Near the end of last year, The B.C. Catholic began a series of articles examining over a century of truth, healing and reconciliation between the Archdiocese of Vancouver and Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This week, Editor Paul Schratz continues the series by exploring Pope Benedict XVI’s historic 2009 apology — a milestone in the Church’s acknowledgment of its role in the residential school system and its commitment to the ongoing journey of healing and reconciliation.

In June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to Aboriginal peoples for the abuse, suffering and cultural dislocation caused by assimilative, government-sanctioned residential schools. The apology specifically addressed the government’s policies of forced removal, the abuse suffered by many children and the generational social consequences.

Advertisement

In October 2008, the Assembly of First Nations made a plea for reconciliation with the Catholic Church while addressing the plenary assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). Speaking on Sept. 22, Phil Fontaine expressed hope that the Church could use its influence and experience to help lift Indigenous people out of poverty. He acknowledged that, despite the legacy of hurt at Indian residential schools, Aboriginals and the Church had accomplished much good together in the past.

“I believe the Catholic Church has a significant role to play in helping us pave the way to something absolutely better,” Fontaine said, emphasizing that Indigenous people did not need the Church for its money but for its influence, experience and commitment.

“You understand us as well as anyone in this country,” he added, noting that the Church knows “what is important to us and where we want to take our communities.”

Fontaine also noted that too many people “don’t believe in us, who see us as a relic of the past, who believe we have to be transformed in order to be significant to Canada. We know that you don’t believe that,” he said. “I stand here committed to working with you in rebuilding the historic relationship that brought so much good to so many people.”

Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, president of the CCCB, expressed his commitment to working with Indigenous peoples to create “a new community where everyone is respected.” He also underscored the importance of the upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which was soon to begin its work.

On April 29, 2009, Canadian First Nations leaders met at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI, who expressed regret and shame for abuses committed at Indian residential schools. The delegation included Assembly of First Nations Chief Fontaine, four other Indigenous leaders from across Canada and five former missionaries who had worked in residential schools.

Advertisement

After the meeting, Fontaine, a former residential school student, told a news conference: “We wanted to hear him say that he understands, that he is sorry, and that he feels our suffering. We heard that very clearly.” He said the group “heard what we came for” and was “very happy” with Pope Benedict’s response.

Chief Edward John of the Tl’azt’en First Nations in northern B.C. expressed hope that the apology would help “many people move forward.”

“We heard the prime minister’s apology a year ago in June. And today, to listen to the Holy Father express his profound sorrow and sadness, and to hear that there was no room for this sort of abuse to take place in the residential schools, that is an emotional barrier that now has been lifted for many people,” he said.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report called for the Pope to issue an apology “to survivors, their families and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children in Catholic-run residential schools” and to deliver this apology in Canada.

Weisgerber, who had been CCCB president in 2009 and played a key role in arranging the Vatican meeting, later remarked that he didn’t understand why the TRC felt it necessary to ask Pope Francis for an apology, as “Pope Benedict did precisely that.”

When asked why Pope Benedict did not use the word “apology,” Weisgerber explained that the Pope spoke in Italian through a translator, “because he could speak from his heart in Italian.”

Although the word “apology” was not explicitly used, Weisgerber said, “there are other ways of saying the same thing. And that’s what the Pope said. He regretted, he felt ashamed that the Church got involved in hurting other people. All those things are what an apology is.”

The archbishop explained that it can be difficult for people to understand the Catholic Church’s decentralized structure, in which not even the CCCB can speak for all Canadian bishops. Each bishop is independent and “solely responsible for his diocese,” as are religious orders, he said.

Advertisement

Fontaine, speaking at a press conference supporting the fundraising campaign Moving Forward Together, said, “We have now moved into the post-apology era” and a time for healing and reconciliation. “After all these apologies, we forgive.”

In 2009, the Archdiocese of Vancouver launched its new First Nations Ministry Office to implement the archbishop’s First Nations pastoral vision and mandate, establish and oversee a strategic plan for First Nations ministry and develop processes that promote healing. The new coordinator was Rennie Nahanee, a parishioner at St. Paul’s Parish in North Vancouver and Vancouver Aboriginal liaison to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.