Edmonton (Alberta): Pope Francis began a terrible journey for Canada to apologize on sunday indigenous Reaching out to people abused by missionaries in residential schools is an important step in the Catholic Church’s efforts to reconcile with native communities and help them heal from the traumas of generations.
Francis flew from Rome to Edmonton, Alberta, where his welcome party included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary May Simon, an Inuk, who is Canada’s first indigenous governor general. Francis had no official schedule scheduled for Sunday, giving him time to rest ahead of his meeting on Monday with survivors near the site of a former residential school in Maskavasis, where he is expected to offer an apology.
On the pope’s plane, Francis told reporters it was an “atonement visit” and urged special prayers for elderly people and grandparents.
Indigenous groups are looking for more than just words, however, as they press for access to the church’s archives to learn the fate of children who never return home from schools. They also want justice for the abusers, financial compensation and the return of indigenous artifacts held by them. Vatican archive.
George Arcand Jr., Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six, said: “This apology validates our experiences and creates an opportunity for the Church to improve relations with indigenous peoples around the world.” But he insisted: “It doesn’t end here – there’s a lot to be done. It’s just a beginning.”
Francis’ week-long trip – which will take him to Edmonton; Iqaluit, Nunavut in Quebec City and finally the far north – follows meetings held in the spring at the Vatican with delegations from the First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Those meetings culminated with an April 1 historic apology for the “disappointing” abuses committed by some Catholic missionaries in residential schools.
The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was widespread in government-aided Christian schools operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. About 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to separate from the influences of their homes, native languages and cultures and participate in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian Christian society.
then prime minister Stephen Harper In 2008 issued a formal apology for residential schools. As part of a settlement of the lawsuit involving the government, churches and approximately 90,000 surviving students, Canada paid compensation that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to indigenous communities. The Catholic Church of Canada says its diocese and religious orders have provided more than $50 million in cash and in-kind contributions, and is expected to add another $30 million over the next five years.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for an apology from the Pope on Canadian soil in 2015, but it was only in 2021 that the Vatican campaigned for it after the discovery of the possible remains of nearly 200 children at a former Kamloops residential school in British Columbia. . Follow up on request.
“I honestly believe that if it weren’t for the discovery … and all the spotlight that was placed on the Oblates or even the Catholic Church, I don’t think any of this would have happened,” said Raymond Frogner, of Truth and Chief archivist at the National Center for Reconciliation.
Frogner had just returned from Rome, where he spent five days at the headquarters of the Missionary Oblates of Mary the Immaculate, which operated 48 of the 139 Christian-run residential schools, the most of any Catholic order. After the tombs were discovered, the Oblates eventually offered “full transparency and accountability” and allowed them to research the names of alleged sexual abusers from a school in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan at their headquarters, he said.
While there, he found 1,000 black-and-white photographs of schools and their students with inscriptions on the back, which he said would be valuable to survivors and their families hoping to find traces of their loved ones. He said Oblates agreed on a joint project to digitize the photos and make them available online.
The Inuit community, for its part, is seeking Vatican aid to extradite a single oblate priest, Rev. Jones Rivoire, who served Inuit communities in the 1990s and returned to France. Canadian authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in 1998 on multiple counts of sexual abuse, but it was never executed.
Inuit leader Natan Obed personally sought the Vatican’s help with Francis’ extradition to Rivoire, telling the Associated Press in March that it was a specific thing the Vatican could do to recover many of its victims.
When asked about the request, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said last week that he had no knowledge of the matter.
At a news conference in Edmonton on Saturday, organizers said they would do everything they could to enable school survivors to attend papal events, in particular for the Masquess pardon and Tuesday’s gathering in Lac Ste. Anne has long been a popular pilgrimage site for indigenous Catholics.
Both are in rural areas, and organizers are arranging shuttle transportation to and from various park-and-ride lots. He notes that many survivors are now elderly and frail and may need accessible vehicular transportation, diabetes-friendly snacks and other services.
The Rev. Cristino Bouvet, the national liturgical coordinator for the Pope’s visit, which is partly of indigenous heritage, said he hoped the visit is healing for those who have suffered “a wound, a cross that they have suffered.” , in some cases for generations.”
Bouvet, a priest in the Diocese of Calgary, said the pope would have strong indigenous representation at religious events – including prominent roles for indigenous clergy and the use of motifs on native languages, music and liturgical costumes.
