He considers that it was a “devastating mistake” that 150,000 children of the original peoples were interned in religious schools to be subjected to “forced assimilation”
Pope Francis gave a clear example of how his trip to Canada was going to unfold as soon as he got off the plane on Sunday that took him from Rome to the city of Edmonton, capital of the Canadian state of Alberta: when he was received by a group of indigenous people, humbly kissed the hand of an old native woman. It was a simple gesture that symbolizes this “penitential pilgrimage”, as he himself presented it, since its objective is to ask for forgiveness and seek reconciliation with the original Canadian peoples for the abuses suffered in Catholic schools.
It is estimated that some 150,000 children and adolescents were taken from their indigenous families between 1863 and 1998 to be subjected to state re-education programs in which the different Churches, such as the Catholic or Anglican, collaborated. In those boarding schools it was intended that the little ones forget their language, customs and spirituality so that they would embrace Western culture. It is estimated that some 4,100 died in these schools due to disease, cold and hunger, because the Canadian State did not finance them enough and malnutrition was common in them. All kinds of abuse were also common: physical, mental and sexual. Those who survived them ended up as uprooted, marginalized and depressed adults, easy victims of drugs, alcoholism, prostitution and labor exploitation.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio wanted his first act in Canada, where he will remain until Friday, to be precisely a meeting with representatives of indigenous peoples. It took place this Monday in the town of Maskwacis, located south of Edmonton, where one of the largest of those Catholic boarding schools was located to try to reeducate Aboriginal kids. In an image that will form part of the historical album of this pontificate, Francisco arrived in a wheelchair at the Maskwacis cemetery while the drums played by the indigenous people, dressed in their traditional costumes, sounded. After a few moments of recollection and prayer, he began his meeting with some 2,000 representatives of the different native peoples of the North American country, to whom he reiterated the message of forgiveness that he had already transmitted when he received them three months ago at the Vatican. That visit, which came after the acknowledgment of guilt by the Canadian episcopate, was the seed of the trip Francis is making this week.
“Incompatible with the Gospel”
“I am among you because the first step of this penitential pilgrimage is to renew my request for forgiveness and tell you, with all my heart, that I am deeply hurt: I apologize for the way in which, unfortunately, many Christians adopted the colonialist mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am hurt,” said Bergoglio, who repeatedly apologized for the “cooperation” of religious organizations in those projects of “cultural destruction and forced assimilation.” His words were applauded by the indigenous leaders gathered at the Maskwacis meeting, in which the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, and the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, were also present.
In his historic ‘mea culpa’, Francis acknowledged that the consequences of Catholic boarding schools were “catastrophic”, a “devastating error” that is “incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. Using a quote from John Paul II, who dedicated the Jubilee of the year 2000 to the public confession of the sins committed by “the children of the Church”, Bergoglio affirmed that “in the face of this evil that outrages, the Church kneels before God and implores forgiveness for the sins of his children. Although he acknowledged that apologies are “only the first step, the starting point,” he repeated “with shame and clarity” his “humble” request for forgiveness “for the evil that so many Christians committed against indigenous peoples.”
In order not to give excuses to those who still deny the magnitude of the atrocities that were committed for decades in Catholic boarding schools, the Pope explained that small children who were torn from the arms of their families were taken to those centers, which “marked indelibly the relationship between parents and children, between grandparents and grandchildren. From the moment they arrived, they were subjected to a system that “denigrated and suppressed” their languages and cultures and that encouraged “physical and verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse.”
“Our language was repressed”
Dressed in a huge plume of feathers and after entering the auditorium from the east, like the morning light, the indigenous chief Wilton Littlechild was in charge of addressing the Pope in the colorful ceremony held this Monday in Maskwacis, south from Edmonton. After an intense welcome with music and traditional dances, Littlechild grabbed the microphone to thank Francisco for “the great personal effort he has made to reach our land.” Although he has improved from his knee problems, which forced him to cancel the trip to Africa planned for the beginning of the month, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has not yet managed to regain full mobility, so he has to use a wheelchair.
The indigenous chief, who served as a commissioner in the official working group created to bring to light the abuses committed against the native peoples, recalled that he himself was one of the students at the Ermineskin boarding school, located in Maskwacis. In these centers “our language was repressed, our culture was stolen and our spirituality denigrated.” Littlechild, who has received nearly 7,000 testimonies of those atrocities due to his work as commissioner, already shared this reality with Francis during his visit to the Vatican last April. In it the Pope was also informed of “the devastation that followed the way in which our families were destroyed.” Francisco listened “deeply and with great compassion” to those sufferings and the words he dedicated to the indigenous people in response were of “great consolation” for the representatives of the original peoples, Littlechild celebrated.
This leader of the Aboriginal community, one of those who invited the Pope to visit Canada, finally expressed his desire that the trip serve to promote an authentic path “of truth, justice, healing, reconciliation and hope.”
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