Another pope’s apology isn’t enough when Catholic Church’s cover-ups and hypocrisy continue to this day

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Former Member

Another pope’s apology isn’t enough when Catholic Church’s cover-ups and hypocrisy continue to this day

As Francis visits Canada, we need to ask: have churches and governments created conditions allowing clergy to continue their sexual abuse of children?

By Pamela Palmater -- Special to the Star -- Sun., July 24, 2022timer6 min. read -- Source -- https://www.thestar.com/opinio...nue-to-this-day.html

The truth is, there have been many apologies issued by many popes.

But as Pope Francis’s visit to Canada begins this weekend, the question to be asked is whether these men have taken substantive actions to end the abuse in which the church they lead has been complicit.

The Catholic Church and its officials have directed, authorized, counselled and/or were complicit in the horrific physical and sexual abuse of children; subjugation, vilification and violence against women; and the deaths of millions of Indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South America and the African continent. According to recent inquiries, that abuse has continued into the present.

For some First Nation, Inuit and Métis survivors, this papal visit to Canada that begins this weekend in Alberta is an important part of their healing journey. For others, the Pope is the last person they want on their territories, as he represents a religious organization that has caused much misery around the world.

In 2017, Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse found that from 1950 into the 1980s, 4,445 victims were sexually abused in a Catholic setting, but not all victims were recorded before 1950. It found that the cover-up of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests and brothers was systemic — a matter of church policy — and abusers were neither reported to the police nor expelled.

Last year, an independent inquiry concluded that there have been more than 216,000 victims of sexual abuse by French Catholic clergy between 1950 and 2020. The church was found to have turned a blind eye to the abuse perpetrated by 3,000 priests and other people involved in the church. The evidence showed that the church was more concerned about protecting its image than preventing the abuse from continuing. Like the situation in Australia, the church did not hold abusers to account. To make matters worse, in some countries, those sexual predators have been left to continue the abuse.

An investigation by The Associated Press in 2019 found that nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church itself considers “credibly accused of child sexual abuse” live under the radar with easy access to children. The investigation revealed that these men are employed as teachers, counsellors, juvenile detention officers, nurses and foster parents, or work in family shelters and even Disney World — roles that keep them disturbingly close to children.

They easily pass fingerprint tests and/or criminal record checks (since they were never prosecuted); not surprisingly, a large number have gone on to commit additional sexual assaults. The fact that the church never held them to account for child sexual abuse is bad enough, but the subsequent cover-up and failure to monitor them now has put countless American children at risk.

The question needs to be asked here in Canada: have churches and governments created the conditions allowing Catholic clergy to continue their sexual abuse of children?

In 2016, the federal government spent over $1.5 million to hire 17 private investigators to identify those believed to have committed sexual abuse at residential schools. More than 5,300 perpetrators were identified, but not for the purposes of criminal prosecution. Instead, they were invited to participate in the hearings related to compensation, but not surprisingly, the vast majority did not accept the invitation.

Of the more than 5,000 sexual predators who abused the majority of 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children in residential schools, a mere fraction have ever faced criminal charges. Fewer than 50 have been convicted; and of those, most spent only months in prison. It begs the question: where are they now — and how many more children have they abused because neither the churches nor law enforcement saw fit to protect children from known sex offenders?

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the Pope’s visit has overshadowed these important questions.

It would be wrong to assume that the legacy of Indian residential schools is about historic or past abuses. There were many horrific abuses in those schools, from medical experimentation and torture to severe beatings and deaths. The many unmarked graves being identified across the country are evidence that the extent of the crimes is far worse than has been reported.

The failure to hold the perpetrators to account — then and now — created an opportunity for the abuse to continue into the present, just as it has in other countries. While not all survivors want criminal prosecutions, some do. But the passage of time permitted by the church and government will have clearly prejudiced their cases. Had Canada created a special prosecution team when they first knew about the abuses, things may have been different — but maybe not, given the change of tactics by the church in other parts of the world.

