrattan said. It’s a process he said he’s already begun with two First Nations in the Calgary area.

When asked what it meant to “unequivocally” apologize, McGrattan said that meant “no qualifications, no excuses, no rationalizations for this legacy and history of the church’s participation in the residential school system.”

“We heard loud and clear this is important to Indigenous people, and we want to convey to them we see the importance of this, too,” he said.

McGrattan realizes not all Indigenous people will be satisfied with the apology.

“All we can do is offer it in humility and hope it is accepted and brings peace and healing,” he said, adding any future reconciliation efforts will be done together with Indigenous people, “not us telling them or directing them but listening to them.”

McGrattan hopes Canadian Catholics will “see this as an opportunity to also pursue reconciliation and commit themselves to tangible ways of pursuing it.” This includes donating to a new fundraising campaign that will be coordinated nationally, with all the funds raised directed to local projects in dioceses.

“It’s going to be a national effort with a national goal of $30 million, but the distribution to be done locally with local accountability with Indigenous people,” he said.

 

Reactions from Indigenous leaders 

AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald said she welcomed the bishops’ apology, but noted that their promises fall short of the actions that the Indigenous community has called for.

“The words of the apology speak to a commitment by the [Catholic] church to the healing path forward with First Nations and Indigenous peoples,” Archibald said in a statement on the same day as the bishops issued their apology. “Only time will tell if concrete actions will follow the words of contrition by the bishops.”

She also said the church needs to meet financial commitments to residential school survivors.

“The fact remains that the church raised less than 15 per cent of the $25 million that it promised in 2006 as part of the IRS settlement.”

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia, said that the bishops’ apology was welcome. “I think it’s stronger than what I’ve seen in the past from the Catholic Bishops of Canada, but it still leaves “a gap between these comforting words and real action.”

Because the Catholic Church’s involvement in running the schools stemmed from multiple entities, there is no one point of accountability, which is troublesome, said Turpel-Lafond.

“The scattershot approach of this to date has imperilled our capacity to determine what happened to the missing children, and the unmarked burials, as well as left an incomplete historical record of what happened,” she said.

Turpel-Lafond says the words of “some members of the Catholic community” make it sound as though the apology is for the acts of individuals, rather than the Roman Catholic Church’s role as an institution in the residential school system.

Turpel-Lafond added she hopes the apology will lead the Catholic Church to meet financial obligations to residential school survivors, as well as provide reparations to Indigenous communities, and to create a single access point for records regarding missing children and unmarked burials.

The statement also does not admit the Church hasn’t lived up to its financial obligations under the settlement agreement, she added.

David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation and vice-president of the Métis National Council, welcomed the apology but said they also want to see the Pope apologize in person.

“We commend the archbishops, the CCCB and the new president of the conference for their important words,” he said in a statement. 

“During our meeting with Pope Francis, we will express the importance of an apology that comes directly from him, delivered on our home soil and spoken directly to the people the residential and day school systems harmed, as we know that is the path to healing.”   TAP              

–Various sources including Canadian Press, CBC, Winnipeg Free Press, and Globe and Mail.