On the morning of Monday, July 25 (at 18:00 Rome time), the Pope met with representatives of Canada’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit in the city of Maskwatsis, which is located 70 km from Edmonton. In the first address of his apostolic journey, he asked for forgiveness for the mistakes made by the Church and pointed out that this is the starting point on the path of reconciliation and renewal.
Jānis Evertovskis – Vatican
Francis said it was a “pilgrimage of atonement” and admitted he was disappointed. “I come to your native lands to (…) ask God for forgiveness, healing and reconciliation, to show you my closeness, to pray with you and for you,” he said.
At the beginning of the address, the Pope strongly reminded that the memory of the suffering experienced by indigenous children in residential schools encourages us to act in such a way that every child is treated with love and respect. In addition, everyone must walk together, pray and work to replace the suffering of the past with justice, healing and reconciliation in the future. Therefore, the Holy Father begins his pilgrimage precisely in this area where the indigenous peoples live. “This territory appeals to us, allows us to mention“, he said. It is about recalling the suffering experienced. The Pope emphasized that this is necessary because, otherwise, forgetting them would lead to indifference. Writer Elie Wiesel has said that “the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference… The opposite of life is not death, but indifference to life or death”. Recounting the devastating experiences of residential schools is painful, shocking, but necessary.
Speaking about the assimilation policy of his time, which was also implemented in the mentioned schools, Francis reminded of its disastrous consequences. As a result, indigenous peoples were systematically marginalized, their language and culture were panicked and suppressed, children were subjected to physical, psychological and spiritual suffering, children were taken away from their parents when they were still small, and in this way the relationships between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren.
The Holy Father thanked the Canadian natives for sharing their “bleeding memories” with him and assured that he was making this “pilgrimage of atonement” and had come among them to ask for forgiveness from the bottom of his heart. “I ask forgiveness,” he continued, “for the fact that many Christians, unfortunately, supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I ask for forgiveness especially for the fact that many members of the Church and religious communities took part – even with their indifference – in those projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation carried out by the governments of the time, which culminated in the residential school system”.
Even if there were no shortage of examples of Christian love and selflessness shown to children, the policy implications of residential schools were generally disastrous. The Christian faith reveals to us that this was a disastrous error, inconsistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In view of this evil, “the Church kneels before God and asks forgiveness for the sins of her children. I want to emphasize this clearly with shame: I humbly ask for forgiveness for the evil that many Christians did to indigenous peoples”, the Pope emphasized.
The Holy Father recognized that praying for forgiveness is not a final destination, but a first step, a starting point. Therefore, it is important to seriously search for the truth about the past and help the victims of said schools to get on the road to healing. It is important that Christians and the whole society better and more concretely accept and respect the identity and experience of indigenous peoples. “For my part, I will continue to encourage the efforts of all Catholics for the benefit of the indigenous peoples,” said the Pope, acknowledging that all this requires time and patience. These processes must become a matter of the heart, and the presence of the Holy Father here, as he himself confirmed, as well as the efforts of the Canadian bishops, show the desire to continue on this path.
“Today I am here”, Francis concluded, “to remember the past, to cry with you, to look at the earth in silence, to pray at the graves. (…) In the face of evil, let us pray to the good Lord; in the face of death, let us pray to the God of life.” Jesus Christ turned the hopeless grave into a place of rebirth and resurrection, from which the story of new life and universal reconciliation began. In order to achieve healing and reconciliation, our efforts alone are not enough, the Pope emphasized. We need the meek and strong wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the gentleness of the Comforter. May He be the one who fulfills the longings of our hearts, takes us by the hand and helps us walk together.