Churches can now be covered by “church abuse and molestation” liability insurance, which means that any litigation or claims against the church for abuse may well have to face a team of aggressive insurance lawyers. In some areas, the Catholic Church has adopted more aggressive litigation tactics like hiring private detectives to dig up dirt on claimants; engaging large, powerful law firms; fighting to keep documents secret; and/or filing countersuits against parents.

In one case, the Diocese of Honolulu countersued a mother, claiming she failed to protect her children from abusive priests. These actions are clearly meant to dissuade others from bringing forward criminal or civil cases. One Roman Catholic cardinal called out the church for concealing, manipulating and/or destroying documents in an effort to cover up sexual abuse.

In addition to the Catholic Church not sharing all documents related to Indian residential schools in Canada, the federal government destroyed 15 tons of paper documents related to the residential school system between 1936 and 1944. St. Anne’s residential school survivors are still battling Canada in court for the release of documents that detail the abuse they suffered in Fort Albany, Ont.

All of these actions — from hiding documents to failing to prosecute sex offenders — betray government- and church-stated commitments to reconciliation. If either institution wants to engage in substantive reconciliation, it must listen to the survivors, the families and community leaders who have made demands that go beyond carefully worded apologies. There have been many diverse Indigenous voices calling for substantive action in addition to an apology. I believe that all of these actions should be implemented, including, but not limited to the following:

Government and the Catholic Church must take whatever means necessary to stop ongoing sexual abuse of children and take urgent steps to prevent it in the future;

Governments and the church must hold known sexual predators to account;

Governments and the church must contribute whatever funding is necessary to identify the children in unmarked graves across Canada, and support communities to bring them home and/or memorialize them;

All documents related to any aspect of Indian residential schools, day schools and other church activities impacting Indigenous peoples must be released by governments and the church;

Stop fighting St. Anne’s residential school survivors in court;

The church must finally pay its agreed-upon compensation and any additional compensation needed to make full reparations for its crimes and cover-ups related to Indigenous peoples;

All 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be implemented without further delay;

Return lands held by the Catholic Church back to First Nations who desire their return;

Immediately rescind, repeal or withdraw the Doctrine of Discovery (by whatever legal means necessary to give it effect);

Canada should appoint a special prosecutor to bring sexual offenders to justice in a way that does not retraumatize survivors, families and communities;

There should be an independent review of the actions of the church in relation to sexual abuse in Indian residential schools; and

Ensure that known abusers are listed and not permitted to work near children.

Understanding that survivors will each have their own vision of reconciliation, for many, anything less than an apology that includes an unqualified admission of the crimes committed, a full acceptance of responsibility, and a commitment to end the abuse and make full reparations will be just another empty apology and continuing injustice for First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of a residential school experience. Support is available at 1-866-925-4419.

Pamela Palmater is a Mi'kmaw lawyer and currently serves as Professor and Chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University.

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Former Member

I was born in one of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes. I know what it’s like to be wary of a Papal apology

With the Pope coming to Canada to apologize for residential schools, I’m reflecting on the frightening parallels with church-run institutions here in Ireland

Fionn Davenport -- Dublin -- Contributed to The Globe and Mail -- Published Yesterday -- July 24, 2022 -- Source -- https://www.theglobeandmail.co...d-mother-baby-homes/

A pair of infant shoes hang as part of a shrine on the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Ireland on Jan. 13, 2021. From 1921 to 1961, 978 children died at the home. Eighty per cent were less than 12 months old. Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Fionn Davenport is a travel writer and broadcaster based in Dublin.

The keystone of Pope Francis’s visit to Canada this weekend, the first of his pontificate and the first papal visit to the country since 2002, will be his apology to Indigenous communities for the horrors of the residential school system. From my home in faraway Ireland, I’ll be watching the Pope’s visit with interest, and pondering the eerie parallels between what happened in residential schools and the dark events of my own birth. I’ll also be thinking about what an apology can truly mean after so much lasting harm has been done.

The Pope’s trip to Canada builds on the April visit of First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegations to the Vatican, where the leader of the Catholic Church made a deeply personal apology for the harms meted out to Indigenous communities. He expressed “sorrow and shame” and declared, “With all my heart: I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon.”

