Pope Francis asked “humbly for forgiveness for the evil committed by many Christians against Indigenous peoples” during his visit to Maskwacis, Alberta. The visit to Aboriginal lands by the sovereign pontiff, as well as his apologies, bears a historic allure, although they do not reach the heights of perfection hoped for.
Opinions are divided, the day after François’ visit to the site of the former Ermineskin boarding school, which was one of the largest in Canada. Some are pleasantly surprised that he went so far in the act of contrition and that he made the trip to Canada despite his precarious health and his many commitments. Others believe that he should have gone further on the path of repentance, recognizing the institutional responsibility of the Church in the physical and sexual abuse committed against a certain number of the approximately 150,000 indigenous children torn from their families to be placed in boarding schools. Just over 4,000 of them died there, often without their parents being informed. Two-thirds of these establishments were run by the Roman Catholic Church, the latest of all to apologize for its past mistakes.
Real machines for crushing the soul, the culture, the languages and the native traditions, the boarding schools were at the heart of a strategy of assimilation made possible by the stranglehold of the Roman Catholic Church on social and educational questions, an ethnocentrism unbridled, a disruption of the idea of progress by a British colonial empire escaping any form of questioning. It is indeed a cultural genocide that we are talking about, an insidious and poisoned heritage that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has had the courage and the lucidity to name.
In this perspective, Pope Francis stopped on the way. It was not residential school survivors and their family members that he asked for forgiveness, but a merciful God. While acknowledging the participation of Christians in what he called “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation” by the governments of the time, he did not refer to cultural genocide. He blamed the punishment and deprivation indigenous children suffered on individuals within the Church, not even mentioning sexual abuse. In matters of sexual assault, however, the institution is founded on a base of denial, blindness and camouflage that is cracking today under the weight of demands for compensation from victims, which are found among both Aboriginal and among foreigners. Yes, the Church still has a long way to go before it recognizes that it was not just a cog, but an engine in the oppression of Indigenous peoples.
In his defense, Francis is an atypical pope within a viscerally conservative Church. It is far from certain that his progressive and reforming aims will survive his pontificate. Aims that unfortunately do not extend to half of humanity, because with regard to the place of women, the Church remains a crumbling bastion of patriarchy, as illustrated in our platforms Denise Couture, associate professor at the Institute of Religious Studies of the University of Montreal.
The pope at least put words to the evil of residential schools: the erosion of Indigenous values, languages and traditions, cultural destruction, forced assimilation, church support for colonialism. He also acknowledged that suffering continues within communities. Residential school survivors, who in turn became parents and grandparents, passed on to future generations a process of filiation marked by loss, pain and grief. We cannot repair centuries of oppression and injustice in a speech of a few minutes.
The pope’s apologies are no less important. They were pronounced on indigenous ancestral territory, as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For the occasion, the pope was immersed in the native culture and traditions that the Church helped to eradicate, a strong symbol, if there ever was one.
Such a significant demonstration of contrition and admission of wrongs, even if it remains incomplete, would have been unthinkable under the pontificate of a Benedict XVI or a John Paul II. Pope Francis’ apology thus marks a milestone in reconciliation efforts with Indigenous peoples. For them, this is one more step on the long road to recovery. The pope will be leaving in a few days. It is up to civil society and its elected leaders in Quebec and Ottawa to build relationships with Aboriginal peoples based on respect, equality and reciprocity.