Amid a reckoning, Pope Francis shares prospect of hope
National Post, 26 July 2022
Pope Francis brought what he could offer, his words, his presence, his apology. But he pointed toward what Christians are supposed to bring, an encounter with Christ's grace
The heavy burden of history was lifted in part on Monday at Maskwacis with the profound apology by Pope Francis regarding residential schools, an apology made “with shame and unambiguously.”
He inserted that painful legacy into the history of Canada, the history of the Church and the history of salvation.
The Holy Father spoke in Spanish, his mother tongue, and as his words were translated into English there was applause, presumably a sign of welcome and acceptance of the apology. Those Spanish words will also resonate elsewhere in the Americas; it was in Bolivia in 2015 that Pope Francis first spoke at length about Catholic repentance for historic offences against Indigenous peoples.
The challenge Pope Francis faced at Maskwacis, the site of the Ermineskin residential school, was twofold. First, what to say that was different than the far-ranging and lyrical statement of apology he made last April in Rome to a delegation of Indigenous leaders? Second, how to avoid saying the same thing throughout this week at six different meetings with Indigenous groups?
He opted to insert his historic apology on Indigenous lands into a broader reflection upon, and reckoning with, history.
“When the European colonists first arrived here, there was a great opportunity to bring about a fruitful encounter between cultures, traditions and forms of spirituality,” Pope Francis said. “Yet for the most part that did not happen. Again, I think back on the stories you told me: how the policies of assimilation ended up systematically marginalizing the Indigenous peoples.”
Those missed opportunities of the past are gone. Yet Francis suggested, albeit indirectly, that the potential for such a “fruitful encounter” remains today. Otherwise the entire history of Canada remains irredeemable and apologies can only acknowledge the truth about the past, but without reconciliation between peoples.
In regard to the history of Christian missionaries in Canada, which reaches back more than 150 before confederation and residential schools, Pope Francis insisted that “Christian charity was not absent, and there were many outstanding instances of devotion and care for children” on the part of clergy and religious communities.
That there were those who generously served in difficult conditions is not historically in dispute, but Catholic leadership in Canada has been largely silent on this matter, sacrificing the memory of their forebears in the face of opposition today. The Holy Father’s example suggests that they might revisit that approach.
That being noted for the sake of his fellow bishops, Pope Francis was blunt: “The overall effects of the policies linked to the residential schools were catastrophic. What our Christian faith tells us is that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
It was an echo of a key line from his April apology in Rome: “Clearly, the content of the faith cannot be transmitted in a way contrary to the faith itself: Jesus taught us to welcome, love, serve … it is a frightening thing when, precisely in the name of the faith, counter-witness is rendered to the Gospel.”
For Pope Francis, the degradation of Indigenous peoples followed precisely from an abandonment of Gospel values and witness. It is the most devastating indictment that a Christian pastor can deliver. It’s not that politics, or law, or history teaches us that we did wrong, but that we should have seen it first by our lights, or rather by the light of the Gospel.
Continue reading at the National Post.