Pope Francis holds an audience in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace with indigenous delegations from Canada at the Vatican, April 1, 2022.VATICAN MEDIA/Reuters

The anguish he expressed is real and clearly heartfelt. It’s also in keeping with the tenor of his ministry, where he has sought to reposition the papacy as the humble servant of the poor and the marginalized.

It’s also a marked departure from the tone of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who met privately with a delegation of 40 First Nations representatives in 2009 but stopped short of apologizing, instead expressing “sorrow” for harms done and saying that he “prayed that all those affected would experience healing,” encouraging First Nations peoples to “continue to move forward with renewed hope.”

All these years later, there’s a strong sense of “sorry, not sorry” about Pope Benedict’s statement, even if at the time it was well received by the delegations. By contrast, Pope Francis’s “I am very sorry” is an unqualified expression of contrition, and more powerful because of it.

How Pope Francis’s apology will be received by those for whom it is intended depends, of course, on their relationship with their faith, the Catholic Church and the man chosen to be its spiritual leader. To some, it will be enough; for others, it will be too little, too late. Others still will dismiss this weekend’s visit as a carefully orchestrated piece of theatre, and an apology as little more than a bit of sophistry designed to convey contrition while protecting the Church from real scrutiny.

The horrors meted out in Canada’s residential schools bear a disturbing and frightening resemblance to those that occurred in other church-run institutions around the world, including Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes. There were 18 such homes spread across the country, where, for much of the 20th century, young unwed mothers were sent to deliver their babies.

Between 1925 and 1998, 56,000 unmarried women passed through the system, giving birth to roughly 57,000 babies, of which 9,000 are estimated to have died: an infant mortality rate that was double that of the general population. The homes operated a brutal regime of physical and verbal abuse, forced labour, illegal adoptions and unethical vaccine trials, consequences of a barbaric ideology that treated the women as sinners in need of repentance.

These shady homes hid in plain sight and their stories were only revealed when the remains of 800 babies and children were discovered in an unmarked grave at a home run by nuns in Tuam, County Galway.

The site where local historian Catherine Corless believes 796 children, most of them infants, were interred at St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home between 1925 and 1961, in Tuam, Ireland. Photographed on October 18, 2017.Paulo Nunes dos Santos/The New York Times News Service

The gruesome findings prompted the government to establish a commission of investigation. It spent six years producing a 3,000-page report into the Mother and Baby Homes, which was published in January, 2021.

Of the 18 Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland, the largest by far was St Patrick’s on the north side of Dublin, and it is here that my birth mother, Jane, arrived in January, 1968. She was 19, six months pregnant and desperate: Ireland of the 1960s had little tolerance for an unwed mother.

As soon as she arrived, she signed a form declaring that she’d give up her unborn baby for adoption. I was born in April, and the next day Jane changed her mind and told the nuns she wanted to keep me. She was told that this was not possible; she had signed the consent form and that was that.

Fionn Davenport in Dublin in 1969, the year after he was adopted.Handout

It was a cruel and terrible lie. The 1952 Adoption Act specified that the mother’s consent was not valid “unless it is given after the child has attained the age of six months.” Instead of the truth, Jane was told that she was “lucky” the nuns were there to take care of her and her baby. At the root of this callous lie was a doctrine that held that unwed mothers were guilty of a heinous sin and entirely deserving of public rebuke.

Getting pregnant out of wedlock was a sin that was not easily expiated, either: The girls passed the seed of their transgression on to their illegitimate progeny, condemning them in turn to a life of depravity. This grotesque ideology masquerading as a moral code persisted until the early 1960s, or until the liberalizing effects of the Second Vatican Council. By the time I was born, the burden of censure on unwed mothers had lessened, but they were still to be removed from decent society until they had expiated their sin.

The way to do that was to give up your baby for adoption and to work. Jane was spared the for-profit laundry and was tasked with helping take care of the babies in the nursery. Not her own, though: Before adoptions were finalized, contact between mother and baby was strictly controlled and limited to a couple of bottle feeds a day – no breastfeeding allowed.

