QUEBEC CITY (AP) – The Canadian government made clear Wednesday that Pope Francis’ apology to indigenous peoples for abuses at the country’s church-run residential schools did not go far enough, suggesting reconciliation with the full story is still a work in progress. in progress
The official government reaction came as Francis arrived in Quebec City to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon at his Quebec residence, the hilltop fortress Citadelle, in the second leg of Francis’ week-long visit to Canada.
Criticism of the government echoes that of some survivors and concerns Francis’ omission of any reference to the sexual abuse of indigenous children in schools, as well as his original reluctance to name the Catholic Church as a responsible institution.
Francis has said he is on a “penitential pilgrimage” to atone for the church’s role in the residential school system, in which generations of indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and forced to attend run boarding schools by the church and funded by the government to assimilate them. to the Canadian Christian Society. The Canadian government has said physical and sexual abuse was rampant in schools, with students beaten for speaking their mother tongue.
Francis on Monday apologized for the “evil” of church staff working in schools and the “catastrophic” effect of the school system on indigenous families. In a speech to government authorities on Wednesday, Francis apologized again and criticized the school system as “deplorable”.
Francis noted that the school system was “promoted by the government authorities of the time” as part of a policy of assimilation and empowerment. But responding to criticism, he added that “local Catholic institutions had a part” in implementing this policy.
Indigenous peoples have long demanded that the pope take responsibility not only for abuses committed by individual Catholic priests and religious orders, but for the Catholic Church’s institutional support for assimilation policy and the papacy’s religious justification of the 15th century for European colonial expansion to spread Christianity.
More than 150,000 Native children in Canada were removed from their homes from the 19th century to the 1970s and placed in schools in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their families and their culture.
Trudeau, a Catholic whose father, Pierre Trudeau, was prime minister while the last residential schools were operating, insisted that the Catholic Church as an institution was to blame and must do more to atone.
Speaking before Francis, he noted that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission had in 2015 called for a papal apology to be delivered on Canadian soil, but that Francis’ visit “would not have been possible without the courage and perseverance” of the survivors of the First Nations. Inuit and Metis who traveled to the Vatican last spring to apologize.
“I apologize for the role that the Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, played in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of indigenous children in church-run residential schools,” he said. Trudeau.
The Canadian government has apologized for its role in the school legacy. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology for residential schools in Parliament in 2008, calling them a sad chapter in Canadian history and saying the policy of forced assimilation caused great harm.
As part of a settlement of a lawsuit involving the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 surviving students, Canada paid reparations that amounted to billions of dollars transferred to indigenous communities. The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has paid more than $50 million and intends to add another $30 million over the next five years.
Trudeau hinted that much more needed to be done by the church and that while Francis’ visit had “a huge impact” on survivors, it was only a first step.
Aside from the content of his speech, Trudeau’s remarks broke with the usual protocol for papal trips. According to diplomatic protocol, only Simon was to address the pope in his capacity as representative head of state. Simon, an Inuk who is the first indigenous person to hold the largely ceremonial post of governor-general, did address Francis.
But the Vatican said Trudeau’s office asked that the prime minister be allowed to offer some introductory remarks, a request that came days before Francis left Rome but after the pope’s itinerary had been finalized and printed .
A senior Canadian government official said Trudeau usually delivers remarks during visits by foreign leaders and it was important for him to address Canadians during Francis’ visit “especially given the importance of the matter.” However, it was added at the last minute.
Before Francis arrived in Quebec City, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said the “gaps” in Francis’ apology could not be ignored.
Echoing criticism from some school survivors, Miller noted that Francis did not mention sexual abuse in his list of abuses suffered by Indigenous children in schools. Instead, on Monday, Francis listed physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse. Miller also noted that Francis spoke on Monday of the “evil” committed by individual Christians “but not the Catholic Church as an institution.”
Phil Fontaine, a survivor of sexual abuse in schools and former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said Wednesday’s additional reference to “local Catholic institutions” went beyond Francis’ original apology and was significant and the closest he could be to apologizing. for the whole Church in Canada.
“It reflects the reality that the Catholic Church in Canada is not one institution. It is made up of some 73 different legal institutions, all of which are defendants in the lawsuits,” Fontaine said in a statement.
Francis’ visit has sparked mixed emotions among survivors and their families, as well as among indigenous leaders and community members. Some have welcomed his apology as genuine and helpful in helping them heal. Others have said it was just the first step in a long reconciliation process. Still others have said he did not go far enough to take responsibility for institutional mistakes that go back centuries.
Francis himself has acknowledged that the wounds will take time to heal and that his visit and his apologies were only the first steps. On Wednesday, he committed himself and the local Canadian church to “moving forward in a fraternal and patient journey with all Canadians, in accord with truth and justice, working for healing and reconciliation, and constantly inspired by the ‘hope’.
“It is our desire to renew the relationship between the Church and the indigenous peoples of Canada, a relationship marked both by a love that has borne outstanding fruit and, tragically, by deep wounds that we are committed to understanding and healing,” he said. .
But he did not list any specific actions the Holy See was prepared to take.
Trudeau also said the visit was a start and reconciliation was everyone’s duty. “It is our responsibility to see our differences not as an obstacle but as an opportunity to learn, to understand each other better and to take action.”
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