Imagine having your childhood stolen from you, separated from your family, from your cultural heritage. Starve you, beat you, even rape you. Let your little brother be buried in an unmarked grave.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
If, decades later, the boss of one of the organizations responsible for your abuse issued an apology, you would probably want that person to speak to you directly. May she take the burden of your suffering on her shoulders and on those of her organization.
It seems elementary.
Unfortunately, Pope Francis does not appear to have received the memo on the art of apology before coming to Canada to meet with residential school survivors.
Still, the opportunity presented to him in Maskwacis, Alta., on Monday was just perfect. The figurehead of the Catholic Church was received on the site of a former boarding school for Aboriginals, which has since become a place of memory.
In the small stadium where the powwows take place, hundreds of victims of Canadian government policy were present for the historic event.
The head of the Canadian government, Justin Trudeau, and the representative of the British Crown in Canada, Governor General Mary Simon, were also on site.
The symbol was strong: the trinity Church-government-colonial power at the heart of the policy of assimilation of Aboriginal children, which will have lasted nearly 100 years, was united in one place.
From the outset, we also knew that the pope ignored his health problems to make this rather arduous journey to Alberta after having canceled two trips to Africa.
The table was set and many were impatiently awaiting this unique moment. Especially since in April we saw the trailer for the upcoming papal trip when the pontiff received a large indigenous delegation at the Vatican. Hot, after hearing testimonies from survivors of residential schools, Pope Francis presented a first series of apologies that one could believe partial. After all, it’s never a bad idea to save some twists for the main performance of the film.
Yesterday, unfortunately, we realized that the essence of the pope’s message – even if it was better wrapped up – remained the same as that already delivered in Rome. And this message excludes the responsibility of the Church with a capital E.
“I ask forgiveness for the way in which many members of the Church and religious communities cooperated, even through indifference, in these projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation of the governments of the time, which resulted to the boarding school system,” the Vatican boss said.
Once again, he cast the blame on the executors of the policies he himself considers “catastrophic”, rather than on the organization which has long presented as its duty the fact of evangelizing the “Indians”.
In his speech, as in April, the pope repeated that he asks forgiveness from God for the actions of “certain” Catholics. “In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and begs his forgiveness for the sins of her children,” he said.
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for the Church to ask forgiveness from the flesh-and-blood survivors rather than beg clemency from the “Supreme Being”?
By taking God to task, isn’t the pope forcing the victims to submit to his religious logic rather than saying loud and clear that, in the context of residential schools, it was human beings who hurt other human beings? That the celestial sphere has nothing to do with it!
Of course, it is first and foremost for residential school survivors themselves to judge the value of the pope’s apology. Many seem to have found comfort in his words yesterday and in his promise to take concrete action. So much the better. Many of them paraded in front of the Holy Father to offer him gifts after his speech.
PHOTO ADAM SCOTTI/OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, VIA REUTERS
A woman in traditional dress singing a version ofO Canada in his native language, during the speech of Pope Francis
But as the ceremony drew to a close, a woman in traditional garb broke the overly polite atmosphere. As tears streamed down her face, she sang a version ofO Canada in his native language. In Cree. In cry from the heart.
Discordant notes which, hopefully, will reframe the pope on the reason for his visit: a pilgrimage of penance obliging him to face the raw suffering of the victims rather than a diplomatic ballet choreographed by or for the penitent.