By the late summer of 1968 I was adopted, delivered into the hands of a grateful couple in the family room of the Catholic Protection & Rescue Society of Ireland’s offices in central Dublin. As it turned out, that grateful couple turned out to be wonderful parents who filled my life with love and opportunity.

Fionn Davenport with his adopted parents, Bernard and Fiamma, in 1969.Handout

I was told of my adoption when I was old enough to understand what it meant. I was told that a young girl had gotten pregnant by accident and, in the ultimate sacrifice of love, gave me to my parents because she knew that they would be able to take care of me better than she could. It was a nice story, expedient in its simplicity and comforting in its lack of ambiguity.

The story became more layered as I grew older, but in essence remained the same. One detail has stayed with me: My mother feared that my birth mother would change her mind within the first six months and take me back.

I was in my 40s when I learnt that the lie told to Jane meant her fears were unfounded. Jane had tracked me down several years earlier and we had been reunited – after several months of exchanging carefully worded letters under the watchful gaze of the adoption authorities – in the same room where I was first presented to my parents. The Catholic Protection & Rescue Society of Ireland had become the much friendlier-sounding Cunamh, the Irish word for “assistance.” Within a few years it was abundantly clear that unwed mothers in Ireland had no need for the assistance of the Church in facilitating adoptions and the agency finally closed in 2019.

By the time Jane and I met, Ireland was largely unrecognizable from the country that had turned its back on her. Attitudes had changed and a more inclusive and tolerant moral wind prevailed. The Celtic Tiger and a closer relationship with the European Union brought prosperity and a sweeping program of liberalizing reforms that resulted in the decriminalization of homosexuality, the legalization of same-sex marriage and the repeal of the 8th Amendment banning abortion, which passed in a referendum by a landslide.

The Catholic Church, once the dominant force in virtually every aspect of Irish life, has been relegated to the sidelines. Multiculturalism and the broadening of Irish horizons have inevitably resulted in the weakening of the Church’s once formidable grip, but it was the devastating revelations of clerical sex abuse and cover-ups that was its ultimate undoing – even for many of an older generation whose piety would have once been unquestioned.

Yet even in these more open times, the hurts of the past linger and the shameful stain of what happened in the Mother and Baby Homes has yet to be properly expunged. And for those who had direct experience of the homes, like Jane and myself, the wounds are not so easily treated.

Reunions are never easy, not even the straightforward ones desired by both parties. Our relationship stuttered tentatively for several years as we both sought to come to terms with the irreparable sense of loss that is at the root of every adoption.

We were mother and son but we were also strangers, devoid of that mammalian bond that is established through the senses at birth. Without it a baby is left disoriented and instinctively all at sea, scrambling for a coping strategy that eventually becomes enmeshed in its neurological system and is characterized primarily by a deep sense of mistrust: I won’t let anyone get too close in case they leave me, or I’ll cling on for dear life to make sure they don’t. Either way, that feeling of mistrust will be a factor in every future relationship.

As we got to know each other better, Jane spoke more freely about her experiences of St Patrick’s. How the girls all knew which nuns to avoid and which ones would treat them with a modicum of humanity. How one nun even allowed her to sneak a few extra visits with me in direct contravention of the rules. How, once I was gone, she was desperate to leave and never again see inside the halls of that terrible place – the experience of which was made worse by individual cruelties but which existed because of a monstrous ideology that demonized the vulnerable and the marginalized.

In 2018, Pope Francis apologized for the consequences of that monstrous ideology. He did so during a two-day visit to Ireland, asking forgiveness for a litany of the Church’s sins, including sexual abuse, forcing vulnerable women to work in laundries and coerced adoptions. Yet his apology rang hollow for many still reeling from the terrible discovery of the babies’ graves in Tuam the year before. Words are fine, went the general consensus, but where’s the action? Where is the retribution?

Relatives and supporters watch on as a vigil is held at the Tuam Mother and Baby home mass burial site in August 2019.Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Three years later, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin delivered another apology to the victims of the Mother and Baby Homes, but his words carried more weight as they came on the back of the report by the commission of investigation. In a powerful speech, he described the prevalent culture that allowed these institutions to exist as a “dark, difficult and shameful chapter of recent Irish history” and spoke of a society that “embraced judgementalism, moral certainty, a perverse religious morality and control which was so damaging.”

