Indigenous people were touched by Pope Francis’ listening this week, but are asking for more Church involvement in reparations.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
“I see progress since my first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in 2009,” Phil Fontaine, former Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), said in a press conference after a two-hour meeting of the AFN with the Pope on Thursday. “It is important that the Church ask forgiveness for the suffering it caused in residential schools and recognize the resilience of First Nations. But the Catholic Church must provide appropriate compensation. »
Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), made a similar speech at a press conference after the meeting of the Inuit delegation with the pope on Monday. “There is a gap between the Catholic Church’s commitments and what was done under the 2006 compensation agreement,” Obed said.
The Métis, for their part, complained that they had been excluded from the compensation agreements. “I call on the pope to create a Métis compensation fund, which would be administered by the Métis,” said Mitchell Case, an Ontario historian who is part of the Métis political delegation, at a press conference Monday. The two meetings on Monday, with the Métis and the Inuit, lasted an hour because the delegations had two to three times fewer participants than that of the AFN.
PHOTO BY RICCARDO DE LUCA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada was also part of the delegation that was in Rome this week.
The three delegations asked the pope to apologize during his trip to Canada, scheduled for this summer. Mandy Gull-Masty, of Waswanipi, who is chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, wished at a press conference Thursday that these apologies be presented at the site of a former boarding school for Aboriginals.
The Catholic Church, more specifically the religious communities involved in the Indian residential school system, has already paid more than 50 million in this file. The 2006 pledge called for fundraising from the faithful with a target of 25 million, which only resulted in 3.7 million. A new collection of 30 million was announced in September and the Canadian Church has undertaken to pay this sum regardless of the amounts paid by the faithful.
Former boarders
A former student of residential schools for Aboriginals, Martha Craig of Kuujjuaq, testified at a press conference Monday that she was touched by the Pope’s welcome. “He stood in the doorway and greeted everyone,” Ms.me Craig. We need forgiveness from both sides to heal. When we do not forgive, we are cheated from within. »
The visit of the three delegations, who will meet the Pope together on Friday noon for the last time, was not unanimous, according to a Cree journalist who asked Mr.me Gull-Masty to comment on these tensions.
“I spoke about it with the other delegates, replied Mr.me Gull-Masty also in Cree and English. They also had to deal with people who questioned this trip. I feel like we’re doing the right thing for the survivors [des pensionnats]. The pope’s message today reflected a genuine sense of community with First Nations. His strongest comment was his pain and shame at the devastation of the colonial system. »