Francis remained faithful to the truth during 'pilgrimage' to Canada
National Post, 26 April 2025
Pope reminded us that reconciliation between peoples may include government policies and enormous spending but it can't be reduced to that
In their comments upon the death of Pope Francis, both Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre referred to the Holy Father’s visit to Canada in 2022 — the “penitential pilgrimage,” in his characterization, to offer an apology related to Indigenous residential schools.
His visit to Canada was the longest of any trip during the pontificate, save for the Pope’s initial foreign trip to Brazil in 2013, only months after his election. By 2022, confined to a wheelchair, his decision to spend so much time in Canada — even going to Iqaluit — was a compliment to our country.
That visit bears remembering. After Justin Trudeau, Canada will have to decide whether Indigenous reconciliation means continuing his denigration of Canadian history as a brutal, criminal, genocidal enterprise. Pope Francis came to Canada with a different approach.
During an airborne press conference returning to Rome, the Holy Father casually accepted the term “genocide” in response to a journalist’s question. That was a mistake. His prepared addresses were careful, balanced and more faithful to truth and reconciliation than the proposals of the eponymous commission.
“In-depth study shows that, on the one hand, some men and women of the Church were among the most decisive and courageous supporters of the dignity of the Indigenous peoples, coming to their defence and contributing to raising awareness of their languages and cultures,” Pope Francis said. “On the other hand, there was unfortunately no shortage of Christians, that is, priests, men and women religious and laypeople, who participated in programs that today we understand are unacceptable and also contrary to the Gospel. And this is why I went to ask for forgiveness, on behalf of the Church.”
He made the point that the residential schools were a project of the state, that it was “a deplorable system, promoted by the governmental authorities of the time.”
The truth is that religious institutions took part in a government project; the root problem was too much co-operation with state power arrayed against Indigenous families.
The significance of the 2022 visit was not the papal apology, per se. Pope Benedict XVI had offered an apology in 2009, before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission even began its work. The Catholic religious order most involved in residential schools, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, offered a comprehensive four-page apology in 1991, long before most Canadians were familiar with the issue.
The important contribution of the 2022 visit — neglected even by many Catholic leaders — was that Pope Francis insisted on telling the truth in its fullness, acknowledging the Christian faith of most Indigenous Canadians. The wound of residential schools is a wound within the household of faith. Reconciliation is not a matter of Catholic institutions negotiating with an external party. It is a matter of reconciliation within the body of Christ.
The most beautiful address of the visit was in Edmonton at an Indigenous Catholic parish, where Pope Francis spoke in the language of faith, not the words of government bureaucracy.
“On the cross, Christ reconciles and brings back together everything that seemed unthinkable and unforgivable; he embraces everyone and everything,” he said. “Everyone and everything! Indigenous peoples attribute a powerful cosmic significance to the (four directions), seen not only as geographical reference points but also as dimensions that embrace all reality and indicate the way to heal it.”
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