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Thousands hear Pope apologize for residential schools

Survivors call for action to back words

“I am deeply sorry.”

Applause and whoops of celebration filled the powwow grounds at Maskwacis Monday as Pope Francis spoke those words through a translator before a crowd of thousands of residential school survivors.

The Pope was in Maskwacis to meet with roughly 2,000 Indigenous Elders and residential school survivors during the first stop of his Walking Together tour of Canada, which aims to address the role of the Catholic Church in Canada’s infamous residential school system. Maskwacis was once home to the Catholic-run Ermineskin Residential School, which was one of the largest such schools in Canada.

Survivors at the event spoke of how the schools tore families apart, and set out to deride and suppress Indigenous language and culture. Spiritual knowledge and parenting skills were wiped out, resulting in lifelong and intergenerational trauma.

It was against this backdrop that Francis took the stage in the Muskwa Park powwow arbour on July 25. The whirling colours of the grand entry before him stood in stark contrast to the slate-grey skies overhead. Snaking through the crowd was the National Student Memorial Register — a blood-red banner some 50 metres long bearing the names of some 4,120 children who died in residential schools.

The penitent pontiff

Speaking in Spanish with an assistant translating his words to English, Francis said he has started his “penitential pilgrimage” at Maskwacis to walk, pray, and work together with Indigenous peoples so the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing, and reconciliation.

While it is painful to do so, Francis said it is necessary to remember how policies of assimilation such as the residential schools were devastating to the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

Francis said he is “deeply sorry” for the ways in which many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed Indigenous peoples, and asked forgiveness in particular for the ways in which many members of the Church co-operated in the projects of forced assimilation that resulted in the residential schools. While there were many examples of devotion and care for children in those schools, Francis said the schools overall were “a disastrous error incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children,” he said.

“I myself wish to reaffirm this with shame and unambiguously. I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”

Mixed emotions

Doug Woods, the sergeant-at-arms of the Métis Nation of Ontario Veterans’ Council, wrapped himself in a blue Métis flag as he listened to Francis’s words from the back benches of the arbour.

“This is so emotional and so heartwarming,” he said.

“Everyone here was hoping that they would hear those words. They needed to hear those words in order to heal and move on.”

It was an emotional moment for Coun. Emily Potts of Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation as well. Potts said her grandmother Marceline was a student at the St. Albert (Youville) residential school and came out of that place not knowing how to love her children. At the same time, Marceline (who died last year) had long dreamed of meeting the Pope.

Potts said the Pope’s visit to Canada will bring healing to the many residential school survivors in her largely Catholic community.

“A lot of pain was inflicted, but we have to learn to forgive and move on.”

Speaking at a press conference after the Pope’s address, Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations Grand Chief George Arcand Jr. said he has mixed emotions upon hearing the Pope’s address. His mother would have been pleased to hear the Pope’s apology, but the police had also once dragged his mother from underneath her father’s chair to force her to go to residential school.

“Even though my mother — bless her soul — was a good Catholic, they (the Church) hurt her,” said Arcand, who is also chief of Alexander First Nation.

“I have a hard time forgiving that.”

Residential school survivor Evelyn Korkmaz said the Pope’s words brought her joy, sadness, and numbness.

“Today I heard an apology. I was hoping to hear of some kind of work plan.”

Korkmaz said she has waited 50 years for the Pope to make this apology — an apology many of her friends and family members did not live to hear. She called on the Pope to announce specific actions in support of reconciliation, such as the release of Church documents which could help locate and identify residential school students buried in unmarked graves.

In his address, Francis acknowledged that this apology is just a first step. Reconciliation will require a serious investigation as to what took place in the past, and an effort to help survivors heal from the traumas they have suffered.

The Pope has made his apology, and the onus is now on all Canadians to do the work of reconciliation, Arcand said.

“After all, we’re in this together.”

Footage of the Pope’s visit to Maskwacis is available at www.papalvisit.ca/watch.


Kevin Ma

About the Author: Kevin Ma

Kevin Ma joined the St. Albert Gazette in 2006. He writes about Sturgeon County, education, the environment, agriculture, science and aboriginal affairs. He also contributes features, photographs and video.
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