After Indigenous leaders called for Pope Francis to come to Canada and deliver an apology for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools, the Vatican issued a statement on Wednesday indicating the Pope’s willingness to do so at an undermined date.
In July, Lheidli T’enneh First Nation Chief Dolleen Logan called on the Pope to visit Canada, following the detection of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential school sites across the country, with the first confirmation occurring at the former site of Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops invited the Pope to travel to Canada in the "context of the long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples."
While the pope indicated his willingness to do so, there is no confirmation whether an apology from the Pope would be guaranteed during a visit.
Logan said she is pleased that Pope Francis will visit Canada and meet with Indigenous leaders about the wrongs suffered by Indigenous children at Catholic run residential schools.
First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders also plan to make a trip to the Vatican in December to meet with the Pope in the hope of securing an apology.
Chief Logan and other Indigenous leaders spoke out to say that wasn’t good enough and that for true healing to begin, the Pope must come to Canada and the visit the sites of former residential schools where children died, and many suffered.
“While we do not know the details yet of the Pope’s trip to Canada, I am pleased that he plans visit and meet with Indigenous leaders. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools in Canada were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations. Thousands of Indigenous children attended Catholic run residential schools between the mid-1800s and as late as the 1990s,” said Logan.
“Too many died while in the care of Catholic Priests and Nuns and many more suffered terrible abuses. The impacts on the families of those kids who did not make it home from residential school is evident today. The impacts on the residential school survivors and their families is equally as devastating.”
An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools over a century. More than 60 per cent of the schools were run by the Catholic Church.
A delegation of First Nations leaders and residential school survivors met with former pope Benedict in 2009. He expressed his sorrow and "personal anguish" but never apologized.
The 2015 final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada chronicled abuses suffered by Indigenous children at federally funded, church-run residential schools. It called for the Pope to deliver an apology in Canada within a year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally asked the Pope in 2017 to consider an apology.
Pressures have mounted in the last year following the discovery by First Nations of hundreds of unmarked graves at former residential school sites throughout the country, particularly in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
Criticism has also intensified as concerns have been raised that the Catholic Church didn't properly compensate residential school survivors as agreed to under a landmark settlement.
“The very least the Pope can do is to meet with our leaders at the sites of some of the Catholic-run residential schools and meet some of the families of children who attended those schools. He can listen carefully to the stories of what the deaths and abuses of children who attended those schools has meant to their families and their communities,” said Logan.
“It won’t be easy but if he is sincere in wanting to begin a reconciliation process with Indigenous people in Canada it must be done. I also recommend strongly that he begin his visit to Canada with a stop in Kamloops to visit the site of the former Kamloops Residential School where the remains of 215 children were discovered in May.”
There has not been a papal visit to Canada since Pope John Paul II came for World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002.
The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.
- with files from the Canadian Press
