Issued on: 25/07/2022 – 07:51
Thousands of Indigenous people are expected to gather Monday in the small prairie community of Maskwacis in Alberta to hear a much-anticipated apology from Pope Francis for generations of abuse and cultural oppression at Catholic residential schools across Canada.
Francis is expected to arrive in mid-morning at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School, now largely demolished. He will pause at the sites of the former school and nearby cemetery before speaking in a wide open space with survivors of the school, their relatives and other supporters.
Francis arrived in Edmonton on Sunday, where he was greeted by representatives of Canada’s three main Indigenous groups — First Nations, Metis and Inuit — along with political and church dignitaries. The pope spent the rest of the day resting in a seminary in the provincial capital.
The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was widespread in the state-funded Christian schools that operated from the 1800s to the 1970s. About 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes, Indigenous languages and cultures and assimilate them into Canada’s Christian society.
Francis’ six-day journey — which will also include other locations in Alberta, Quebec City and Iqaluit, Nunavut, in the far north — follows meetings he held in the Vatican in the spring with delegations from the First Nations, Metis and Inuit. Those meetings culminated in a landmark apology on April 1 for the “deplorable” abuses committed by some Catholic missionaries in residential schools.
Thousands of children died from disease, fire and other causes. The finds of hundreds of potential cemeteries in former schools in the past year have drawn international attention to the legacy of schools in Canada and their counterparts in the United States.
Francis is now honoring his commitment to make that apology on Canadian soil.
About an hour south of Edmonton, Maskwacis is the center of four Cree nations.
The event organizers said they would do everything they could to ensure survivors could attend the event. Many will travel from park-and-ride lots, and organizers recognize that many survivors are elderly and need accessible vehicles, diabetes-friendly snacks, and other amenities.
Catholics operated a majority of Canadian schools, while various Protestant denominations operated others in conjunction with the government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who last year apologized for “incredibly harmful government policies” in organizing the residential school system, will also attend the Maskwacis event along with other government officials.
In Maskwacis, the former school that Francis visits has been replaced by a school system run by the four local Cree countries. The curriculum affirms the indigenous culture that was once suppressed.
Chief Greg Desjarlais of the Frog Lake First Nation in northern Alberta, a school survivor, said after the pope’s arrival on Sunday that there are “mixed emotions in this country” about his visit.
“I’m thinking today about the young people who haven’t come home and are buried around residential schools,” he told a news conference after the airport welcome ceremony. But he expressed his optimism that the visit could bring reconciliation.
“I know that when two people have apologized, we feel better,” he said. “But our people have been through a lot. … Our people are traumatized. Some of them didn’t come home. Now I hope the world will see why our people are hurt so much.”
On Monday afternoon, Francis will visit the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, a Catholic parish in Edmonton that focuses on Indigenous people and culture. The church, whose sanctuary was consecrated last week after recovering from a fire, incorporates indigenous language and customs into its liturgy.
“I never in my life thought I would see a Pope here at the Sacred Heart Church,” said Fernie Marty, who holds the title of Church Elder. “And now we get that chance.”
When Francis visits, the church will display the clothing, bread and other necessities it regularly supplies to the needy, including many of Edmonton’s estimated urban indigenous population of 75,000.
The visit will be a “meeting” that “will help people to know what we are, who we are,” said the Reverend, the Rev. Jesu Susai.
(AP)