Bouvet said he was doing this in honor of his “kokum”, the Cree word for grandmother, who spent 12 years at a residential school in Edmonton. She “might never have imagined after many years that her grandson would be involved in this work”.
Francis flew from Rome to Edmonton, Alberta, where his welcome party included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary May Simon, an Inuk, who is Canada’s first indigenous governor general. Francis had no official schedule scheduled for Sunday, giving him time to rest ahead of his meeting on Monday with survivors near the site of a former residential school in Maskavasis, where he is expected to offer an apology.
On the pope’s plane, Francis told reporters it was an “atonement visit” and urged special prayers for elderly people and grandparents.
Indigenous groups are looking for more than just words, however, as they press for access to the church’s archives to learn the fate of children who never return home from schools. They also want justice for the abusers, financial compensation and the return of indigenous artifacts held by them. Vatican archive.
George Arcand Jr., Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six, said: “This apology validates our experiences and creates an opportunity for the Church to improve relations with indigenous peoples around the world.” But he insisted: “It doesn’t end here – there’s a lot to be done. It’s just a beginning.”
Francis’ week-long trip – which will take him to Edmonton; Iqaluit, Nunavut in Quebec City and finally the far north – follows meetings held in the spring at the Vatican with delegations from the First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Those meetings culminated with an April 1 historic apology for the “disappointing” abuses committed by some Catholic missionaries in residential schools.
The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was widespread in government-aided Christian schools operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. About 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to separate from the influences of their homes, native languages and cultures and participate in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian Christian society.
then prime minister Stephen Harper In 2008 issued a formal apology for residential schools. As part of a settlement of the lawsuit involving the government, churches and approximately 90,000 surviving students, Canada paid compensation that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to indigenous communities. The Catholic Church of Canada says its diocese and religious orders have provided more than $50 million in cash and in-kind contributions, and is expected to add another $30 million over the next five years.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called for an apology from the Pope on Canadian soil in 2015, but it was only in 2021 that the Vatican campaigned for it after the discovery of the possible remains of nearly 200 children at a former Kamloops residential school in British Columbia. . Follow up on request.
“I honestly believe that if it weren’t for the discovery … and all the spotlight that was placed on the Oblates or even the Catholic Church, I don’t think any of this would have happened,” said Raymond Frogner, of Truth and Chief archivist at the National Center for Reconciliation.
Frogner had just returned from Rome, where he spent five days at the headquarters of the Missionary Oblates of Mary the Immaculate, which operated 48 of the 139 Christian-run residential schools, the most of any Catholic order. After the tombs were discovered, the Oblates eventually offered “full transparency and accountability” and allowed them to research the names of alleged sexual abusers from a school in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan at their headquarters, he said.
While there, he found 1,000 black-and-white photographs of schools and their students with inscriptions on the back, which he said would be valuable to survivors and their families hoping to find traces of their loved ones. He said Oblates agreed on a joint project to digitize the photos and make them available online.
The Inuit community, for its part, is seeking Vatican aid to extradite a single oblate priest, Rev. Jones Rivoire, who served Inuit communities in the 1990s and returned to France. Canadian authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in 1998 on multiple counts of sexual abuse, but it was never executed.
Inuit leader Natan Obed personally sought the Vatican’s help with Francis’ extradition to Rivoire, telling the Associated Press in March that it was a specific thing the Vatican could do to recover many of its victims.
When asked about the request, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said last week that he had no knowledge of the matter.
At a news conference in Edmonton on Saturday, organizers said they would do everything they could to enable school survivors to attend papal events, in particular for the Masquess pardon and Tuesday’s gathering in Lac Ste. Anne has long been a popular pilgrimage site for indigenous Catholics.
Both are in rural areas, and organizers are arranging shuttle transportation to and from various park-and-ride lots. He notes that many survivors are now elderly and frail and may need accessible vehicular transportation, diabetes-friendly snacks and other services.
The Rev. Cristino Bouvet, the national liturgical coordinator for the Pope’s visit, which is partly of indigenous heritage, said he hoped the visit is healing for those who have suffered “a wound, a cross that they have suffered.” , in some cases for generations.”
Bouvet, a priest in the Diocese of Calgary, said the pope would have strong indigenous representation at religious events – including prominent roles for indigenous clergy and the use of motifs on native languages, music and liturgical costumes.
Bouvet said he was doing this in honor of his “kokum”, the Cree word for grandmother, who spent 12 years at a residential school in Edmonton. She “might never have imagined after many years that her grandson would be involved in this work”.