“While the time for recognition, apology and atonement is long overdue, it is never too late to do the right thing,” Cassidy Caron, chairwoman of the Metis National Council, told reporters in St. Peter’s Square after the hearing. This week’s meetings, which have been postponed since December due to the pandemic, are part of the Canadian church and government’s efforts to meet the demands of Indigenous people for justice, reconciliation and reparations – long-standing demands that gained traction last year outside some schools. More than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools from the 19th century to the 1970s in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture and to Christianize and assimilate them into mainstream society. , like previous Canadian governments considered superior. Francis spent several hours this week meeting privately with the Metis and Inuit delegations on Monday and the First Nations on Thursday, with a mental health counselor in the room for each session. Delegates then gather on Friday as a group for a more formal audience, with Francisco giving a speech. Monday’s meetings included prayers in the Metis and Inuit languages and other gestures of deep symbolic significance. The Inuit delegation carried a traditional oil lamp, or qulliq, which was lit each time the Inuit gathered and remained lit in the pope’s library throughout the meeting. The Inuit representatives gave Francisco a theft of seal leather and a seal rosary case. The Metis offered Francisco a pair of moccasins with red beads, “a sign of the willingness of the Metis people to forgive if there is substantial action by the church,” the group explained. The red dye “represents that, although Pope Francis does not wear the traditional red papal shoes, he walks with the legacy of those who came before him, the good, the great and the terrible.” In a statement, the Vatican said each meeting lasted about an hour “and was characterized by the pope’s desire to hear and leave room for the painful stories brought by the survivors.” The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse has been rampant in schools, with students being beaten for speaking their mother tongue. This legacy of this abuse and isolation from the family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a major cause of epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction in Canadian reservations. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Catholic missionary churches. Last May, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced the discovery of 215 graves near Kamloops, British Columbia, found using ground penetration radar. It was the largest Indigenous residential school in Canada, and the discovery of the tombs was the first of many similar gloomy sites throughout the country. Caron said Francis listened intently Monday as three of Metis’s many survivors told him their personal stories of home school abuse. The pope showed regret, but did not immediately apologize. Speaking in English, she repeated what Caron had said she had emphasized in her remarks: truth, justice and healing. “I take this as a personal commitment,” said Caron, surrounded by Metis violinists accompanying her to the square. He said what should follow is an apology recognizing the damage done, the return of indigenous objects, the commitment to facilitate prosecutions against abusive priests and access to church school records. Canadian Bishop Raymond Poisson, who is chairing the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, has insisted the Vatican does not have such records, saying they are more likely to be held by individual religious orders in Canada or at their headquarters in Rome. Even before the tombs were discovered, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada specifically called for a papal apology on Canadian soil for the church’s role in the abuses. Francis has promised to travel to Canada, although no date has been announced for such a visit. “Above all, reconciliation requires action. And we still need very specific action from the Catholic Church, “said Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, who led the Inuit delegation. He cited the compensation the Canadian church has been ordered to pay, access to archives to understand the extent of the insignificant tombs, and Francis himself to help bring justice to the victims of a Catholic Oblate priest, the priest Johannes Rivoire. , accused of multiple cases of sexual abuse currently living in France. “Often as Inuit we feel weak over time to correct the mistakes we have made,” Obed said. “We are incredibly resilient and we are great at forgiving; but we continue to seek lasting respect and the right to self-determination and recognition of this right by the institutions that have harmed us.” As part of settling a lawsuit involving the government, churches and some 90,000 surviving students, Canada has paid billions of dollars in compensation to indigenous communities. The Catholic Church, for its part, has paid more than $ 50 million and now plans to add an additional $ 30 million over the next five years. The Metis delegation made it clear to Francis that the ecclesiastical school system and the forced eviction of children from their homes facilitated the Canadian authorities’ ability to seize indigenous lands, while also teaching Metis children “that they should not love this “They want to be like Metis,” said Caron. “Our kids came home hating what they were, hating their language, hating their culture, hating their tradition,” Caron said. “They did not have love. But our survivors are so resilient. They learn to love “. The Argentine pope is no stranger to apologizing for his own mistakes and what he called “crimes” of the institutional church. During a visit to Bolivia in 2015, he apologized for the sins, crimes, and offenses committed by the church against Indigenous peoples during the colonial conquest of America. In Dublin, Ireland, in 2018, he offered a sweeping apology to those who have been sexually and physically abused for generations. That same year, he met privately with three Chilean sexual abuse survivors whom he had discredited by arguing with a bishop who he accused of covering up their abuse. In a series of meetings that echo those now taking place for the Canadian delegates, Francis listened and apologized.
