Let's set record straight on papal apologies

The Catholic Register, 16 June 2021

The entire 1991-2009 Catholic repentance and reconciliation process appeared to be set aside as inadequate by the TRC report in 2015.

Somehow a story about hundreds of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School became a story about what Pope Francis should do, not a story about the lives lost or why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau only rushed to provide money for documenting such graves when Kamloops was in the headlines, five years after he first promised to do so.

As this prime minister is wont to do, he attempted a distraction from his disgraceful dereliction of duty by peddling deceits and dismissing the genuine efforts of others, in this case the Catholic Church.

Any and all accusations that the Catholic Church has “refused” to apologize for the operation of residential schools, is ill-informed, incomplete or incorrect. The record is ample and wide-ranging, stretching back to 1991 when the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate issued a four-page apology that was detailed and unsparing.

What then of the controversy about a papal apology? The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) was signed in 2006. Formal apologies were called for. These apologies are not delivered off-the-cuff the day after an adverse headline; they are the fruit of long and deep consultation, which is itself an instrument of reconciliation.

The federal government consultations took two years, and then Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an apology in the House of Commons in June 2008.

On the Catholic side, because there is no such thing as the “Catholic Church in Canada,” but hundreds of independent dioceses and religious orders, a process — again, with long and careful consultation — was put in place for a delegation of some 40 Indigenous associations and survivors to be received by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. This took place in April 2009, 10 months after the federal government’s apology.

The Holy Father expressed his sorrow and anguish for the “deplorable” conduct of those Catholics who caused immense pain and suffering to those in residential schools. That this was a suitable counterpart to the federal government apology was understood by everyone — Indigenous media, Catholic media, secular media. Indeed, the caption on a Globe and Mail photograph of the event said simply “Pope apologizes for church’s role in residential schools.”

The delegation was led by Phil Fontaine, then national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, who delivered the most eloquent speech on the history of Catholic-Indigenous relations ever given, addressing of both lights and shadows.

“We suffered needlessly and tragically,” he told Pope Benedict. “We can forgive with generosity of spirit and with the hand of friendship, or we can seek sustenance from bitterness and vengeance. We come here today Most Holy Father, with the spirit and lessons of our ancestors and elders in mind. Reconciliation and friendship is what we seek. The time to re-build a better and brighter future together is upon us.” 

Chief Fontaine spoke of forgiveness and reconciliation, of establishing a renewed friendship. It was a moment of genuine and historic reconciliation. No one who participated thought otherwise. Thus from 2009 to 2015, there was little talk about Catholic refusals or recalcitrance to apologize. That changed with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report in 2015. For all of its meritorious aspects, it obscured the truth about reconciliation for many.

Continue reading at The Catholic Register.