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Pope’s apology is too little and too late, say Canada’s native people

On Monday, Pope Francis–the head of the Catholic Church apologised to Canada's indigenous people for the Church's abuse and forced assimilation of native children in the country's residential schools.

The Pope said: "I am sorry. I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities co-operated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools."

Put together a video of one of @Pontifex meeting the Chief’s of the Four Nations of Maskwacis & visiting former Ermineskin Indian Residential School site where children died & many who got out alive still carry the pain. I was only a few feet away. Was like a funeral procession. pic.twitter.com/2WjPH8uSVv

— Brandi Morin (@Songstress28) July 26, 2022

The Pope is on a penitance tour of Canada after being asked over the years to apologise for the gross abuse and cultural genocide of indigenous communities perpetrated by the Catholic Church in conjunction with the Canadian government. The demands for an apology from the church grew last year after numerous unmarked graves of indigenous children, some as small as three years, were found on church-run residential schools where native children were forcibly assimilated into the Christian religion.

The Pope also used terms like "evil" and "colonising mentality" behind the policy under which the church snatched children from their families and put them in residential schools where they were coverted, made to work forcibly, many sexually abused, beaten for speaking in their language and stripped of their culture.

Dr Ajith Chandran, managing director, Development Interlinks International, who has conducted research on the First Nations communities in Canada, says that the Pope's apology is a positive development, even though this is just the beginning. Chandran says: "For the Pope of the mighty Roman Catholic Church to apologise for the residential school abuse of indigenous children in Canada is history. It reflects more about the collective grassroots efforts of many individual organisations and people who did not allow this cultural cleansing to be swept under the carpet".

It is estimated that for over a century, and well into the nineties, nearly 1,50,000 indigenous children were forcibly taken away from their families by the Church. Thousands of native children never came back alive from the residential schools run by the Church and funded by the Canadian government.

After the discovery of numerous unmarked graves in 2021 with hundreds of bodies, a handful of churches on indigenous lands in the province of British Columbia were found burnt.

The investigations in Canada also led the communities to say that a similar cultural genocide took place in the US also.

Many native people are not convinced that the Pope's six-day trip, called the "pilgrimage of penance" is enough. Others feel that he is not being sincere in his apology as there is nothing tangible that the church has done for the devastation it caused to the people.

Chandran adds that many indigenous people who are now Christians may find this appropriate, but many who are survivors could say that this is cosmetic. "Many would find this apology too late in coming and top-down, more as a face-saving for the Christian community rather than a genuine effort at reconciliation. What happens after this apology in terms of practical help, returning artefacts, and bringing people involved to justice could alleviate this perception", says Chandran.

The Pope's trip to Canada has opened up the wounds of the native people as they recall the physical and sexual abuse they had to endure in the Church-run residential school system. Many natives are trying to take the priests and nuns to court over sexual assault charges.

Native communities have sought reparations from the Church, however, a paltry Canadian $1.2 million was given by the Catholic Church while $9.2 million was given by the Protestant Church. The Canadian government paid nearly Canadian $4.7 billion to the indigenous people as reparations.