In the last year, the remains of hundreds of children who fell victim to the inhumane conditions in Catholic boarding schools have been discovered. Now the Pope has given in to the increasing pressure and apologized to the “First Nations” in the Canadian town of Maskwacis.
Pope Francis before his speech in Maskwacis in the presence of chiefs of the various First Nations.
Finally, the Pope has apologized to the Canadian indigenous people. “I am deeply sorry for the evil that was done to you,” Francis said in front of 4,000 Canadian indigenous people. “On my knees I beg your forgiveness.” Many present burst into tears at these words. The Pope’s moving speech was repeatedly interrupted by applause.
Late inspection of the church
Francis spoke of the “devastating policy of assimilation and disenfranchisement” and of the “colonial mentality that many Christians supported”. He recalled the visit of an indigenous delegation to Rome and how the visitors had given him children’s moccasins as a painful testimony of the defenseless victims. At the time, he promised to bring her back. At the end of the speech, he turned it over to the Chiefs. He also said he understands people who won’t settle for an apology. “Ask for forgiveness is not the end point, but the beginning.”
It had actually been known for many years what a great injustice the Catholic Church had committed to the “First Nations” with the boarding schools it ran, but for a long time the Vatican refused to face up to this dark chapter. As early as 2009, representatives of the indigenous peoples visited the then Pope Benedict XVI.
But it apparently took last summer’s scandal when the remains of hundreds of students who had been buried anonymously at the time were found on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. As a result, the remains of countless children were discovered in other such schools, which also received international media coverage. It was mentioned again and again that the Vatican stubbornly refused to officially admit any guilt – in contrast to the Canadian government, which paid billions in reparations to the survivors and bereaved. Francis thanked those present for opening his eyes to reality.
He kept his promise
In March of this year, Pope Francis received a delegation of Canadian indigenous people in Rome; the pontiff took this opportunity to express his shame at what had happened. But representatives urged him to travel to Canada to apologize locally to the bereaved, and he promised to come.
At the end of the speech, representatives of the Cree put a traditional feather headdress on the pope.
So now the time had come. The Pope arrived in Edmonton on Sunday and continued on Monday to Maskwacis, Alberta, where he attended the former Ermineskin Residential School, one of Canada’s largest indigenous schools. Most of the Indigenous boarding schools were in Alberta. Delegations from various First Nations as well as representatives of the Inuit and the Métis received Francis, thousands of indigenous people from all over the country had traveled, including many former students and survivors of students. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also present.
Thousands did not survive the schools
The next stops on the six-day papal trip are Quebec City and Iqaluit in the province of Nunavut, where Francis will meet representatives of the Inuit. There he will be confronted with another accusation: that the Catholic Church covers up for pedophile priests. In particular, it is about a priest accused of child abuse who lives safely in France. The Pope will be asked to intercede for his extradition.
From 1840 until the last boarding school closed in 1996, around 150,000 children were separated from their indigenous families and taken to boarding schools where their own culture was to be expelled from them. They were forbidden from using their mother tongue, under penalty of punishment. About 6,000 children died as a result of draconian corporal punishment, malnutrition and medical neglect. Often the parents were not even informed about the deaths. Sexual abuse by fathers, monks and nuns was also widespread. Girls who became pregnant were given abortions—sometimes as young as eight months.
Many indigenous people have long since turned their backs on the church
Many indigenous people give him credit for the fact that the 85-year-old Pope is now taking on the hardships of this journey despite his poor health. He himself spoke of a “pilgrimage of penitence”.
But there are also skeptics. So Francis spoke of the pain he felt at the role that various Catholics had played in the abuses. This is trivialization. It was not about individual misconduct, but about the Catholic Church in Canada as a whole making itself the executor of a cultural genocide, according to a national investigative report. From the point of view of the church, the indigenous people were pagans who had to be converted and saved, if necessary by force. A reappraisal of this strategy shakes the foundations of Catholicism; it is about a systemic failure and not about the moral failings of some individuals. Despite all the excuses, the Pope is ultimately the embodiment of this system.
In this respect, the apology comes far too late, especially for many young indigenous people. They may still be officially Catholics, but inwardly they have long since separated from the Church, which, contrary to its Christian promise, did not stand up for the weakest but betrayed them.