THE PAPAL APOLOGY. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IS IMPORTANT by Bill Lee

Well, the delegations have gone to Rome and have now left. In the various meetings with Pope Francis the Indigenous “delegates”, who travelled to the Vatican, have spoken to the Pope and by all reports he has listened to them. Behind the scenes there have been meetings between Indigenous spokespersons and Vatican officials. Hopefully those Vatican diplomats also listened carefully to what the Indigenous people had to say, what their experiences with colonialism, historical and contemporary, have been and what they desired to come out of the whole process.

As Friday ended, some of the Indigenous people present were interviewed. All, of course, suffered due to their own experiences, or those of their parents or grandparents or uncles or aunties, in one of those residential hell holes. Many of these people were heard to state that it was a good apology and was helping them to heal. They said that hearing the Pope actually use the words sorrow and apology reached their hearts in a way that they found personally satisfying.

Not all Indigenous people, most of whom were not in Rome, including Joanna Deerchild, the well-known and articulate host of the CBC radio program “Unreserved”, hold such positive views. Their critical statements often centred particularly on the “qualifier”, “some members of the Church” rather than the Church itself, seems by all accounts not quite fullsome.

For some others it seems that no action, however worded, by the RCC can be sufficient given the vile nature of the actual crimes as well as the pusillanimous bobbing and weaving that has characterized the actions and statements of most RC church officials, including all the Popes, up until now.

There are still others who have said that their final judgement is pending. It will depend on what comes next, specifically when the Pope comes to Canada. They expect a more fulsome apology, which would include a focus on the institutional Church, as well as an announcement that the RC church will finally be paying large and appropriate reparations for the suffering, not only of the individuals who were unfortunate enough to have been torn from their families and communities, but for concomitant social damage on the loss, to the communities, of their children. This resulted in the loss of culture for these young people as well as a depletion of the reservoir of energy and talent that is so necessary to maintain and improve the communities to which they were lost.

As one of the European diaspora colonial beneficiaries, I am in no position to pronounce on what has happened recently other than to say that if I and my ancestors had had to endure the horrors of colonialism that Indigenous peoples have endured, I might see the words of the Pope and his officials, in dealing with the various delegations, rather thin gruel. And, I would wait and see what transpires during the Pope’s visit to Canada to have a final opinion. This indeed seems to be the stance most have taken. Justice Murray Sinclair outlined that position on the CBC radio call-in show last Sunday. I hope the Indigenous activists who have fought so hard, for so long on this issue will see their incredible strength and sacrifice rewarded.

The Role of Government

One important thing must not be forgotten. The present focus is on the Vatican but we must remember that the evil system was conceived, mandated and funded by the Canadian state which wanted to destroy Indigenous communities in order to appropriate (steal) their lands for the profit of railways and Eastern manufacturers. They then brought in European settlers (often people unwanted in their “homelands”) to act as producers of goods to be sent east to build a manufacturing sector and the railways. The “settlers” also served the purpose of functioning as consumers for the Eastern manufacturers. It was essentially a colonial capitalist project. It still goes on today of course, but on behalf of the resource extraction sector.

The Opportunity for The Church

The various churches, particularly the RCC, in that they staffed and ran the colonial institutions of assimilation and horror, were the willing accomplices. In effect they “sold their institutional souls” to “capture some souls” of the Indigenous kids unlucky enough to fall into their clutches, but also, and particularly, to make money. The time of reckoning for the RCC has come. It can embarrass itself, again, by the use of weasel words, obfuscation and delay, or it can continue the process begun in Rome, own up and attempt to show at least some of the dignity and courage of the Indigenous people who are in effect providing the institution an opportunity to reclaim its soul