The last time the pope visited an indigenous community in Canada was in 1987, when John Paul II stopped at Fort Simpson, NWT, on the lands of the Dehcho First Nations.
There, he praised the role of Catholic missionariessaying the “rebirth of your [Indigenous] The culture and traditions you know today are largely due to the initiatives and continuous efforts of the missionaries.”
“[Your ancestors]”, he said, “they knew instinctively that the gospel, far from destroying their authentic values and customs, had the power to purify and elevate the cultural heritage they had received.”
Thirty-five years later, Pope Francis is expected to deliver a markedly different message on his first visit to Canada and Indigenous communities, a trip the Roman Catholic leader recently referred to as “a penitential pilgrimage.”
A journey of spiritual penance.
“Historically, papal trips were about enhancing the authority of the pope … created to make everyone understand how great the pope is, the Catholic Church,” said Massimo Faggioli, a Vatican expert and professor of theology at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. “This trip… is spiritually humbling, in a good way.”
Parishioners attend the rededication ceremony of Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton. The church was damaged by fire, but has been renovated ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Alberta. (Jessie Wardarski/The Associated Press)
Faggioli says such a trip was unthinkable even a year ago, when Canadian bishops and the Pope were still ignoring calls to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the abuse of Indigenous children in residential schools.
But he says Francis, 85, who faces mobility issues related to his knees and sciatica and has canceled other trips this summer, understood the serious risk of leaving him, as they do those who advise him.
Restoring the faith
“Canada and residential schools represent the clearest example of how the abuse crisis has morphed into something different,” Faggioli said. “It’s no longer sexual abuse by the clergy, but cultural abuse, abuse of authority, cultural genocide. It’s a big monster of a phenomenon.”
And addressing it, he says, is crucial to the survival of the Catholic Church as a moral authority in Canada.
Still, the six-day trip to Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit is fraught with political risk for the Vatican and Canadian bishops.
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Vatican watchers say senior members of the institution worry about how to walk the fine line between making more honest acknowledgments of their systemic responsibility for the abuse and keeping the abuse in a historical context.
And, observers say, Canada’s indigenous groups have been appeased less easily than other groups to whom Catholic leaders have apologized in the past.
Colonization and conversion
In late March, a delegation of indigenous leaders, survivors of residential centers and elders met with Pope Francis at the Vatican where some asked him to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, a 15th-century papal edict that justified colonization, the conversion and enslavement of non-Christians and the taking of their lands, and, indigenous leaders say, influenced the Canadian Indian Act.
There have been some too demands the Vatican Museums to return indigenous artefacts and art — from a human face mask from Haida Gwaii to a rare Inuvialuit kayak in the western Arctic. Many of the items were given to the Vatican a century ago, but indigenous delegates question how voluntary the gifts were, given the power imbalance at the time.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni did not rule out the possible return of the artifacts during or after the Pope’s trip.
“We’ll see what happens in the next few days,” he said this week. “But there may be time and space after the trip for museums and indigenous communities to be in touch.”
Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith gives communion during the rededication ceremony and Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples earlier this week. The Pope will visit Edmonton during his visit next week. (Jessie Wardarski/The Associated Press)
But Vatican watchers say that while the demand to revoke the Doctrine of Discovery is understandable, it is highly unlikely that the Pope will do so, given that the decree was replaced by another with the opposite message at the end of the century XIX
“These [decrees] They are no longer law in the church,” said Antonio Hofmeister, a Brazilian priest who lived in Edmonton for three years and works at the Vatican. “They are not part of church doctrine because other doctrines were published later, who say there is nothing that can justify colonialism”.
Despite possible dissatisfaction on behalf of indigenous groups, observers say the pope’s trip to Canada is notable for his exclusive focus on repairing the damage done by the Catholic Church to indigenous communities.
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Pope Francis apologizes to indigenous delegates for abuses at residential schools
Speaking to an audience of 200 bishops, indigenous delegates and supporters, Pope Francis issued an apology for the conduct of some members of the Catholic Church in Canada’s residential school system.
Other popes have apologized during trips abroad: John Paul II did so for Catholic anti-Semitism when he visited Germany, the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and the Yad Vashem – World Center of Remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel. But, Faggioli says, those apologies were part of a larger journey and delivered with a measure of self-congratulation.
“These speeches came with the papacy recognizing how far we have come in relations with non-Catholics … So it was a celebration of successes along with an acknowledgment of past mistakes,” he said.
Such celebratory messages are not likely to be delivered on this trip, he says, a view shared by Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, who will be part of the Pope’s entourage in Canada.
“This is a very specific situation. It’s partly in response to the TRCs [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] demand an apology from the head of the Catholic Church,” Czerny said. “By accepting [its] negative assessment of the apologies already issued by some Catholic entities in Canada, and by accepting the demand for his personal involvement, Pope Francis is showing humility.”
What does a personal visit mean?
The TRC report, published in 2015, denounced the schools, more than half of which were run by the Catholic Church, as part of a policy of cultural genocide against indigenous people and included among its 94 recommendations for healing a formal apology from the head of the Catholic Church.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau separately asked for a papal apology in 2017. The pope rejected the request at the time, a decision defended by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which said the Catholic leader recognized the injustices that suffer the indigenous peoples but could not. personally apologize for residential schools.
When First Nations announced in 2021 that they had located what are believed to be unmarked graves on the grounds of numerous former residential schools, pressure grew for both Canadian Catholic bishops and the Pope to issue formal apologies.
Still, Czerny says this trip goes beyond the apology Francis made at the Vatican to First Nations, Métis and Inuit delegations who have visited him, when on April 1 he apologized for ” the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church”.
“It’s going in person, with a great personal effort,” he said, referring to the Pope’s mobility challenges due to knee problems and sciatica. “Sitting together, listening, praying together, going deeper… True reconciliation takes time [and] attending not only to words but to gestures.”
Support is available for anyone affected by the lingering effects of residential centers and those triggered by the latest reports. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society can be reached toll-free at 1-800-721-0066.
A National Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line has been set up to support alumni and those affected. Access crisis and emotional referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.