SASKATOON — Archbishop Donald Bolen of the Diocese of Regina is leading a five-part reflection video series to prepare for the Canadian delegation to its historic meeting with Pope Francis next week — set from Dec. 17 to 20 at the Vatican.
Thirteen representatives from the Assembly of First Nations, led by former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild, will be part of the delegation that also includes Inuit and Métis leaders—Elders, Knowledge Keepers, residential school survivors, youth, and some members of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bolen, in his video reflection message on the Second Sunday of Advent, said past stories that were heard through the Truth and Reconciliation process are asking us — indirectly — to change and inviting everyone to help prepare for healing and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples like the way the faithful are preparing to welcome Christ in their lives.
“In the truth and reconciliation listening process, we heard of many who sowed in tears and went forth weeping, hurt in residential schools. Tears flowed from their eyes as parents had their little children forcibly taken from their arms. Tears flowed from the children’s eyes when the clothes which had been specially bought for them by their parents or grandparents were stripped off them and replaced by a drab uniform. Tears flowed when these children had their precious and even sacred braids unceremoniously chopped from their heads and thrown into the garbage. Tears flowed when these very young children were punished for wetting their beds, or for speaking their Indigenous language, the only language they knew,” said Bolen.
“Tears flowed when these children saw their classmates get very sick and die alone so far away from home. Tears flowed from their eyes when these children tried to fall asleep at night but could not, because the mush they were given to eat left them so hungry. Tears flowed at night when the lights went out and they were overwrought with a deep loneliness for home. Tears flowed when they or their classmates suffered physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual or sexual abuse. Tears flowed when out of desperation they ran away from that institution only to find themselves all alone, not knowing the way home to where they had longed and hoped to be hugged by their mothers, fathers and grandparents. As the psalmist says to us today, they went out weeping.”
He added the stories of the experiences and suffering of Indigenous Peoples during years spent in the residential school system is one way of resolving their strained relations with the Catholic church.
“We need to hear those voices of suffering, and the voices of those experiencing intergenerational trauma. God has heard the suffering. And God wants us to hear that suffering too, and to open our hearts to it.”
Bolen then mentioned what Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said this year that we all need to take to heart: “You know, in 2021, we all inherited this. Nobody today created residential schools. Nobody today created the Indian Act. Nobody today created the Sixties Scoop. But we all inherited this.”
Boden said everyone can do their part in healing and reconciliation.
“Saint Paul said, ‘when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer.’ And the prophet Joel said, ‘rend your hearts.’ Let our hearts be broken open in listening to the waves of suffering. And let that move us communally to repent, to change, to action in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, that we might walk together in building a future full of hope, where we carry each other’s burdens, where they are lighter because we walk together.”
“Let us ask the Creator, to guide our present steps as the Indigenous delegation prepares to travel to Rome to meet Pope Francis. Let us ask the Spirit for the gift of healing, that those who went forth weeping, carrying seeds to be sown, might one day come back rejoicing. Let us ask Mohawk Saint Kateri Tekakwitha to accompany us in preparing the way of justice, the way of the Lord.”
Bolen, in a separate statement, is also inviting everyone to ponder on the role of the treaties signed with the First Nations People. “Treaties numbered in what is now Western Canada were signed beginning in 1871 promised tracts of land, annuities, the right to hunt, trap and fish, schools and teachers to educate children, and a new way to make a living through agriculture.
In these treaties, First Nations Peoples did not sell or give up their rights to the land and territories. They agreed to share custodial responsibility and stewardship for the land entrusted to them by the Creator to whom the land ultimately belonged. Several of the treaties included the understanding that they would be in place “as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the waters flow.”
Dene Regional Chief Norman Yakeleya, in a recent press conference, said the AFN delegation will use their one-hour meeting with Pope Francis in making known their heavy burden and to also raise the hope of nations.
“Our hope is that this visit and a potential visit from the Pope on our home territories will provide some measure of dignity and respect to the survivors and the intergenerational survivors of the residential schools,” Yakeleya said in the Catholic Register.
The AFN delegation will be meeting with the pontiff on Dec. 20 while Inuit delegates are scheduled on Dec. 17 and the Métis representatives on Dec. 18. The meeting will have at least three sessions where it is expected the Holy Father will be spending an hour or more to listen to the stories, and continue the path of healing and reconciliation.
“This trip has been a long time coming. We seek to hear the words on our lands by the Pope. We seek justice. It is only then that we can begin walking truly on the healing path of reconciliation. I also ask every Canadian to stand with First Nations as we continue this painful but important work,” added Yakeleya.
AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald will not join the trip and asked Yakeleya to lead their delegation. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed and Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron will lead their respective delegations.
