ROME – The leader of the national organization representing the Inuit people says he had a meeting with the head of a Catholic order in Rome to discuss the case of a priest accused of crimes against children in Nunavut.
“I hope the faith of the Catholic Church dictates that they cooperate with us in the event of serious allegations of sexual abuse, especially sexual abuse of minors,” said Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
Obed said he had an hour-long meeting Thursday with Louis Lugen, Mary Immaculate’s senior general of the Missionary Oblates, to discuss the church’s responsibility to ensure that Johannes Rivoire is tried in Canada.
The meeting took place after Obed asked Pope Francis during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday to personally intervene in Rivoir’s case.
“I imagine this is a great request from the Pope, but that was the whole point of the request,” Obed said.
“The Pope is someone who has extraordinary powers over and beyond the power we have tried to work overtime in this matter.”
An arrest warrant has been issued across Canada in February for Rivoire, who is in his 90s and lives in Lyon, France. The Nunavut RCMP said police received a complaint last year about sexual assaults that allegedly occurred about 47 years ago.
Rivoire was in Canada from the early 1960s until 1993, when he returned to France.
An arrest warrant was also issued for him in 1998. He faced at least three counts of sexual abuse in the Nunavut communities of Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Naujaat. More than two decades later, the charges were dropped.
The Canadian Public Prosecutor’s Office said at the time that it was partly due to France’s reluctance to extradite.
Obed said he was told that Lugen had personally contacted the priest and that Rivoar had refused to follow an instruction to return to Canada.
Lugen vowed to work with the Inuit to seek justice in the case, although no details were given, Obed added.
On Friday, Obed was among the indigenous delegates who attended the last meeting with the Pope at the Vatican. In a historic apology, Francis said he deeply regrets the role of the church in residential schools in Canada. He also asked for God’s forgiveness for the deplorable behavior of the church members.
“I think we are in a time when the eyes of Canada and the world are on this particular meeting, a papal apology, and we also understand more about what happened and the fact that justice was not possible for the victims. Said Obed.
“I think it forces the Catholic Church to act.”
Earlier in the week, Obed asked the pope to speak directly with Rivoir and ask him to go to Canada to face the charge. Obed also asked the Pope to ask France to intervene if Rivoir was not receptive.
The leader of the Canadian Oblate, Ad. Ken Thorson, also sent a letter to Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti, offering the religious order cooperation in any investigation.
Inuit leaders and politicians, from senators to Nunavut prime ministers, have continued to urge the priest to stand trial. These calls have increased with the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools run by the Catholic Church.
Piita Irniq, an Inuit elder who has been fighting for more than a decade for Rivoire to return to Canada, said there are at least six Inuit still alive and they claim Rivoire abused them.
“There has been a lot of press and a lot of discussion, so I think the people I spoke to are very optimistic,” Irniq said earlier this week.
“It looks more like justice.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on April 2, 2022.
– With archives from Bob Weber in Edmonton
