Pope Francis remembered for residential schools apology
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By: Miles Morrisseau, ICT
Pope Francis – who sought to usher the Catholic Church toward social justice for disadvantaged people, protection of the environment and Indigenous reconciliation – died Easter Monday, April 21, at the age of 88.
In Canada the Pope will be remembered for his historic visit to the country in 2022 when he apologized to First Nations, Metis and Inuit people for the role of the Catholic Church in the Indian residential school system. The apology came only after all the major religious institutions that operated the schools had apologized, including the Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse-Nepinak expressed her sadness at the passing of Pope Francis. “In an institution resistant to progressive change, Pope Francis led by example and disrupted the status quo in a good way on many issues, including the many harms and crimes inflicted by Catholic clergy on First Nations children in the ‘Indian residential school’ system,” stated the National Chief. “Pope Francis pushed the Catholic Church to confront its past and seek a path for reconciliation and change.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the Pope’s acceptance of accountability was an important step on the road to reconciliation. “His Holiness heard from survivors and their descendants about that system's legacy of searing and endearing pain and met it with an important step of accountability and healing on the shared path towards reconciliation.”
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Canadian Governor General Mary Simon, Inuk, also shared her memories of the Pope and his visit.
“I met Pope Francis during his visit to Canada in 2022, where he delivered an apology for members of the Catholic Church who cooperated with the devastating abuse of Indigenous children at residential schools,” said Simon. “It was a testament to his commitment to respect dialogue and collaboration across cultures and faiths – values he held dear throughout his papacy. May his soul rest in peace and may his teachings continue to inspire us to build a better world for all.”
David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, shared a memory of his first meeting with the Pontiff. “When I led a delegation of Red River Métis survivors, elders, and youth to meet him in 2022, we were struck by his sincerity, his desire to listen, and the sincerity of his apology to our people during this precious encounter,” said Chartrand. “Despite the risks of exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic, he made the exceptional decision to greet and shake hands with every single member of our delegation. Every member felt his true respect and left feeling honoured and recognized. His decision to come to Canada to honour the Indigenous Peoples and acknowledge the past harms showed his character and his integrity.”
Pope Francis had made individual apologies when he met with Indigenous survivors, descendants and other officials in the spring of 2022. They would all be private with no statement from the church, recordings or official documentation. On May 12, the Vatican announced the official visit to Canada, which would be during his “penitential pilgrimage” when the Pope would make his official public acknowledgement, apology and a prayer for forgiveness. He would make stops in the west, the east and the far north during his six-day tour, arriving on July 24 and flying back to Rome on July 30.
The pope travelled to Maskwacis Cree Nation, Alberta, on July 25, where thousands of Indigenous people, the majority of who were residential school survivors and their descendants, had gathered. It was greatly anticipated that this would be the day that the Pope would make his historic apology.
In the morning, the pontiff and a small delegation visited the grounds where the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School operated from 1916 to 1975 as one of the largest government-funded schools run by the Catholic Church. He then arrived at the pow wow arbour where people had been arriving since sunrise. The day would be overcast, with occasional breaks in the sky to let in some sun. It threatened to rain all day, but it never did.
“Today I am here, in this land that, along with its ancient memories, preserves the scars of still open wounds. I am here because 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,” said Pope Francis. “Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous Peoples. … In the face of this deplorable evil, the church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children."
When the apology finally came, nearly 150 years after the first Indigenous children were snatched from their families to face abuse and neglect, it drew applause and a few whoops from the thousands of people gathered.
The day was filled with ceremony, including traditional singing and dancing, and included one of the more controversial moments of the visit, when the Pope was gifted with a ceremonial headdress by elder Wilton Littlechild, who also served as commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which heard from hundreds of survivors.
For many, Littlechild said, the apology mattered.
“This has been a journey for many Indigenous peoples who wanted to see this day happen, in tears, sometimes in anger, who said to me, ‘I just want to hear three words from the Pope in front of me, ‘I am sorry,’ for what happened to me as a child,’” Littlechild told ICT. “I was just following their instructions all these years making sure he made that commitment. And sure enough, here we are.”
Soon after Littlechild presented the Pope with the headdress, an unscripted and dramatic moment occurred when a First Nations woman approached the dais and began to sing a powerful song.
Trina Fontaine, who is known as Sih Pi Ko, stood near the bottom step of the stage where the Pope and various dignitaries were sitting. With her fist in the air, she sang in her Cree language a song that sounded very much like the Canadian national anthem. The crowd cheered when she finished singing, and the Pope applauded.
The next day, Si Pih Ko, Cree explained that the song was not the Canadian anthem. The song is yet another example of cultural elements stolen from Indigenous peoples and corrupted by colonizers, she said.
“They use that,” she told ICT. “They tried to translate that song and use it for their anthem. It doesn't belong to them.”
Si Pih Ko, traveled to Alberta from the remote mining town of Thompson, Manitoba, to come face to face with the Pope. “Holding my brother's jacket with me, he would have been right beside me too, yesterday and today,” she said. “Still to this day, there's no answers. And I'm here actually to heal from that.”
She said she wanted to send a message to the chiefs upon the stage as well as the Pope.
“I said, ‘I know who I am. You need to be reminded who you are and not bow down. We're looking for a place to heal, not to kneel,’” she said.
On July 26, the Pope visited Lac Ste. Anne just east of Edmonton to participate and conduct ceremonies at a place that has become a shrine for Indigenous Catholics.
Former Chief Rosanne Casimir of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, previously known as Kamloops Indian Band, was waiting at the waters for the Pope to arrive. She said that as soon as she found out the Pope would not travel to Kamloops she made plans to travel to Lac Ste. Anne.
“I am very honored to be here, to be supporting all our brothers and sisters right on Turtle Island here to visit with the Pope and to witness him here at Ste. Anne’s,” she told ICT as she stood among hundreds pressed against the waist-high, steel fence awaiting the Pope.
“Coming to Lake Ste. Anne is very meaningful,” she said. “And this is something that's very historical, you know, looking around here, all the thousands of First Nations, Indigenous and Métis people that have come together as a family, to come and witness the Holy See come and bless these waters and to also acknowledge who we are.”
Kamloops brought the attention of the world to Canada’s residential school history when the First Nation announced in May 2021 the discovery of anomalies that are believed to be the unmarked graves of 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.
On the day of the apology, Mavis LongJohn sat with her sister at the top of the arbor bleachers where just moments earlier Pope Francis had offered apologies for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential school system.
The crowd was dispersing quickly as the Pope’s helicopter disappeared into the overcast sky on its way back to Edmonton.
LongJohn had traveled from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan to Maskwacis First Nation as part of her own healing journey. She went to the St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, and she carries not only her own story but those of her parents and her late sister.
“I cried,” she told ICT about hearing the Pope’s apology. “I was looking down on the ground because my deceased parents were residential school survivors as well. I had an older sister who passed away in 1996, who is not able to hear what the Pope has said. My mom passed away two weeks ago – she was 91 – and she was unable to experience this event, but hopefully she is looking down from the spirit world.”