“We treated women exceptionally badly,” he continued. “We treated their children exceptionally badly. We had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy and young mothers and their sons and daughters were forced to pay a terrible price for that dysfunction.”

These were powerful words. In my youth I could never have imagined an Irish prime minister being so forthright about the toxic and corrosive influence of the Church’s regressive morality. The dam of angry tears eventually burst when he said, “but what is so striking is the absence of basic kindness.” I could swear there was a quiver in his voice and for a moment he was no longer the Prime Minister but an Irish citizen struggling to deal with the horrors of it all. I just sat on the couch and wept.

I was struck by his highlighting the lack of kindness because that simple truth cuts through all of the rationalizations presented about why these homes – and others like them – were allowed to exist. Kindness is the ultimate expression of our love for God, we were told in school. To this day, I can neither understand nor forgive how generations of nuns and priests could exercise such callous cruelty to the vulnerable and the marginalized in society, in direct contradiction of their vows and how we were taught to perceive them.

In the days that followed the Prime Minister’s apology, whatever feeling of reconciliation I had dissipated and a familiar cynicism returned. It was announced that the archive of evidence on which the report was based – including the testimony of victims – would remain sealed for 30 years, effectively denying survivors proper access to their own records and making it much more difficult for them to hold wrongdoers to account. What made it worse was that in making its decision, the government hadn’t consulted victim advocacy groups, every one of which came out strongly against it. At the root of our dismay was a simple question: How can you begin to repair the damage of the past when you keep some of it shrouded in secrecy?

Even the Pope’s April apology on Canada’s residential schools requires further scrutiny. If you examine the text, he says he’s sorry for the role “of a number of Catholics” rather than the behaviour of the institution itself. By letting a few bad apples carry the blame for the wrongs done to the victims of residential schools, he deftly avoided acknowledging any institutional responsibility.

And therein lies the rub. The mistreatment and abuse in residential schools may have been meted out by individuals but, as in Ireland, they did so because they were following a malignant moral code certain in the knowledge that their superiors approved of their behaviour and would protect them from scrutiny.

And just as ill-treated wounds will continue to fester, without proper scrutiny there can be no real resolution. It is why some residential school survivors want to see a broader apology, as well as the return of Indigenous cultural items in the Vatican collection, open access to all school documents and the full payment of compensation.

Apologies are important. They validate a person’s suffering and offer them the space to heal. They can help deliver a victim from anger, bitterness and pain. But “I’m sorry” alone is never enough: What is said in words must be accompanied in deed. If you express contrition but then try to limit the blame or hide some of the consequences in mealy mouthed rationalizations, then your apology isn’t worth much of anything at all.

Pope Francis at the Vatican on July 2, 2022.REMO CASILLI/Reuters

7/24/223:19 PM

Former Member

Where is Pope Francis going, and who is he meeting, during his 6-day visit to Canada?

Tom Yun CTVNews.ca writer

@thetomyun Contact

Published Sunday, July 24, 2022 7:00AM EDT Last Updated Sunday, July 24, 2022 7:00AM EDT -- Source -- https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/...-to-canada-1.5998598

Pope Francis is set to arrive in Canada on Sunday for a six-day tour, marking the first papal visit to the country in 20 years.

The pope is scheduled to travel to Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit, where he will meet with Indigenous leaders and residential school survivors. He is expected to deliver an apology for the Catholic Church's role in the residential school system.

Here is a full itinerary of the Pope's visit:

SUNDAY JULY 24

Pope Francis is scheduled to land at Edmonton International Airport and attend a welcome ceremony. There will be no events for the rest of the day in order to allow the 85-year-old pontiff to rest.

MONDAY JULY 25

The Pope is set to meet with residential school survivors from across Canada in the morning at Maskwacis, Alta., home to the former Ermineskin Residential School. This is the only residential school visit on the Pope's itinerary.

CTV News Channel and CTVNews.ca will be airing a two-hour special on the Pope's visit to Maskwacis from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT.

