SASKATOON — Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops president Bishop Raymond Poisson said that the church has learned from its past mistakes during the time of the residential school system and have been living on the pain it caused to the survivors, families and communities of Indigenous people.
Poisson, in a recent interview with Vatican News, said the CCCB issued an apology in September where they expressed extreme sorrow on the past atrocities and abuses committed by members of the clergy and other religious figures against children that attended residential schools. The United Church also issued an apology early this year.
Poisson said that lessons were learned from the past.
“When you are born in a family in the village, we have a saying in French that 'to make the education of the child, we need the village.' It’s important to understand that it's essential to keep this relation between the family, the child, and the community," said Poisson.
“We can pass over that and we are coming from somewhere with the cultural elements, with the language, with the traditions, and that's the richness of the humanity different in the world. So, we learned that there is no place for just one size of people in the world.”
Poisson was in the Vatican a few weeks ago, along with other CCCB members, to meet with Pope Francis to discuss a possible date for the postponed meeting between the 85-year-old Pontiff and representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Métis National Council.
Survivors of Canada’s residential schools that were formerly ran by Catholic nuns and priests, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, youth and selected members of the CCCB are also part of the delegation.
The meeting was originally scheduled from Dec. 17-20 but was postponed due to health concerns caused by the COVID-19’s Omicron variant. Some members of the delegation are over the age of 65 and were at risk of being infected by the virus, which has a higher death rate among people over 65.
“A number of elements are fluid which adds to some of the logistical challenges. The health and safety of our delegates, their families, and the communities we will be returning to is our number one priority. As soon as it is safe to so, we look forward to bringing our stories of the Métis nation over to the Vatican to share with Pope Francis,” said Neil McCarthy in an interview with BCCatholic.ca.
McCarthy is managing the communications for the scheduled Vatican meeting between representatives of various Indigenous communities and the Holy Father.
“Delegation dates are provided by the Vatican. Given the unique circumstances (multiple meetings with the Holy Father in close proximity as well as a final audience with all), there are limited windows available for such a meeting. Rest assured, it is the desire of all partners involved in the delegation to continue with meetings at the Vatican as soon as possible in 2022,” McCarthy added.
Poisson said the final date of the rescheduled audience with the pope is yet to be determined but it is most likely to happen in spring of next year.
“We don’t want to leave without a date. We are in discussion about that and it will be next spring... and this will be the gate that opens the visit of the pope in Canada. The delegation is 30 people chosen by [their respective communities],” said Poisson.
“There’s also another delegation with them, an unofficial one, of more than 150 people who want to come. That’s really a great interest from them to have the opportunity to sit with the Holy Father, [and tell] what is their experience that many of them are official delegates of the survivors of these residential schools. There's also young people who [are] living with this heritage in their conscience.”
Poisson added that the chief is an important leader for Indigenous people the same way that the pope is for the Catholic faithful.
“[The pope] is the great past of his people. The pope can be the brother bishop with the other bishops of Canada. Uniting together in the same apology and recognition of what has happened,” said Poisson.
“He [Pope Francis] can understand more profoundly what their experiences is and to do something to call on the universal church to be, as he said, no more in the system of colonialism [before], from European countries for many years in the history of humanity. Now, we are at another stage and with the eyes of today, we must see the future differently.”
The CCCB also held a National Day of Prayer, which takes place every year on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples with the theme
“We are called to Healing, Forgiveness, Reconciliation: We, the Body of Christ, are called to live in friendship and harmony with all peoples. We are brothers and sisters of our One Creator God. God gives everything to all of us. God creates and sustains the wonderful diversity of peoples, cultures, and creeds.”
Requests for the pope
Leaders of different Indigenous groups, in a separate story on the Catholic Register, said they have different plans if they were given the chance to meet with Pope Francis. Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Roseanne Casimir she would likely ask the pontiff to visit the unmarked grave site discovered in Kamloops, British Columbia.
“That too would be extremely significant to visit this part of Canada and to have that opportunity to meet with the survivors,” said Casimir.
Former AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine said the clear focus is having the pope apologize on Canadian soil, just like what Pope Francis did when he acknowledged that “grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God” when he visited Bolivia in July 2015. St. John Paul II, during a 1992 visit to the Dominican Republic also apologized for the “pain and suffering” caused by the Catholic church in the Americas.
“Nothing would be more important than to have the Pope issue an apology from our homeland. The words we heard from Benedict XVI were expressions of deep regret for the abuse inflicted on First Nations children who attended residential schools,” said Fontaine, a residential school survivor.
Fontaine will be representing the Manitoba chiefs on the trip to the Vatican to meet with the pope. He also led a delegation that met with then Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
He added that circumstances are different now, after their first Vatican trip more than 10 years ago.
“At that point, we were not so disappointed that we didn’t accept those words. But today the circumstances are so different from when we first went to Rome in 2009. We didn’t have the TRC and the Calls to Action. We didn’t have the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We didn’t have the 10 principles of reconciliation (promulgated by the TRC). We didn’t have unmarked graves.”
Fontaine said the delegation is also looking to present a document to Pope Francis when they meet with him, for him to soon address.
“We were thinking he might wish to address that document when he comes to Canada.”
Having the pope issuing an apology to all residential school survivors, their families and their respective communities for the Catholic church’s role is stated in Call to Action #58, as compiled by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.
Politician Norman Yakeleya, another residential school survivor, said he never thought he would have the chance to meet the pope.
“We’re prepared for his arrival on Indigenous land, to welcome him. We hope and say our prayers that he will apologize to the families, to the survivors, as he has done in other countries to the Indigenous peoples,” said Yakeleya.
“Who ever thought that a residential school survivor from Inuvik for seven years, for seven, eight years I spent there, that I would have an opportunity to talk to the chief of the Roman Catholics, the head boss, the head man, the Holy Father. What would I say? ‘You gotta be careful. Prayers come pretty fast and pretty good.’”
The intergenerational trauma brought by the experiences of residential school survivors, their families and communities is what youth delegate Rosalie LaBillois hopes to bring up when she speaks with the pope. LaBillois is co-chair of the AFN National Youth Council.
“That opportunity that I get is something that my grandfather never got. He never got the chance to speak his truth. There are unmentionable things that he could never speak about. Now it’s my opportunity to speak my truth in the hopes that I could do, to the best of my ability, to help represent that youth perspective from across the country, on how we are severely impacted.”
