EDMONTON (CNS): “One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself,” Pope Francis said on July 25 at the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, noting that the operation of residential schools by Catholics, while presented as missionary work, was actually an attempt to impose European culture on Canada’s Indigenous people.
The pope was on a July 24 to 29 “penitential trip” to meet with, listen to and apologise to members of Canada’s First Nation, Métis and Inuit communities, especially those who experienced abuse or attempts at forced assimilation at Church-run residential schools.
Earlier that day in Maskwacis, Pope Francis returned two pairs of children’s moccasins—reminders that Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, had left him in March so he would think and pray about the children who went to residential schools and, especially, about those who never returned home.
On the treaty land of the Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson Cree Nation, Louis Bull Tribe and the Montana First Nation, near the former site of one of Canada’s largest residential schools, Pope Francis said, “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”
“The first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” the pope.
“I am sorry,” he said again. “I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.”
In Edmonton, several of the parishioners of Sacred Heart and many of their parents and grandparents were forced by the Canadian government to attend residential schools, which were set up to force them to adopt European languages, culture and forms of Christianity.
“If we think of the lasting pain experienced in these places by so many people we feel nothing but anger and shame,” the pope said.”
“Nothing can ever take away the violation of dignity, the experience of evil, the betrayal of trust,” suffered by the students, he said. And nothing can “take away our own shame as believers.”
The pope did not mention the physical and sexual abuse many indigenous people said they endured rather, he focused on the Church’s complicity in trying to suppress indigenous identity and culture.
I am sorry. I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools
Pope Francis
“That happened because believers became worldly and, rather than fostering reconciliation, they imposed their own cultural models” on the students, he said.
Unfortunately, the pope lamented, “this attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint,” adding, “Indeed, it may seem easier to force God on people, rather than letting them draw near to God.”
He said, “This never works, because that is not how the Lord operates.”
Pope Francis pointed out the God “does not force us, he does not suppress or overwhelm; instead, he loves, he liberates, he leaves us free. He does not sustain with his Spirit those who dominate others, who confuse the gospel of our reconciliation with proselytism.”
The pope observed, “While God presents himself simply and quietly, we always have the temptation to impose him, and to impose ourselves in his name.”
Candida Shepherd, a member of the parish council, and Bill Perdue, chairperson of the parish finance committee, formally welcomed the pope. Both are members of the Métis community and described the parish as a place where they could live fully their identity as Indigenous Catholics.
The pope’s apology is not asking for instant trust. Today I am willing to extend my hand to the pope and to the bishops
Ted Quewezance
Perdue said that Pope Francis’ visit “gives us the opportunity to confront, to understand, to release and to transcend our trauma” and has inspired parishioners to work to make the Church “a venue for healing and reconciliation between the indigenous of this land and all those who choose to come here now and in the future.”
For Tammy Ward of the Samson First Nation, the words from Pope Francis brought tears. “It’s just very powerful,” she told The Catholic Register.
“For me, it’s the healing,” she said.
“The pope’s apology is not asking for instant trust,” Ted Quewezance, an elder from the Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan, said. “Today I am willing to extend my hand to the pope and to the bishops.”
Pope Francis expressed admiration for the many survivors who did not lose their faith and who still go to church.
“I can only imagine the effort it must take for those who have suffered so greatly—because of men and women who should have set an example of Christian living—even to think about reconciliation,” the pope said.
On the cross, Christ reconciles and brings back together everything that seemed unthinkable and unforgivable; he embraces everyone and everything. Everyone and everything!
Pope Francis
Pope Francis said that the Church must be a place of reconciliation, a place where all are welcome as they are and where discrimination has no place, noting that the architecture and furnishings at Sacred Heart reflect both indigenous wisdom and Christian truths.
“Joined to the earth by its roots, a tree gives oxygen through its leaves and nourishes us by its fruit,” he said,
Quoting from his encyclical, Laudato Si’, the pope said that at Sacred Heart, “a tree trunk symbolically unites the earth below and the altar on which Jesus reconciles us in the Eucharist in ‘an act of cosmic love’ that ‘joins heaven and earth, embracing and penetrating all creation’.”
The full reconciliation all people yearn for is found in Christ on the cross, the pope said. “On the cross, Christ reconciles and brings back together everything that seemed unthinkable and unforgivable; he embraces everyone and everything. Everyone and everything!”
The way forward, Pope Francis said, is “to look together to Christ, to love betrayed and crucified for our sake; to look to Christ, crucified in the many students of the residential schools.”
The pope emphasised, “If we want to be reconciled with one another and with ourselves, to be reconciled with the past, with wrongs endured and memories wounded, with traumatic experiences that no human consolation can ever heal, our eyes must be lifted to the crucified Jesus.”
On “the tree of the cross,” he said, “sorrow is transformed into love, death into life, disappointment into hope, abandonment into fellowship [and] distance into unity.”
The government of Canada now estimates at least 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families and communities and forced to attend the schools between the 1870 and 1997.