Later in the afternoon, the pontiff will return to Edmonton and meet parishioners and Indigenous community members at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples. This church had been known as a space that routinely blends Catholic and Indigenous traditions, and was recently reopened after an accidental fire in 2020.

A live special will air on CTVNews.ca covering the Pope's visit to Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. EDT

TUESDAY JULY 26

Pope Francis will hold an open-air mass at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium with up to 65,000 attendees to mark the Feast of St. Anne, which celebrates the mother of the Virgin Mary, a widely revered figure among Indigenous Catholics. CTVNews.ca will be airing a live special covering the mass from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT.

After the mass, he will travel to the Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage National Historic Site northwest of Edmonton and welcome Indigenous pilgrims from throughout Canada and the United States.

The events at Lac Ste. Anne will also be livestreamed online on CTVNews.ca from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY JULY 27

The Pope will depart for Quebec City, where he will meet Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as Indigenous leaders and other dignitaries at the Citadelle of Quebec

While the meetings at the Citadelle will be private, the public is invited to attend the programs of Indigenous cultural expression at the Plains of Abraham. No tickets will be required for events at the Plains.

Following his meetings at the Citadelle, the Pope will ride through the Plains of Abraham in his Popemobile and greet the public.

The events at the Citadelle and the Plains will be aired in a live special on CTVNews.ca from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. EDT.

THURSDAY JULY 28

Pope Francis will hold a morning mass at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré. The mass will also be broadcast on video screens at the Plains of Abraham. It will also air in a live special on CTVNews.ca from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT.

In the early evening, the Pope will hold a prayer with clergy at the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec.

FRIDAY JULY 29

The day will begin with private meetings at the residence of the Archbishop of Quebec. The Pope will meet with members of the Society of Jesus, a religious order with the Catholic Church more commonly known as the Jesuits.

He will also be meeting with a delegation representing Indigenous people from eastern Canada before flying to Iqaluit.

The Pope will start his tour of Iqaluit with another private meeting with residential school survivors before attending a free public community event hosted by Inuit leaders outside a local elementary school.

Pope Francis is set to fly back to Rome later that evening.

“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. Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am sorry,” said the Pope in his official apology on Monday.

Pope Francis' apology: Read the full speech

"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools," he continued.

A wave of applause rose among the crowd of Indigenous community members and residential school survivors as the Pope delivered his apology.

Among the symbolic gestures of the ceremony: the Pope returned the children-sized moccasins that were given to him at the Vatican meeting with First Nations delegations in March. He said the moccasins served him for the past four month as a reminder of his sense of “sorrow, indignation and shame.”

The Pope was also given a headress to wear by community members following ceremonial signing and drumming.

This apology comes more than seven years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its calls to action. The 58th call to action from the commission called upon the Pope to issue an apology on Canadian soil for the Catholic Church's role in the residential school system.

Pressure on the Pope to come to Canada and issue an apology had been mounting after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops B.C. last year, which was followed by similar discoveries at numerous other former residential school sites across the country.

Pope Francis said his visit would not take him to all communities he received an invitation to but acknowledged the pain felt across all Indigenous communities across Canada.

“Know that I am aware of the sufferings and traumas, the difficulties and challenges, experienced by the Indigenous peoples in every region of this country. The words that I speak throughout this penitential journey are meant for every native community and person. I embrace all of you with affection,” he said.

Pope Francis quoted writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in addressing the emotional toll many community members and survivors were feeling; emphasizing the importance for non-Indigenous people to learn and remember Canada's dark history as to not become indifferent to it.

"Yet it is right to remember, because forgetfulness leads to indifference and, as has been said, 'the opposite of love is not hatred, it’s indifference… and the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference,'" he said.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children attended the residential school system, mostly by force, from the late 1800s to 1996.

Of the 139 schools in the system, more than half had been run by the Catholic Church. The commission estimates that approximately 4,100 to 6,000 children died amid abuse and neglect while in the residential school system.

Pope Francis also called for formal investigations to be conducted into what occurred in these residential schools as the apology only symbolizes the first step in the reconciliation process.

"An important part of this process will be to conduct a serious investigation into the facts of what took place in the past and to assist the survivors of the residential schools to experience healing from the traumas they suffered," he said.

___

If you are a former residential school survivor in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

7/25/224:26 PM

Former Member

Pope's apology doesn't acknowledge church's role as 'co-author' of dark chapter: Murray Sinclair

Apology fails to recognize 'full role of the church in the residential school system,' former senator says

Rachel Bergen · CBC News · Posted: Jul 26, 2022 2:03 PM CT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago -- Source -- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...pe-apology-1.6532525

Former senator Murray Sinclair was the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2009 to 2015. He says the apology the Pope delivered Monday for the role Catholics played in Canada's residential school system was lacking. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)

The former Manitoba senator who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada says there's a "deep hole" in the apology issued by Pope Francis Monday for the role Catholics played in Canada's residential school system.

Murray Sinclair says the historic apology, although meaningful to many residential school survivors and their families, fell short of Call to Action 58 in the final report.

It specifically called on the Pope to issue an apology "for the Roman Catholic Church's role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools."

In a written statement Tuesday, Sinclair said the intent was that survivors would not only hear remorse, "but an acceptance of responsibility for what they were put through at the hands of the church and other institutions."

While he called it a "historic apology," he said the Pope's statement "has left a deep hole in the acknowledgement of the full role of the church in the residential school system, by placing blame on individual members of the church."

Pope Francis delivered the apology Monday in Alberta at the site of the former Ermineskin residential school, one of the largest in Canada, as he started what he called his "penitential pilgrimage."

A man covers his face with his hand.

Pope Francis bows his head during a service at the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton on Monday as part of his papal visit across Canada. He apologized for the role of many Christians in residential schools, which doesn't go far enough, says Sinclair. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities co-operated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools," he said.

Sinclair said it's important to highlight that the Catholic Church was not just an agent of the state, but "a lead co-author of the darkest chapters in the history of the land."

Pope's residential school apology prompts mixed emotions from Manitoba survivors

'We won't forget': Manitoba residential school survivors respond to Pope Francis' apology

Sinclair says Catholic leaders who were driven by the Doctrine of Discovery — a 15th-century papal edict that justified colonial expansion by allowing Europeans to claim Indigenous lands as their own — as well as other church beliefs and policies enabled the government of Canada, and pushed it further in its work to commit what the TRC called the cultural genocide carried out on Indigenous people in Canada.

That was often "not just a collaboration, but an instigation," he said.

"There are clear examples in our history where the church called for the government of Canada to be more aggressive and bold in its work to destroy Indigenous culture, traditional practices and beliefs," Sinclair's statement said.

"It was more than the work of a few bad actors — this was a concerted institutional effort to remove children from their families and cultures, all in the name of Christian supremacy."

Time for action

Sinclair says reconciliation requires action, and the Catholic Church must work to assist in restoring culture, beliefs and traditions destroyed through assimilation.

"For the children and descendants of survivors, it is not enough that you have stopped abusing them," he said. Rather, the church must help them recover, and "as well as commit to never doing this again."

Students and staff at the Fort Alexander residential school are shown in an archival photo. Sinclair says there are clear examples in Canadian history where the Church called for the government of Canada to be more aggressive in its work to destroy Indigenous culture, traditional practices and beliefs. (National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation archives)

The Pope will continue his pilgrimage throughout the week to meet with First Nations, Métis and Inuit survivors in Quebec and Nunavut. Sinclair hopes the pontiff will take his words to heart.

"There is a better path that the church — and all Canadians — can indeed follow: taking responsibility for past actions and resolving to do better on this journey of reconciliation."

Pope Francis apologizes for forced assimilation of Indigenous children at residential schools

'I am deeply sorry': Full text of residential school apology from Pope Francis

Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools or by the latest reports.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Bergen

Reporter

Rachel Bergen is a journalist for CBC Manitoba and previously reported for CBC Saskatoon. Email story ideas to rachel.bergen@cbc.ca.

7/26/228:32 PM

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